What do golf, mental health, education, and work all have in common?  (Other than being things I am very interested, and sometimes very active, in?)

They are all institutions that once, or maybe still, believe that there is ONE WAY to do something right.

But that is changing.  For some, it is changing rapidly – maybe too rapidly for those invested in “the old way of doing it”.

In golf, there was once an ideal swing that golfers would try to conform to, and instructors would try to teach.  But now, we realize that individual golfers have unique body mechanics and that a variety of them can work, and work well, in different ways.  Just watch a tournament for a few minutes, and you will see the vast differences, with similar winning results.  Me, I like the Moe Norman single-plane style, and have found great improvement there.

Mental Health, and especially addictions treatments, have often been prescribed in a manner that takes a cluster of symptoms, or criteria, and matches them to a list of goals for client and therapist to achieve, ideally ending in the client’s improved mental health.  However, those checklist, step-by-step, treatments often look nice on paper, they don’t always address and individuals unique needs or perspective.  As you know, for me in my work, that’s where Logotherapy and Existential Analysis serve to augment any other forms of treatment.

But what about education and work?  Depending on who you ask, both of these institutions are seeing mixed results lately – many of them not quite satisfactory.  Some, like Johann Hari in Lost Connections, would suggest that we are experiencing a negative impact on our mental health because of the state of these two institutions.  His research in the book backs up that statement fairly well.  Dr. Todd Rose, in The End of Average, states that the current state of education and work is based on a 150 year old system of “Averagarianism” that is horribly outdated for our times, but that we are still trying to force children and adults to conform to that system, with often debilitating results – anxiety, depression, addiction, and sadly, suicide.

But, hopefully, as the world continues to change, the way we educate, and how we work, will continue to change.  We saw massive changes, disruptions, and adaptations to both of these institutions last year.  And their are groups advocating further change – this time intentional, and ideally positive.  My friends over at The Viktor Frankl Institute of America are putting together quite a few resources to help – they should be ready in the next few weeks, I’ll definitely share them with you here.

But in the meantime, what can you do?  Bringing these ideas about such huge institutions – education and work – to the personal level.  What can you do about it?  If you have kids in school or college, you can help them make meaningful and responsible decisions about their education.  You can encourage them to find meaning in the experience and creativity of their education – and you can challenge them to maintain a positive attitude in the face of adversity.  This goes the same for you and your work.  You get to choose your attitude – you can discover meaning in work, and you can bring creativity and self-transcendence to it.  But if you work in one of those outdated situations that don’t allow for that, maybe it is time to consider a responsible change?

Golf and mental health are great examples of institutions that went through – and are still going through – revolutionary change.  Education and work experienced significant, unplanned, change in the past year – it is time for intentional change.  You can be a part of it.  I’ll share more as it develops.  And, of course, if you want to discuss further, I’m happy to help.

Take care.  – Dan