Regardless of your beliefs, many of us have reached a point in our lives where we ask questions about our lives and how meaningful our lives are in the grand scheme of things.
- What is the meaning of life?
- Does my life matter?
- What is the point of being alive and living?
- Should I consider having a meaning or purpose in my life?
- Do I need to have a meaningful life or can I just be happy and not do anything for the rest of my life?
- Do we make life meaningful or should life itself be meaningful?
- So many bad things happen in the world. How can life be meaningful?
- I’m a happy person. I don’t need a meaning or a purpose. Why should I care?
We may ask ourselves these questions many times throughout our life or very rarely. Some of us grasp onto our religion or spirituality seeking answers. Others of us look for things externally to our lives in a search for meaning. None of these are the wrong ways to find meaning at all. I don’t have the answer to these questions for you but I do believe that creating a meaningful life is important to feeling empowered, personal growth and having a good balance of fulfillment and happiness. I also firmly believe that knowing the meaning of our lives lies within each of us. Why is that exactly?
You can take steps to create a life that means something to you. When you don’t follow your life purpose, you’ll put your life into the hands of fate and what others believe you should do. For instance, you may never pursue the career you want or have friends that share your same values and perspectives on life if you don’t try to find meaning in your life. You’ll follow someone else’s agenda for you and not the one you want for yourself.
You might never be fulfilled. Even without a life purpose, you can be happy, but happiness alone doesn’t mean that you will be satisfied or content with your life. There is actually very little overlap between meaning and happiness. Happiness is just an emotion that makes us feel good but actually having a meaningful life means that we feel we are contributing to society or others. You can be happy and have all your needs and wants met, but without meaning, your life will seem fairly empty. When only focusing on happiness, you’ll only want more and more things to make you happy. However, having meaning provides you with the release of fulfillment.
Your goals may feel meaningless. When we don’t have a meaning, the goals and plans mapped out for ourselves can seem like they have no significance. Your job becomes a source for the next paycheck. All your hobbies and interests become pastimes to avoid boredom. Exercise becomes something to do to keep you occupied in the morning or during lunch break. When a goal lacks meaning, you will be even more unlikely to achieve them. You might be unable to clarify why exactly you are pursuing a goal in the first place.
Here are some tips to try and locate the meaning within your life.
1. Figure out what is important to you. Nowadays there is so much going on in our lives. With all the information happening around us, it’s difficult to separate what is important and not important in our lives. Even when we get a spare moment to think, we often find ourselves fantasizing about the next exotic holiday or how to skip doing our chores or work today. We spend so much time obsessing with what can make us happy right now that we end up missing out on the things that actually give us meaning and happiness.
Personally, I reached a point where I realized that I was spending too much time on things that were pointless and didn’t actually matter to me several years ago. I probably still spend so much time investing in things that don’t really matter to me as well, but as time passes, you can have a better understanding of what is important and not important to you. Allow yourself time to meditate and reflect on what was important to you today. Gradually with this practice, you’ll figure out what brings you meaning and happiness within your life. Although my process of obtaining the big picture of what gives my life meaning is still incomplete, I do know that giving back to others, my friendships and relationships and opening myself to new experiences for learning and teaching is what gives my life meaning. I also know that staying healthy, being kind, loving openly and having simplicity in my life brings meaning.
2. Reduce the clutter. There is so much stimulus in the world and in our own homes that make life more confusing than it has to be. Work on simplifying your life and reducing the clutter of stimulus around you. This is a great time to get rid of unnecessary things you own, cut out some unhealthy relationships, reduce your commitments to things you aren’t that interested in anymore and to remove bad habits. You’ll discover something amazing as you simplify your lifestyle. You’ll have more time to reflect, focus on what is important to you and make room for the people and things that do matter. Take small steps to reduce the clutter in your life, and you’ll quickly see the benefits.
3. Be kind and full of compassion. Negativity can make you latch on even harder to illusions of escapism. I hate my job, so let me dream about what my ideal career or the next long holiday coming up. My family irritates me so much. I wish I had a different family. This negative energy will only take you out of the present and instead of investing in being kind and compassionate, you’ll be stuck in an unbearable cycle of always looking for an escape out of your reality. When you approach your situations and the people in your life with kindness and compassion, you can focus on keeping yourself calm and having an open perspective to the world. You might find that you are creating the problems in your life. When we don’t act in kindness or compassion, we can aggravate our lives even more and make things harder for ourselves. By viewing the world in kindness you can create a space for meaning to thrive in your life.
4. Be giving. By giving back to others you’ll start to see how meaningful your life is. You’ll discover the way you can influence and inspire others. When you give to others, you allow yourself to find ways that you can use your talents to make someone’s life better. You can bake someone a cake to help make someone’s day brighter. Volunteering at your local animal shelter will often be appreciated and needed. Even telling someone you are thinking about them and appreciate them can be a way you give back to this world. Also, be giving to yourself. Sometimes we spend too much time focusing on how to help others that we neglect our own personal needs. Give to yourself by making room for the things you need to thrive whether that’s treating yourself to a relaxing massage or through meditation.
5. Meaning is a journey, not an end point. Many people have an incorrect belief that the meaning lies at the end of our lives or after achieving some great milestone. However, the meaning is all in the effect of pursuing what you love. Doing something you love is what makes your life meaningful. As you pursue what makes your life fulfilling, you’ll already be making your life fulfilling. You are living the reality and there’s very few things that are more fulfilling than that. Let’s say your life purpose is to write an epic fantasy novel. Your life isn’t meaningful once the novel is finished and sent off to your loved ones and publishers. The meaning comes in the fact that you spend time and effort writing and revising the book. True meaning is that you are pursuing what you’ve always wanted to do. Your life is the one you are actively creating for yourself.
6. Focus on your passions. Multi-focusing on too many tasks will drive your energy in many directions and will lessen the chance you’ll even get things done. Take time to focus on the things that actually matter to you. About a year ago I caught myself focusing way too much on different things. As a result I started feeling really sad because I wasn’t doing anything that I actually wanted to do. It took a friend pointing out that I hadn’t worked on several things that are really meaningful to me for quite some time. After my friend said this to me, I realized I was focusing on way too many things that didn’t matter to me and were unnecessary to work on in the first place. When you focus on your passions and interests, you can drive your energy into creating a life that is meaningful to you.
7. Appreciate the meaning within all things. When you find the beautiful things in the lives around you, you’ll be able to identify and appreciate the way each and every one of us provides meaning. Seeing how people are making an impact on their community will give you further momentum to pursue a meaningful life. You’ll start to appreciate the meaning in certain situations or moments. Life is beautiful because the things and people around us are meaningful.
One thing is certain. We only have this life so it is important to live a fulfilled life that you feel has purpose and meaning. You’ll be able to choose and pursue your life purpose. Furthermore, you’ll be able to actively succeed at making the most of your life.
What is your life purpose?