Last month I shared the principles behind clarity with the wonderful audience at the Lifestyle Design Convention in Zurich. After he heard me speak, a new friend Charlie Rüffieux asked if he could interview me about these principles. While we were recording, Charlie heard something in what I said that reminded him of Viktor Frankl (founder of logotherapy) and his idea that “you can always change your attitude” (as Charlie put it). I proceeded to give him an alternative perspective on Viktor Frankl’s story, pointing to the true source of new attitudes, perspectives and choice. You’ll hear Charlie’s question and my response at 7:52 on the video.
Charlie: Yeah, this just reminds me of, you know, Viktor Frankl in Man’s Search for Meaning who says you can take from a man everything you want, but you can never take his attitude towards the situation… So you can always change your attitude if you’re open for that.
Jamie: Well, here’s the interesting thing… I’m not saying that you need to change your attitude; I’m saying there’s a way that it already works. There’s a famous philosopher called Gregory Bateson. He said the biggest problems in the world are the result of the difference between how nature already works and the way people think… Okay, so there’s a way that your mind already works when you’re in alignment, when you’re seeing the truth of the matter, when you’re seeing it how it actually works – you do great. When you’re not seeing how it works, when you’re lost in a misunderstanding about how it works – you struggle… and me too… and we all do. So like, just to give you an analogy, two hundred years ago doctors didn’t believe in germs. They thought germs were bullshit. They just didn’t think it was real. That misunderstanding, that gap between the fact of germs and the misunderstanding of how it works caused huge suffering. Now someone could change their attitudes: “hey I’m gonna believe in something more useful”, but actually just understanding how it works is gonna do more for you than an attitude change. So it’s interesting… If you look at Frankl – he didn’t change his attitude. He was on a route march. Freezing cold… very close to death… being marched around by Nazis, and he fell to the ground, and was about to be beaten again by the guards who were marching around, and he had a sudden insight… he had a realisation about the truth of life… and he insightfully saw that the meaning a person gave a situation would do something for them, but he didn’t choose to have that insight… it happened to him. He based his whole school of philosophy on that, but his school of philosophy didn’t include the bit where you have the insight. The insight is what did the heavy lifting for Frankl. It was so powerful it transformed his life. The insight is the source of the power, and that comes from the principle of thought and mind – that intelligence that we’re all connected to…