What Is The Meaning of Life?
A Guide to Discovering Your Purpose
Google “what is the meaning of life” and you will quickly discover that it is one of those sought-after quests that can never truly be answered because there are just too many opinions and personal definitions for any one meaning to be true for everyone.
Joseph Campbell is credited to saying “Life has no meaning. Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life. It is a waste to be asking the question when you are the answer”. And in some logical reasoning this makes sense to me. Philosophically, there are certain topics in life that can simply never be fully described with mere words, such as true love and true self.
Some say that discovering the meaning behind true love and your true self is the meaning of life. What do you think?
What ever you think the answer to be, a way to become clearer on why we are here is to discover your purpose. While you might feel a bit confused by this, you can start to find meaning in your life by discovering your true purpose. For some, this comes easily but for others it may take some deep soul searching. Your true purpose is not necessarily a job or something concrete, although it could be. Don’t listen to anyone else out there about what you should do with your life, what you should have accomplished by when and who you should love. There are no rules to follow, just the rules set out by your heart.
Try some of the following activities when searching for your true purpose:
- Brainstorm. Find a time and place where you can have some quiet self-reflection. Just start writing down ideas on what you think your true purpose might be. You may not arrive at it at first, but you’ll eventually come across something that hits the nail on the head.
- Activities and hobbies. Reflect on your favourite activities and hobbies. Can you turn any of them into a life’s purpose? Some people feel that if they take their hobbies further it’ll start to feel like any old job. This won’t be the case if you’ve truly found your purpose.
- Skills and intelligence. If there are certain skills and abilities that you’re good at, perhaps you should try pursuing those, even if you didn’t think you wanted to before. Also, you might want to look into a theory called Multiple Intelligences by Howard Gardner. Gardner describes how everyone has a type of intelligence and it might not always be what is typically accepted as intelligence, such as a high IQ. Just remember, formal education does not mean you are smart. There are different types of ‘smart’. It is just a shame that society these day’s rates it on the school and/ or university you went to (or didn’t go to).
- Happiness. Ask yourself whether or not you’re happy in your current life situation. If you are, perhaps you’ve already found your life’s purpose or you’re on the correct path to it. If you’re unhappy, see if you can isolate the reasons why. Once you know why, you can take action to correct the imbalance.
- Regrets. Make an effort to let go of your regrets. These never serve a positive purpose in your life. However, if you identify your regrets, perhaps you can use them to help you discover your purpose. Perhaps there’s something you regret that you can correct. Often times, it’s not too late to make a positive change! For example, if you’re in your 50s and you always wanted to go to college, you shouldn’t let anything stand in the way between you and your dream. I didn’t formally finish high school and started my first degree when I was 34. I learnt so much more and feel that I am better off for that life journey.
Follow Your Bliss
To put it quite simply, if you’re following your bliss, you’re on the road to discovering your true purpose. You’ll also be discovering your personal definition for the meaning of life. Remember, you’ll always have outside influences when it comes to finding life’s meaning, but following your heart is the only true answer.
