Today has been designated as a Day of Reflection as it is 12 months since the first UK Lockdown occurred and to remember the 125,000 people who have died during this time.

Tonight my co-host, Clay Lowe and I broadcast our weekly live Radio Show / Podcast focusing on the topic “What’s it all about?” using the lens of Reflection as the basis of our conversation. If you’d like to listen to the recording, head to https://www.mixcloud.com/soulcruzer/playlists/digital-calm/ and find Episode 19.

Each week, in preparing for our show, I take some time to reflect on what thoughts have been interesting to me over the past few days; what’s happening in my life and I notice things. Depending on what I notice, shapes what I bring to the show, and also, shapes my personal focus as I constantly work on myself.

This Day of Reflection has led me to pick up Viktor Frankl’s book, “Man’s Search for Meaning” but instead of heading into the book to find fresh insight or favourite passages, for the first time I read the foreword by Harold S. Kushner in the 2006 reprint and take the following from that:

“He who has a Why to live for can bear almost any How.”

What is your why? What is your driver? Your motivation? What do you feel that you cannot live without – almost like air, water or food?

“Freud believed life was a quest for pleasure;

Adler believed life was a quest for power;

Frankl believed it was a quest for meaning.”

Original art by www.cathyread.com

I would pertain that it is all three, albeit underpinned by a quest for meaning – for me at least.

Power for me represents the Power over the Self – indeed a key area of Adler’s Work was the Inferiority & Superiority Complex. Pleasure – I’ve never really been drawn to Freud, however, in the context of Wellbeing or Wisdom, I would use the understanding of Pleasure to be key to a life well-lived. I love discussing, exploring and consciously experiencing self-development – to me, that is pleasure. To other people it wouldn’t be; but the meaning of their life may not give me pleasure, but they would find pleasure in doing “their thing.”

Back to Kushner’s introduction:

“Frankl saw three possible sources for meaning:

in work (doing something significant,)

in love (caring for another person,) and

in courage during difficult times.”

www.cathyread.com

So, on this Day of Reflection, you could take some time to reflect on what is your meaning for your life. That is what my work at The Wisdom Experience is all about. It’s not about my wisdom, with the exception as using it as a prompt for you to find your own.

Reflect on how you have grown and changed over the past year. What conscious choices have you made – and what actions have you taken in accordance with those choices? As you reflect, I encourage you to do so without emotion, without blame or shame or pity; without pride or ego if you can; simply observe. Do not be a judge, instead, cast a light over what you see and take what you can learn from your own path, and use that to illuminate your way forward; be that for a day, a week, a month, or a year or longer.