Why Believe in Others?
by JJ Wong
Viktor Frankl developed Logotherapy after surviving the Holocaust to share his ideas on what truly motivates us in life. It’s not pleasure. It’s not power.
Our lives are motivated by our will to find meaning.
This brief clip from Frankl’s 1972 lecture on Youth in Search of Meaning urges us to believe in each other. He invites us to approach life with hope and optimism despite the cynicism all around.
Frankl’s ideas are neither Earth-shattering nor particularly sexy. That’s why they’re so necessary in today’s world of smoke, mirrors and hyper-commercialism.
“If we take man as he is, we make him worse. But if we take man as he should be, we make him capable of what he can be.” — Goethe.
Our knee-jerk reaction is skeptical.
Why be idealistic? Can’t you see how F***ed up the world is? Open your eyes!
Humans disappoint. They’re fallible.
That’s okay. It’s not about lounging on the sofa wishing life’s problems bubbly float away. Frankl’s ideas are founded on the understanding that humans aren’t perfect.
Let’s harness our weaknesses and turn them into strengths.
Humans suck. So complain about it and don’t do anything? Sounds like a classic coping mechanism.
Overestimate people. See them and treat them as if they could be better than what they currently are. Dare to dream. If we don’t believe in others, they will always fall short.
Believe in them. Aim high and act on it.
They’ll probably still fall short.
Thank goodness.
The Game of Life
Most of us see winners and losers in life. Zero-sum. You’re successful or a freaking failure. Stay at home and cry about it.
It’s a neat way to think with all these pretty boxes.
A splendid illusion.
That’s all it is. A fancy pants illusion of control. You can’t beat anybody else at the game of life. There’s nobody you have to “beat”. You can have a jolly good time playing, but you can’t win.
Everybody dies.
It’s not you versus the world. There are no enemies.
I grew up playing chess. It taught me a lot of great lessons about competition — and a lot of wrong lessons about life.medium.com
Nobody’s out to get you. You’re playing your own game of life. Others are playing theirs. Cheer them on, envy them, wreck them… You’ve still got your own game to play.
Blame them or don’t blame them. You’ve still got your game to play.
Believe in them or don’t believe in them. You’ve still got your game to play.
Life is more like Tetris. We can never win. We all gon’ die.
This is a blessing. We love Tetris even though we die at the end. We love it even though it’s frustrating. Even if that dooo-doo-do-do tune gets stuck in our head for days and days.
We play against ourselves when we play Tetris.
We don’t blame our parents for messing up our game. We don’t blame our circumstances. We take it all with good humor and press on. Nobody’s got time to complain. The pieces move faster and faster, let’s get that TETRIS.
What’s the harm in believing in others?
At the very least, it’ll make you happy.
Building Sharing Communities
Since there’s nobody to play against, let’s band together and share our love of the game. This wild and whacky game of life.
Why hoard our ideas? They’re a dime a dozen anyway. Execution is where it counts. Humans fall short. They’re a wee lazy. That’s all right.
Build up the people around you. The people you care about. The people you love.
You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Build them up. Believe in them. Make them better.
Voilà! You’ve created a community feedback loop of awesome.
Believe in others even though they’ll never live up to your lofty expectations. At the very least, you can discuss your shared love of Tetris over tea!
You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
Thanks for reading. Thank you Viktor Frankl and Tor Bair for the ideas and Joanna Kosinska for the beautiful image!
