And boy, we’ve all got a long way to go.
I remember listening to a podcast (possibly Adam Grant’s Work Life) about habits, where the speaker described habits as your life’s autopilot. At the time, I resented the comparison. I wanted to be the master of my own destiny, to feel like I had the freedom to choose each action in the moment.
Plus, I knew my habits were garbage. “Sitting on your phone until you feel bad about yourself” is the direction my autopilot was going, which (SHOCKER) doesn’t lead to a rich, purposeful life. I’ve got years of experience scrolling instead of showering, email instead of writing, checking IG instead of…anything. If misuse of time were a skill, I’d be the most recommended person on LinkedIn.
The best thing to happen to me wasn’t a kick in the pants or even a gentle nudge. It was seeing what it looked like to live differently. To see someone who faced all of our worst fears and responded with love. Viktor Frankl understood things about the world that most of us miss, things that sound cliché in a blog post but not when you’re facing true suffering.
“Each man is questioned by life,” Frankl wrote after losing his career, home, and entire family, “and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”
To my listless, overwhelmed mind, responsibility had always been a meaningless abstract. It wasn’t until I saw the word’s ability to transform tragedy into, well, purpose, that it lit up my sky like a floating lantern.
I want to respond by being responsible. I’ll mold my habits to this example, over the new year and the long haul.
Cheers to 2020, everyone.