In this short video, I reflect on Viktor Frankl’s powerful insight into human freedom, drawn from his experience in Nazi concentration camps. His philosophy—that we can always choose our attitude, no matter the circumstance—remains profoundly relevant today.
💡 In this reflection, I explore:
Why this mindset is essential in difficult times
How it relates both to coaching and to everyday choices and personal responsibility
The emotional toll of current events—and how to respond with clarity and agency
Like Frankl, we don’t have to deny reality. But we do have a choice in how we meet it.
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⸻ 👉 Full text:
« Everything can be taken from us but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way »
This idea enabled Victor Frankl to survive the fascist concentration camps. He decided that no matter what was said to him or done to him, he would choose how to respond.
As I understand Frankl, he was saying that, in the final analysis, no one can make us do anything. We can choose to give in to them because that’s the least painful choice, and it is surely the most sensible one in many circumstances. Either way, we must remember that we do have a choice.
Of course, the issue of recognizing and taking responsibility for decisions comes up a lot in coaching sessions. To deal with it, we don’t usually have to talk about concentration camps, either.
This principle is applicable in everyday life. We don’t have to go to work, we choose to. We don’t have to water the plants, go on holiday this year, talk to Mrs. Jones about her lumbago, have a last drink, we choose to.
However, I am inspired to talk about Frankl today, because I’m struggling to how to react to the resurgence of fascism. Just to clarify, this means a far-right, authoritarian, and ultranationalist political ideology. We’re talking about dictatorial leaders, centralized autocracies, militarism, forcible suppression of opposition, and so on.
I believe this is on the rise, and I’m afraid that my reaction tends to be a mix of fury, depression, and helplessness. But these feelings don’t help me, or anyone else. I even have to avoid looking at the news before coaching sessions, to not be emotionally overloaded.
So, I’m trying to step back from these emotions and consciously decide how to react to horrors on the world stage. I’ve not worked it out yet, but simply thinking this way has had one beneficial effect : it’s made it easier to make other, simpler choices. To be less of a victim and more of an agent, able to make decisions that take life’s constraints into account, rather than complain about them and do nothing.
One of these decisions was to get off my butt and make this short video. I hope that it is helpful to you.
⸻ 👉 To go further:
Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor E. Frankl
#ViktorFrankl #Freedom #Mindset #EmotionalIntelligence #Coaching #PersonalGrowth #Resilience
