How Determination of Spirit Helps to Win Not Only on the Field but Also in Life
Have you ever wondered what makes an athlete get up at 5 AM when their body screams fatigue and a grueling workout awaits? We often call it iron discipline or ambition. But in logotherapy, Viktor Frankl's approach, we call it the will to meaning (the desire to understand why it is worth acting, enduring, and continuing on one's path, making the most meaningful choice in each specific situation).
I work in this modality because it serves as a navigator. In sports, where the price of a mistake is a career, it is important not just to act but to understand why you are doing it. Logotherapy allows the athlete to build an internal coordinate system that does not depend on the judges' scores or random circumstances.
When Faster, Higher, Stronger Stops Working
Athletes often face a state known in logotherapy as existential vacuum. This is a feeling of losing direction when familiar supports vanish.
Imagine: an athlete is stable and confident in training but crumbles during competition after making a mistake at the start, failing their performance. At that moment, they risk losing not just points, but the sense of meaning in their activity. When benchmarks fade, sports may temporarily cease to be valuable, and the athlete finds themselves in a vacuum, unsure of why to continue their path.
Logotherapy helps regain motivation by asking honest questions: “Does one failure wipe out everything you have lived for until now? Did you train only for those five minutes at the start, or is there something much greater?” This approach teaches athletes to overcome defeats, making them more resilient and aware. Yes, it will be sad and frustrating — these are normal emotions. But when they subside, logotherapy helps to see what happened not as the end of the road but as the beginning of something important. The mistake becomes the experience on which future stability is built.
My Determination of Spirit
In logotherapy, there is the concept of determination of spirit. This is the ability of a person to remain themselves, to maintain their values, even when external circumstances — injuries, pressure, or a failed start — try to break them.
Why I Chose This Approach:
- It does not turn the athlete into a patient. Logotherapy sees you as a personality capable of self-transcendence — going beyond oneself for something greater than just a personal record.
- Working with motivation. We seek the roots of your desire to engage in sports. When the why is found, motivation ceases to be fragile.
- Acceptance of the Inevitable. In sports, there are things we cannot change: judges' decisions, our own physical limitations, or random injuries. Logotherapy teaches us to change our attitude toward what cannot be changed. This gives a sense of inner freedom and allows us to take responsibility only for what I can objectively influence. When I stop wasting resources trying to control fate, my anxiety decreases, and I can focus on what truly matters and is needed for the result.
Science and Life
Research (e.g., Schnell et al., 2013) shows that athletes oriented towards meaning demonstrate a higher level of psychological well-being.
Conclusion: When an athlete realizes the meaning of their activity, they cease to be a function in pursuit of medals and become the author of their life. This protects against burnout, as self-esteem is no longer hostage to one specific competition.
For me, logotherapy is about life that continues even after the end of a sports career, after serious injuries, or during motherhood. My task is to help you build a support system that will not collapse if tomorrow you stop being number one in the ranking.
In Closing
Being an athlete is courage. And being a person who seeks meaning in their journey is wisdom.
If you feel that sports has become an obligation, if amidst endless training you have lost that very why — come. We will not fix your motivation; we will seek your personal meaning. The one that cannot be taken away by any injury or defeat.