The Power of Personal Choice is within each of our grasp. And that knowledge can bring with it a tremendous euphoric feeling. “Robert Schuller the late American Pastor/Churchman coined the phrase; “If It’s gonna be, its up to me.”
With choice, there comes an important tension that exists between Cognition and Affect. Some would argue that this tension demonstrates sanity. The aforementioned tension is a necessary ingredient for personal choice and for exciting long-lasting change to emerge. Cognition (knowledge) in tension with Affect (passion, emotion, feeling) engaged with will/motivation, fed by purpose, often allows for personal change. If one’s will is pushed towards cognition, by a purpose, it creates a desired change.
There may be no greater example of the benefit of personal choice than that of Victor Frankel, psychiatrist and author, who during WWII lived through several German concentration camps. As a result of his experience as a survivor, he wrote a worldwide best seller, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” Frankel chronicles his descriptions of life in WWII Nazi death camps and the lessons he learned for survival. Frankel not only lived in but worked in four concentration camps, while his parents, brother, and pregnant wife died in other camps. Based on his experience and the experiences of others he treated, Frankel came to the belief that although human suffering is a reality, we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning, and push forward with a new found and renewed purpose. Frankel developed a psychological model known as logotherapy, and in it he argues that our primary purpose in life is not pleasure, but the discovery and pursuit of what we personally find meaningful. Meaning and purpose are crucial.
Choice based upon purpose brings meaning to one’s life. It is often the finding of purpose that can be the inherent challenge for any of us. Purpose can unleash a drive towards success. There are many things in life that give us purpose and drive us positively. One could argue that our greatest and first purpose comes in relationship to Jesus Christ, and our life in Him. That becomes our beginning point. Then other important purposes emerge; for example; family, work, faith community, hobbies, personal health, an exercise regime, volunteerism, relationships, to name a few. The motivational factor in life, the drive to propel ourselves towards meaning can be found in any of those aforementioned things. They illuminate human existence and our place in the whole scheme of things. Together with Christ at the helm they give us a reason to get up, to persevere, to have resilience, as emotional and physical players in existential existence.
Dr Victor Frankel found meaning in of all places, a concentration camp. It was a meaning based upon his day to day service helping the people in the camps. He knew that his acts of service would be recognized by the guards, prolonging his own life. He knew that in helping others he prolonged their lives. His acts of service gave him meaning in the most evil place inhabited at that time, on planet earth. He did this even amidst the uncertainty of his loved ones in other camps. He would discover later that they had died.
Many of us discover purpose during the most difficult periods pf our lives. That purpose propels us forward. When the purpose is something greater than ourselves, focused on a specific human benefit, lives are enriched, we find meaning, even fulfillment.
Some of those areas of purpose mat be found in:
Volunteering as an English as a Second Language Instructor at a local library.
Helping out in some way at a Rapid Covid 19 Testing site.
Volunteerism at a local Elementary School.
Involvement in a local Trail Association.
Feeding the hungry at a Soup Kitchen.
Shoveling the drive of a Senior.
Walking through the neighbourhood with a plastic bag and picking up refuse left behind.
Walking someone’s dog.
Volunteering to do anything in your local faith community.
Volunteering at the welcome desk at a local hospital or greeting people at the arrivals of your airport.
Meaning and purpose is crucial to life. It begins with choice. The scripture is clear about our positive involvement in community. Proverbs 11:25 reads; “A generous person will prosper; whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.”
The stressed out, the lonely, the depressed, the anxious, those grieving, the bored among us, those feeling empty of purpose, find meaning, and purpose in reaching out to others who have far less. The beginning is our “Power of Choice!”
