Overcoming Life's Greatest Struggles: Lessons from History's Greatest Survivors

Theme so far this week has been focused on the importance of struggles in our lives.  If you were to discuss overcoming struggles and its benefits with most people, the common answer would be they are required to make us stronger. 

For the most part when we are discussing the topic of overcoming struggles, we are looking at the smaller types that only require a little bit of self improvement to overcome.  In these circumstances the adversity they face, although real, doesn't truly threaten their existence so it is fairly easy to adapt, grow, and learn from them.  But what happens when we are faced with struggles that actually do threaten our existence, are those meant to be overcome?

When your existence is threatened, it is completely possible for the struggle to overcome us, and break down our ability to be adapatable.  In this sense the gap becomes too big to be bridged, the weight too much to be moved, or the ocean is just too deep to dive.  When these types of struggles are introducd into our life, I no longer believe they are just are the simple path from adversity to self improvement that most of us experience.

I look at these struggles not as a path to self improvement, as their smaller cousins were, but as a catalyst for self improvement.  They challenge our state of mind and adapatability to its core, and force us to reach beyond our potential.  Unfortunately, this type of stressor can be too much for many and they are broken beyond repair.

So if we are faced with such a challenge, how are we sure our adapatability and state of mind will reach its potential and stand up to the test it is being faced with.  When I was going through one my most difficult struggles, I found answers to this question in the book, "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor Frankyl.  He was a pyschologist that survived the concentration camps of WWII.  During the war as a prisoner he started examining the reasons why some people were capable of overcoming these circumstances and why some couldn't.  He isolated three main mental states of mind that all the survivors shared in common.  Learning these mental techniques and frames of mind brought a lot of peace and inspiration to me in my present situation of fighting Acute Leukemia.  I mean these were the greatest survivors our planet has ever known.  If they could survive Aushwitz employing these mental techniques, I could easily survive Leukemia using them.

Although the entire book is a wonderful read that I would recommend to anyone, here are the three things that I took away from it employed in my personal situation to overcome my struggle.

1.)  Frankyl concluded that the meaning of life is found in every moment of living. It never ceases to have meaning even in suffering and death. This is a very important thing to remember. Many times when people go through a personal tragedy it is easy to slip into a meaningless existence and depression. This book reminded me that even in catastrophe, your life has meaning, you just have to figure out what it is.

2.) "He who has a why to live for can bear with almost any how".  This is one of those quotes that gave me goosebumps. Actually it isn'tVictor Frankyl's words but rather Nietzsche. This quote brought me a lot of strength and motivation for what I was about to go through. I hadn't yet received my first dose of induction chemotherapy, but I knew the road ahead was going to be very difficult and painful. This quote moved me so much that I wrote it on my board in the hospital to always remind me whenever I was feeling down. 

3.) The final thing that I took away from the book was a powerful observation Frankyl made. When looking at the people that actually survived the atrocities of the concentration camps, he realized all the survivors had something in common. They had something to live for; they had made plans or goals for the future. He found that all the people that focused on the past did not make it, but those who looked forward to the future gave themselves something to live for and survived. This is actually a very powerful technique that I have used myself to help get through my treatments.

So remember we are always going to be faced with struggles in our lives.  Some are going to be a nice path that delivers us from adversity to personal growth while others are a life threatening catalyst that will challenge us to our core.  Just remember the three things that helped the greatest survivors our planet will ever know through their difficult times, and you too will succeed at overcoming yours.  Whatever the situation, both can be overcome it just takes the right frame of mind and adaptability. 

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