Stimulus And Response Essay

According to Victor Frank the space that lies between Stimulus and Response is choice, or our freedom to choose (D. Ridley, personal communication, February 24, 2018). Regardless of the circumstance or the situation being out of one’s control, one still has the ability to remain in control of self, through conscious decision. According to Frankl’s philosophy, this choice is what makes us human. Frankl himself was dealt a very bad hand and spent his life enslaved and tortured, but he refused to lose his control. He refused to allow the situation to affect him in the way most would have. Control and self-awareness are empowering feats, and Frankl knew this all to well. Frankl viewed the power of freedom from an internal perspective (Covey, 2013). He …show more content…
This freedom expands to include our personal, professional, and spiritual lives. Frankl illustrated how this internal power changes the situation, maybe not physically, but definitely categorically. In other words, the choices we make in a situation have the ability to impact or influence either positively or negatively. I, for one, would much rather my impact be positive. I will not be bound by the pit, when there is a palace waiting for me. We could allow our circumstances to box us into being a victim or take control and make a choice to rise above the situation. Our choices have the ability to change things by the way we respond. For example, in the office, when the new boss just beats everyone down and increases the work load; we can choose to murmur and complain or choose to respond in a way beneficial to our sense of self. The great thing about choosing our response, is our response can expand to others, which can expand to others, so on and so forth. And guess what? Even if our conscious decision to respond positively does not impact others, we are still better for