Thoughts About the Meaning of Life
What is the meaning of life? This is a popular question that many people ask themselves, and even search for online. It seems like this might become a more important question in the future. Especially if AI continues to increase its capabilities, and more people feel sidelined or minimized. If you are wondering about meaning in life, this page can help.
This page includes…
- Identity is the foundation for meaning
- Truthview
- Personality
- Four core ways to build meaning in life
- Faith
- Strengths
- Relationships
- Goals
Identity is the Foundation for Meaning
Personal meaning is an internal feeling about how we think or feel that our life matters to the world. Similar to self-respect and self-esteem. Not to be confused with personal significance, which is how much other people think or feel like our life matters to the world. Meaning is more inside out, and significance is more outside in. In many cases, meaning naturally increases significance.
What we think of ourself should be more important than what we think other people think of us. Pursuing an honorable goal and doing what we can, with what we have, is a good life. It can also help us build meaning and significance. Meaning and significance are strongly influenced by our truthview and our personality.
Truth is a consistent representation of reality. It is our most valuable resource, because it allows us to make good use of our time. Many people search online for what is truth, and what is the meaning of life. I bet many more are thinking it but not searching for an answer.
Truthview
Our truthview is how we know truth. There are three basic categories of truthview; spiritualism, naturalism, or relativism.
Spiritualism believes truth can be revealed in the spiritual world and the physical world. A spiritual truthview is found in people who identify with a religion, or believe in a spiritual world.
Naturalism believes there is no spiritual world and truth can only be known through the physical world. They basically believe our senses and science reveal truth. A natural truthview believes there are natural laws at work in the world that govern all living organisms. This could be referred to as physics.
Relativism believes there is no truth, and all of what we think is truth is just human made social constructs. It seems that Relativism opens the door for more confusion and less clarity, as it asserts there is no truth.
Truth is often difficult to prove, if not impossible. Consider how it takes faith to believe in God, and to not believe in God. We have not agreed on a way to prove God is real, or to prove there is no God. So we are left with comparing evidence.
We compare evidence based on our values, beliefs, feelings, and perception of facts. Just because we all perceive reality through our values, beliefs, and feelings does not mean reality does not exist. To claim something is a personal truth is like saying it is an opinion fact.
Personality
It seems that the Bible gave a good framework for human personality… God gave you a spirit, not of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7). This reveals our three core personality traits of the worker/warrior, lover/empath, and thinker. While we each have all of them, we tend to favor one or two. This also reveals our three core intelligences of physical, emotional, and intellectual. Understanding our personality helps us build meaning. Understanding other people’s core personality trait can help us connect with them.
The worker/warrior prefers connecting with people by doing things and talking about achievements. They probably enjoy fixing things, and even taking things apart to see how they work. They are more comfortable with physical labor, mechanical work, and physical conflict. They probably enjoy competition, like athletes. They are probably less likely to enjoy emotional vulnerability.
The lover/empath prefers connecting with people, often talking about how situations made them feel. Or maybe how situations might have affected other people’s feelings. They probably enjoy and value vulnerability. They are probably less comfortable with conflict and competition.
The thinker prefers connecting with people by sharing ideas. They probably enjoy learning and thinking about situations and events. They probably enjoy intellectual competition like debate, chess, or crossword puzzles.
Four Core Ways to Build Meaning in Life
Faith, Strengths, Relationships, and Goals.
Faith
We can have faith in God, ourselves, other people, or systems and organizations. It seems the more we build our relationship with God, the more He will help us clarify our identity and build meaning.
Having faith in ourselves can come from clarifying our identity and core values, and building important skills. One of our most important skills is our communication skills.
Having faith in other people can come from understanding they share your core values and beliefs. Having faith in a system or an organization can come from understanding that it is build on values and beliefs that you respect. Faith in a system can also come from understanding it is managed by people we have faith in.
Strengths
Strengths can be rooted in important interests and knowledge, skills, or our core personality traits. I offer the idea that passion, purpose, and calling are higher levels of meaning.
Passion is based on our important interests and knowledge. Purpose is based on our skills and core personality traits. A calling is the combination passion and purpose, the highest level of meaning.
I understand some people might feel like they are in a situation or environment where they can’t pursue their passion or purpose. The question then becomes now what?
They have three basic paths, work on being content with what they have. Resent and resist the status quo of their environment. Or work on building as much knowledge, interest, and skills as possible, and pursue honorable goals. Regardless of circumstances, doing the best you can with what you have, with honorable goals, is still a good life. What matters at the end of the day is how you feel about yourself.
Relationships
Relationships are probably the most common place people get a sense of meaning, especially parents. Humans naturally have a desire to love and be loved, and to feel like they belong to a group.
Building meaningful relationships depends a lot on our emotional intelligence and communication skills. However, some people feel that building meaningful relationships depends more on doing things together.
Goals
Goals are probably the least valued of the ways to build meaning, but arguably the most important. Properly setting goals includes some planning and assessing opportunities and challenges, with important choices. This will naturally get you thinking of what knowledge, skills, and relationships are most important.
Of course you don’t want to pursue relationships just to reach a goal. But there is nothing wrong with genuinely pursuing relationships that align with a goal. It may very well turn into a win/win situation and a lifelong friendship.
Start Building Meaning in Life with Goals
Get your copy of the Personal Planning Package to help build meaning in your life, through goals. It has a Goals Plan template, and a Personal Growth Plan, or a Professional Growth Plan (both have a section for goals). It also includes a lot of other helpful information including our Four Core Skills, The Big List of Free Help, and The Helpful, Interesting, and Popular Lists.
You can also read more about goals on the Goal Setting page.