The speedometer gets more attention than any other indicator on my car’s dashboard. I generally want to get to my destination as quickly as possible without compromising safety or getting a speeding ticket. 

Focused as the workplace is on speed and productivity, it’s not surprising that businesses have adopted the dashboard metaphor to track the metrics relevant to their functionality and to the people who create it. But how many of the yellow signals—like the “check engine” light or the indicator of low tire pressure—are on the dashboards of business?

Among those metaphorical dashboard lights are those related to emotional awareness. Because they are yellow and not red, we sometimes pay less attention to them. But to ignore them would almost certainly affect the bottom line in a negative way. Here are three reasons why we should learn to give more consideration to emotions, all from The Body Keeps the Score:

1. Emotions are signals that something deserves our attention (p. 100). Anger, for example, tells us that we need to confront something. It could be someone else’s behavior, a bad process, or something within ourselves. Fear indicates the presence of a threat, which could be real or imaginary. In both examples, it’s clear that emotion alone doesn’t give us clear, reliable information on which to act, which leads to the next point:
2. Emotions and reason are not opposed to each other. They are simply in some sort of tension, balance, or imbalance with each other. Although they are valuable as indicators of what deserves attention, strong emotions can also hijack thinking. Processing those feelings is a key to clearer thinking and therefore better action. As Dr. van der Kolk writes, “Our emotions assign value to experiences and thus are the foundation of reason.” He goes on to state: “Psychologists usually try to help people use insight and understanding to manage their behavior. However, neuroscience research shows that very few psychological problems are the result of defects in understanding; most originate in pressures from deeper regions in the brain that drive our perception and attention” (p. 64).
3. Emotions are a source of motivation to initiate action (p. 75). Not only do they point us toward or away from an object. They help us move and do.

The “check engine” indicator on my car’s dashboard often lights up around the time the engine needs an oil change. New lubricant usually results in that light turning off. But I still take my vehicle to the mechanics to perform that simple task because I just don’t know what else they might find.

I journal every day to attend as best I can to the emotional lights on my personal dashboard. It’s certainly a helpful practice. But I know both from personal experience and learning that the effects of emotion can sometimes be so powerful or subtle that they cloud my vision or skew my perception without my awareness. Another person often gives better attention to the complex ecosystem of my thoughts and emotions than I can myself. 

Who else is checking your internal engine?

Conflict is part of our experience from the earliest years. Consider sibling rivalry, a reality so ingrained in human nature that the story of Cain and Abel appears in a text nearly three thousand years old. And interpersonal conflict continues throughout our lives—at work, at home, and elsewhere.

When we grow up a little, we begin to play team sports. We learn to cooperate with others to defeat a common foe. We learn that victory is even sweeter when we can share it with our teammates. And if we are fortunate, we gain an appreciation for the strengths and contributions of others, as well as an awareness of our own strengths and weaknesses.

But some people never move beyond external conflict to the struggle waged within. Crushing the competition in the marketplace or cheering for their favorite athletic team is the furthest they go. But in comparison with external conflicts, our interior battles are just as real, and in the final analysis, even more important. Some understand this as competing with yourself.

The self-help industry knows how real this is. There are thousands of books dedicated to helping their readers overcome inner adversity, many of which are quite useful. Meditation in the pursuit of mindfulness is also a very helpful tactic. But one of the limitations of consuming self-help or even practicing meditation is that these can remain solitary activities. Even the most self-disciplined people profit from involving others in their inner game.

Two or more heads are almost always better than one, and no one needs to struggle alone. There are many—coaches, therapists, etc.—that can provide the kind of support and challenge we need to grow, thrive, and win within.

Here’s a visual summary of this taxonomy of conflict:

No number of external victories can compensate for inner defeat. True competitive greatness and the most meaningful victories always involve an interior game, not just an external one, and that inner game doesn’t need to be a solo sport. You can assemble your own band of brothers (or sisters) to challenge and support you.

I would be honored to be one of them.

Out of the greatest darkness can come the brightest light.

Such was the story of Viktor Frankl, the holocaust survivor who went on to pioneer a form of psychotherapy that reintegrated what had been lost by so many in the modern world: meaning.

There are many who wake up every day without a clear sense of meaning or purpose for their lives. They may experience a constant boredom or an absence of energy. Often they might seek to numb the low-grade pain of this void in various unhealthy ways—with power, with pleasure, or with something else that allows them to escape for a moment from that draining reality.

The good news is that no one has to be trapped in such an existence. There is a better life available, and Frankl offers us helpful guidelines for how to enter into a life magnified by meaning. Here are three of them:

One of his most important principles is that “the true meaning of life is to be found in the world rather than within man or his own psyche, as though it were a closed system.” In other words, he tells us that as beneficial as personal retreats can be, we will not find the meaning of our lives simply by gazing at our navels in solitude. We will find it rather by engaging with the world around us, with the people around us, with the reality of our past and the potential of our future. Elsewhere Dr. Frankl writes, “I think the meaning of our existence is not invented by ourselves, but rather detected.”

A second critical principle is that there is no such thing as an abstract or general meaning of life. Because every human being is unique and unrepeatable, the meaning or purpose of his or her life must also be unique and unrepeatable. In Frankl’s own words:

The meaning of life differs from man to man, from day to day and from hour to hour. What matters therefore is not the meaning of life in general but rather the specific meaning of a person’s life at a given moment….One should not search for an abstract meaning of life. Everyone has his own specific vocation or mission in life; everyone must carry out a concrete assignment that demands fulfillment. In this he cannot be replaced, nor can his life be repeated. Thus everyone’s task is as unique as is his specific opportunity to implement it.

Even for believers within a spiritual tradition that provides general or abstract principles regarding the purpose of life, they must still apply those principles within the specific contexts and particularities of their lives. Otherwise, those principles remain words without flesh, unreal ideas deprived of concrete expression.

Dr. Frankl adds that meaning is not just found in work, but also in love:

This uniqueness and singleness which distinguishes each individual and gives a meaning to his existence has a bearing on creative work as much as it does on human love. When the impossibility of replacing a person is realized, it allows the responsibility which a man has for his existence and its continuance to appear in all its magnitude. A man who becomes conscious of the responsibility he bears toward a human being who affectionately waits for him, or to an unfinished work, will never be able to throw away his life.

Finally, Frankl calls us to decisive action. Detecting our life’s purpose and meaning is not just a head game of reflection or meditation. Every moment sets before us infinite possibilities. The stories and meaning of our lives are determined by the choices and decisions we make, by what we do and by what we don’t do. Reflecting on his and his comrades’ experience in the concentration camps, Dr. Frankl writes:

We needed to stop asking about the meaning of life, and instead to think of ourselves as those who were being questioned by life – daily and hourly. Our answer must consist, not in talk and meditation, but in right action and in right conduct. Life ultimately means taking responsibility to find the right answer to its problems and to fulfill the tasks which it constantly sets for each individual.

If you want to live a life magnified by meaning, remember these lessons from Viktor Frankl:

1. Meaning is not found within ourselves. It is beyond us, and it is found by engaging with the world and especially the people around us. It lives in the space between.
2. Meaning is not abstract and general but rather as unique and unrepeatable as a human fingerprint. It is not static but ever-changing.
3. Meaning is not just understood through talk and reflection. It is also created by the decisive actions that are our answers to the questions and problems of life that confront us.

By living into the truth of these principles, by living a life magnified by meaning, you also can become a reflection of light in a world darkened by its absence.