Life Can Be Pulled by Goals Just as Surely as It Can Be Pushed by Drives - Viktor E. Frankl
Life can be pulled by goals just as surely as it can be pushed by drives. — Viktor E. Frankl
—What lingers after this line?
Balance Between Motivation and Purpose
Frankl highlights the dual forces that shape human life: internal drives (such as basic needs and desires) and future-oriented goals. Both are essential in guiding a meaningful and fulfilling life.
The Role of Purpose in Life
This quote emphasizes the importance of having goals that 'pull' us forward, giving life direction and meaning rather than merely reacting to immediate needs or pressures.
Psychological Perspective
As a psychiatrist and Holocaust survivor, Frankl believed that a strong sense of purpose could help individuals endure suffering and challenges. Goals provide a sense of hope and motivation, allowing people to overcome difficulties.
Personal Growth and Resilience
By being driven by both inner motivations and external aspirations, individuals can cultivate resilience and grow beyond their circumstances, achieving enduring success and personal fulfillment.
Frankl’s Logotherapy
Frankl’s psychological approach, logotherapy, centers around the idea that finding meaning in life is essential for mental well-being. This quote reflects that philosophy by suggesting that life is not just about reacting to needs but actively seeking purpose through meaningful goals.
Recommended Reading
As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
One-minute reflection
What does this quote ask you to notice today?
Related Quotes
6 selectedPurpose grows when you tend it with daily acts of care and honest effort. — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl’s life work suggests that meaning is not found once but formed repeatedly. In Man’s Search for Meaning (1946), he observed that people endured extreme hardship by orienting themselves toward a task, a person they...
Read full interpretation →Choose purpose each morning and let it shape your day. — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl
At the outset, Frankl’s exhortation compresses a life’s philosophy into a morning act. In Man’s Search for Meaning (1946), distilled from his concentration-camp years, he describes the 'last of the human freedoms'—to cho...
Read full interpretation →When the world narrows, widen your purpose; even tight spaces yield bold creativity. — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl
The line channels Viktor E. Frankl’s core insight: when circumstances shrink, we can expand our inner horizon by choosing a larger why.
Read full interpretation →When meaning is scarce, make it by giving: purpose is crafted through service. — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl
When meaning runs low, the instinct is often to turn inward and ruminate. Yet the paradox Frankl points to is that meaning is less found than forged—especially by turning outward.
Read full interpretation →An intentional life embraces only the things that will add to the mission of significance. — John C. Maxwell
John C. Maxwell
John C. Maxwell’s line reframes life as a deliberate design rather than a default drift.
Read full interpretation →Stop waiting for the right mood. You can do anything when you are in the mood. The problem is what you do when you are not. — Epictetus
Epictetus
Epictetus opens with a blunt challenge: if you keep waiting to “feel like it,” you hand control of your life to a passing emotion. In that pleasant surge of energy—when the mood is right—almost anyone can show courage, f...
Read full interpretation →More From Author
More from Viktor E. Frankl →Turn the weight of doubt into the engine of your learning. — Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl’s line reframes doubt from a symptom of weakness into a signal that something matters enough to examine. Rather than treating uncertainty as an obstacle, he invites us to see it as the first honest step in underst...
Read full interpretation →Even in the narrowest room, choose freedom by how you meet the day — Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl’s line begins with a stark image: the “narrowest room,” a place of constraint where choice seems to shrink to nothing. Yet he immediately pivots to a counterclaim—that freedom can still be chosen—not by changing t...
Read full interpretation →Choose one honest act and build a life from it. — Viktor E. Frankl
Frankl’s line treats integrity not as a vague trait but as a concrete starting point: one honest act solid enough to build on. Instead of waiting for a grand moral transformation, he suggests choosing a single moment of...
Read full interpretation →Even in the darkest chapters, choose where the light falls next. — Viktor E. Frankl
Viktor E. Frankl’s words arise from a life tested in extremity.
Read full interpretation →