“What man actually needs is not a tensionless state but rather the striving and struggling for some goal worthy of him. What he needs is not the discharge of tension at any cost, but the call of a potential meaning waiting to be fulfilled by him.” ― Viktor E. Frankl
I’m such a sucker for good quotes especially from Viktor Frankl. I could quote him all day. I recently rediscovered this quote above and realized that this is so incredibly true for me. I’m someone who loves to struggle and who avoids a “tension less state” at all costs. I constantly want to challenge and be challenged. I think this desire may be part of the reason I love to lift.
“Call of a potential meaning waiting to be filled”
That line sticks with me each time I read it over. What’s my potential meaning? What is calling me? What keeps me moving forward? I’m a big believer in diving into these questions from time to time as I think they help provide direction that comes from an internal source rather than all of the millions of external sources out there in our world. It’s amazing how many people can tell you different things YOU should do with YOUR life. Ultimately, because you have to live it out I believe in self reflection as much as possible.
Tonight, Steven (one of my best friends from home) asked me if I ever considered a career in academia. It made me pause and imagine. I love that feeling of reimagining your life and diving into an unknown. The thought had briefly crossed my mind over the years only because I found that I’m unusually good at ranting very passionately about very intense topics. Somewhere in the discussion about a potential call to academia, I realized there were so many things I would love to do research on. The main two research topics I’ve thought of involve how knowing or not knowing about surrogacy affects self identity and around why athletes don’t return to play after tearing an ACL (and how to decrease the numbers who don’t return). Beyond just those ideas, I’m fascinated by how we interact with technology. Take me for example.. I should be in bed sleeping but am instead starting at a small screen typing up a blog post. Why? Where would these thoughts go otherwise? How does having a blog affect my self expression? Why do certain people get more attached to one social network over another? What factors affect that attachment? Is this attachment a positive thing?
I’m not sure what my next call of potential meaning is. I’m still figuring it out. Right now, the call seems to be for me to soak up as much as I can learn and to use it. The world is endlessly fascinating and I want to make sure I never take that for granted.
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