Words of Wisdom

I have just started reading another book.  Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl.  I picked it up based on Daniel Pink's recommendation.  He is the author of the book I just finished reading - A Whole New Mind.  I've only read the first few pages of this, the 1984 edition.  It contains an updated preface, written by Frankl.  In it he states:

"I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge.  Then you will live to see that in the long run - in the long run, I say! - success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it."

Yes!  I think this is the best summary of this journey called "life" that I have read in any book so far.

I need to heed those words.  Some words I have started to act upon a bit more as I have progressed through life.  Specifically I am much more honest with my conscience than I was.  However, I do not always "carry it out to the best of my knowledge".  I think about success, risk, fear.  Those all get in the way.  I have self-doubt.

The safe passage (the job I know) vs. the unknown way (the dreams I have).
The easier passage (the tasks I know) vs. the challenging passage (the dreams I have).
Known success (the job I know) vs. success? (those unknown hobbies).
Thinking of past (the job I know) and future (the known dreams I have) vs. the present (living the dreams).

I think this book, written by an Austrian Jew before, during and after his years in Nazi concentration camps, will teach me a lot about how to go through life and what is important to survival.  Not only in the physical sense, but in the psychological sense as well.  What feeds the soul, the spirit.

Based on the the preface and the first few pages of Part One it should be a fantastic read.  

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