By Joshua Hicks, Frank Martela and Ephrat Livni
A meaningful life is associated with positive functioning: life satisfaction, enjoyment of work, happiness, general positive affect, hope, and in general, a higher level of well-being. A meaningful life is one in which you feel engaged, connected to purpose, and able to connect your gifts and passions with your highest values. Martin Seligman, a psychologist considered by some to be the father of modern positive psychology, believes that meaningfulness is actually a component of happiness. Some people seem to spend their whole lives dissatisfied, in search of a purpose. But philosopher Iddo Landau suggests that all of us have everything we need for a meaningful existence. According to Landau, a philosophy professor at Haifa University in Israel and author of the 2017 book Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World, people are mistaken when they feel their lives are meaningless. The error is based on their failure to recognize what does matter, instead becoming overly focused on what they believe is missing from their existence.
Landau writes in The Philosopher’s Magazine:
To my surprise, most people with whom I have talked about the meaning of life have told me that they did not think their lives were meaningful enough. Many even presented their lives as outright meaningless. But I have often found the reasons my interlocutors gave for their views problematic. Many, I thought, did not pose relevant questions that might have changed their views, or take the actions that might have improved their condition. (Some of them, after our discussions, agreed with me.) Most of the people who complained about life’s meaninglessness even found it difficult to explain what they took the notion to mean.
In other words, Landau thinks that people who feel purposeless actually misunderstand what meaning is. He is among many thinkers over the ages who’ve wrestled with the difficult question, “What is a meaningful life?”
What is a meaningful life?
First, there’s a difference between a meaningful life and a happy life, though the two are commonly linked. Think about the most meaningful aspects of your life now – perhaps it’s deep and messy friendships, a satisfying job serving others, or spiritual practices that help you get through the pain of loss. A meaningful life is one in which you feel engaged, connected to purpose, and able to connect your gifts and passions with your highest values.
Martin Seligman, a psychologist considered by some to be the father of modern positive psychology, believes that meaningfulness is actually a component of happiness. It’s often in our pursuit of meaning that positive emotions arise naturally – for example, when we volunteer in the community, we may experience a “helper’s high” that boosts our mood. This experience of contentment is more satisfying and longer-lasting than the bursts of pleasure we might have when we only seek gratification in life.
The question of meaning
Philosophers’ answers to this question are numerou, varied, and practical to varyingt degrees. The 19th-century philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, for example, said the question itself was meaningless because in the midst of living, we’re in no position to discern whether our lives matter, and stepping outside of the process of existence to answer is impossible.
Those who do think meaning can be discerned, however, fall into four groups, according to Thaddeus Metz, writing in the Stanford Dictionary of Philosophy. Some are god-centered and believe only a deity can provide purpose. Others ascribe to a soul-centered view, thinking something of us must continue beyond our lives, an essence after physical existence, which gives life meaning. Then there are two camps of “naturalists” seeking meaning in a purely physical world as known by science, who fall into “subjectivist” and “objectivist” categories.
The two naturalist camps are split over whether the human mind makes meaning or these conditions are absolute and universal. Objectivists argue that there are absolute truths which have value, though they may not agree on what they are. For example, some say that creativity offers purpose, while others believe that virtue, or a moral life, confers meaning.
Subjectivists—Landau among them—think that those views are too narrow. If meaning happens through cognition, then it could come from any number of sources. “It seems to most in the field not only that creativity and morality are independent sources of meaning, but also that there are sources in addition to these two. For just a few examples, consider making an intellectual discovery, rearing children with love, playing music, and developing superior athletic ability,” Metz proposes.
For subjectivists, depending on who and where we are at any given point, the value of any given activity varies. Life is meaningful, they say, but its value is made by us in our minds, and subject to change over time. Landau argues that meaning is essentially a sense of worth which we may all derive in a different way—from relationships, creativity, accomplishment in a given field, or generosity, among other possibilities.
Reframing your mindset
For those who feel purposeless, Landau suggests a reframing is in order. He writes, “A meaningful life is one in which there is a sufficient number of aspects of sufficient value, and a meaningless life is one in which there is not a sufficient number of aspects of sufficient value.”
Basically, he’s saying meaning is like an equation—add or subtract value variables, and you get more or less meaning. So, say you feel purposeless because you’re not as accomplished in your profession as you dreamed of being. You could theoretically derive meaning from other endeavors, like relationships, volunteer work, travel, or creative activities, to name just a few. It may also be that the things you already do really are meaningful, and that you’re not valuing them sufficiently because you’re focused on a single factor for value.
He points to the example of existentialist psychologist Viktor Frankl, who survived imprisonment in Nazi concentration camps in World War II and went on to write a book, Man in Search of Meaning. Frankl’s purpose, his will to live despite imprisonment in the harshest conditions, came from his desire to write about the experience afterward. Frankl noted, too, that others who survived the camps had a specific purpose—they were determined to see their families after the war or to help other prisoners live, maintaining a sense of humanity.
How to add meaning to your life
- Live in the present moment. Ten years ago, did you think you would be where you are? …
- Focus on what’s important to you. …
- Be kind to others and yourself. …
- Don’t hold a grudge. …
- Take a risk. …
- Make time for your passions. …
- Set goals. …
- Choose your friends wisely.
The four Pillars of a Meaningful Life
According to the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing, each person’s conception of meaning is heavily influenced by his or her environment, culture, family and social networks, and past experiences. Your idea of a meaningful career may include social justice work, while your neighbor sees it as quitting his day job to pursue a lifelong passion for music. However, in her research on meaning, author Emily Esfahani Smith found that there are four basic themes that come up when people around the world describe a meaningful life: belonging, purpose, transcendence, and storytelling.
Belonging
What is belonging, and how does it create meaning?
Purpose
What is the role of purpose in a meaningful life?
Transcendence
How does the experience of transcendence relate to a meaningful life?
Storytelling
How do the stories we tell ourselves create or hinder meaning?
How to create meaning this year
A meaningful life may sound like a high aspiration, but you can simply think of it as making each moment matter. A sense of meaning is something you can cultivate every day, in each moment – no matter what your circumstances are.
- To enhance your sense of belonging, dedicate some energy this year to nurturing your relationships and expanding your community. This might mean turning off your phone to play on the floor with your kids, volunteering for a local nonprofit organization, or inviting a friend to join you on your evening walk. Even small, intentional acts, such as writing in a gratitude journal about why you appreciate your friends, or saying hello to your downstairs neighbor as you pass one another on the stairs, are meaningful ways to incorporate a deeper sense of belonging into your life.
- Identifying your purpose begins with an exploration of your gifts, passions, and values. Your purpose is your contribution to the world – the ways you use these gifts to bring knowledge, joy, ease, or safety to others. This might be a big shift in your life, such as finding a job that allows you to use your gifts and passions in the service of others, or you may simply start paying more attention to how you contribute to others’ wellbeing – such as making your friends laugh.
- For many people, transcendence comes from nature, creativity, or spiritual practices. Ask yourself, when in the past have I felt as if I were connected to something bigger? How can I create that experience again? Increasing your experiences of transcendence can be as simple as going for a walk in nature, visiting a museum and looking at works of art, praying or meditating, or listening to music.
- Storytelling starts with paying attention to how you process and reflect on things that happen to you. Do you tend to fall into the identity of the victim to whom bad things seem to happen? Or do you recall your strength in challenging times? How we consolidate our own life narrative has a big impact on how meaningful we perceive our life to be.