---
title: "Three ways to find meaning"
description: "Where meaning can be found in any situation, including one you cannot change."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/mans-search-for-meaning/three-ways-to-find-meaning/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# Three ways to find meaning

> Where meaning can be found in any situation, including one you cannot change.

Viktor Frankl's framework, from Man's Search for Meaning, pp. 82 to 111.

Framework 2 of 4 from [Man's Search for Meaning](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/mans-search-for-meaning/index.md) by Viktor Frankl. Category: Hiring and teams.

## The steps

1. **Create a work or do a deed.** Achievement or accomplishment, the most obvious route.
2. **Experience something or encounter someone.** Goodness, truth, beauty, nature, culture, or loving another person in their uniqueness.
3. **Take an attitude to unavoidable suffering.** When the situation cannot be changed, turn the tragedy into a human achievement by choosing how to bear it.

## Where it comes from

From chapter: II, pp. 82–111

## The animation

24 seconds, 4:5, no sound.

- MP4: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/mans-search-for-meaning/three-ways-to-find-meaning.mp4
- MP4, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/mans-search-for-meaning/three-ways-to-find-meaning-dark.mp4
- Still: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/mans-search-for-meaning/three-ways-to-find-meaning.png
- Still, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/mans-search-for-meaning/three-ways-to-find-meaning-dark.png