Values are things that make a difference
Responsibilities are opportunities for making a difference
Strengths are capacities for making a difference.
Where do we make a difference?
Most obviously what Frankl calls creative values most obviously make a difference in the world. We leave a unique mark through our contribution. This may take the form of a work of art, a new invention, helping people in need, an innovative idea or any kind of legacy that changes the world for the better.
Perhaps less obviously, in the process of giving of ourselves to others we also make a difference to whom we become as a person. Avital Sharansky worked tirelessly to free her refusenik husband Natan Sharansky from Soviet prison. (By the way his book Fear No Evil is an absolute must read) In order to do this she had to meet with many heads of state and overcome her shyness to do so. But once her mission was accomplished she was not interested in being in the limelight. That was not her purpose. But in order to help him she had to change herself.
What Frankl calls experiential values most obviously make a difference to who we become as a person. By receiving life’s gifts of nature, music, self-care, love and anything that inspires us we have feelings of gratitude, peace of mind and self-respect.
Perhaps less obviously in the process of receiving from others we also make a difference in the world.
Attitudinal values are different from both creative and experiential values. They are fulfilled when there is no apparent choice and all that is left for the person to do is choose his attitude towards what is happening, that being the one thing that no one can take away from him.
Yet, in a subtle not-so-obvious way attitudinal values make a profound difference both in the world and in the person himself. The difference is sometimes even more profound. Attitudes are not a tangible difference that one can see. Things like mustering courage to refuse to do what is immoral or goes against one’s beliefs, accepting a bitter fate or having patience and self-restraint changes nothing on the surface of things.
But beneath the surface the person gains many strengths and those strengths serve as an inspiration to the world. This subtle under-the-surface energy is the stuff of revolutions, of innovative solutions to intractable problems and to peace at all levels. So instead of thinking all you have control over is your attitude you can think that by choosing your attitude you have control over much more than you will ever know.