Welcome to The Daily Quote – I'm Andrew McGivern.
Today's quote comes from Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor who wrote the profound book "Man's Search for Meaning."
Frankl survived four years in Nazi concentration camps, including Auschwitz, where he lost his parents, brother, and pregnant wife.
From that unimaginable suffering, he gave us this wisdom:
"When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
Think about what Frankl is saying here.
When you can't change the situation, you change yourself.
Most of us spend enormous energy trying to change things we can't control. The economy. Other people. The past. Circumstances beyond our reach.
And we exhaust ourselves fighting battles we cannot win.
Frankl learned in the most extreme circumstances imaginable that when the external situation is unchangeable, you have one option left: transform yourself.
Not accept defeat. Not give up. Transform.
You can't change that you lost your job. But you can change how you respond to it. You can become more resilient, more resourceful, more adaptable.
You can't change that someone hurt you. But you can change yourself into someone who doesn't carry that hurt forever.
You can't change the obstacle in your path. But you can change yourself into someone capable of navigating around it, climbing over it, or breaking through it.
This isn't about positive thinking or pretending everything's fine. Frankl watched people die around him. He knew suffering was real.
But he also knew that the last freedom no one can take from you is the freedom to choose who you become in response to what happens.
A few years ago, I faced a situation I couldn't change. A business partnership fell apart. I tried everything to fix it. Nothing worked.
I was bitter. Angry. Stuck.
Then I read Frankl's words. And I realized I was wasting energy trying to change something unchangeable.
So I changed myself instead. I became someone who could let go. Who could start over. Who could learn from failure without being destroyed by it.
The situation didn't change. I did. And that made all the difference.
So here's the question: What unchangeable situation are you fighting right now? And what if instead of trying to change it, you focused on changing yourself?
Because that's the one thing you always have control over. Not the obstacle. You.
That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern – I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.