Do You Think Your Life Is Meaningful?
Do you belong to those people who stopped searching for meaning in life? Have you completely lost yourself in work? Are you not asking yourself what is THE thing?
Or do you belong among those who have already found the meaning of their lives in their jobs? I consider this kind of people to be among the luckiest because we spend so much time at work.
Or do you belong to those people quitting modern lifestyle? Those people who moved away and started to grow their own vegetable, breed animals and even give birth at home?
No matter which category do you belong to I envy you. Nothing personal. I suck at figuring out what is the meaning of my life. I ask often, but I’m not getting the answer.
Are you in my club? The club of those who do the usual. Wake up in the morning. Go to work. Work. Go to the gym. Go home. Cook. Tidy. Take care of kids. Have sex. Go to sleep. And again.
We have some much from one point of view and so little from the other. Most of us are not happy. Most of us did not find their place in life. And it makes us feeling miserable and useless. This seems to be the sickness of our age. Worry, anxiety, light sleep, loss of good mood and good health.
Questions will appear in our minds sooner or later. Questions like: Does my life have any meaning? Is it worth the struggle? What do I do here and where do I go?
Does this seem familiar? Well, then you are in my club. Welcome!
We usually get scared by asking this kind of questions ourselves. We try to block them because we cannot find answers and that is making us more miserable.
Yet, we couldn’t do more wrong. Search for the meaning of one’s life is important. It’s what makes us human.
“Life has a meaning in all circumstances. Even when suffering.” Viktor Frankl
Viktor Frankl, an Austrian psychiatrist, and Auschwitz concentration camp survivor defined that we have 3 basic wills:
1. will-to-pleasure,
2. will-to-power,
3. will-to-meaning.
While will-to-pleasure and will-to-power can be found also in the nature of animals, will-to-meaning is characteristic of humans only. It’s what makes us human.
Let me go back to our reflection on life’s meaning. Isn’t it dangerous to try to repress our natural need to ask the question: What is the meaning of my life? Can’t it lead to suppression of our humanity?
I believe it can. And so if we feel the urge to question the meaning of our lives we are obliged to search for the answer.
If you are like me, you don’t try to fight the question and you give in thinking of life’s meaning. Yet, the problem usually is that despite reflection we can’t find any answer to this question. Most of the times the new question arises:
What exactly defines your life to have a meaning?
I believe, it can be volunteering in charity as well as cooking a dinner for your family. Both. Or none. The only thing that matters is your feeling of fulfillment and your conviction that you have a meaningful life.
It doesn’t mean that your life is not meaningful if you don’t volunteer to the UNICEF to teach children in Africa. Although, if you would decide to do so, it’s undeniable that your life is very meaningful.
All of us have doubts from time to time whether our lives have meanings. I work as a tax methodologist for one of the biggest insurance companies. My responsibilities are to make sure that my company pays the right amount of taxes to the state every year. Everything has to be is precisely calculated and documented.
I like my job. It’s interesting, I learned a lot and I have an incredible team I am thankful for.
However, my question is: What is the purpose of my job?
Well, we pay taxes on time and in the right amount. But is this bringing any good to somebody? Is it helpful? Is it meaningful?
Like with most jobs in finance, we take care that bills and taxes are being paid, our earnings are higher every year and everything is on time. We are well-educated, well-dressed, busy all the time…and we suffer from meaninglessness.
I definitely do.
Here’s the thing — when I die what will people say about me?
“The whole life she made sure her company paid taxes on time and in the right amount.”?
Well, thank you. I don’t want that. I would prefer something like:
- she helped an incredible amount of people
- a lot of people learned from her and a lot of people still can
- she made a difference to the world (this one is my favorite)
Doesn’t this sound much better?
“The greatest of any person is finding the meaning of his or her life.” Viktor Frankl
According to Viktor Frankl, a meaning of life can be found in three places:
- in work — by doing something significant
- in love — by taking care of another person
- in courage — during difficult times
Let’s dive into it deeper.
Courage
I believe, that if you live, like me, an ordinary life — pardon me for calling it this way, but by ordinary I mean that we are not fighting in any war, we don’t starve and we don’t live in caves, but we stay at home, have enough food, go to work and pay bills — then we can’t find the meaning of life in courage. There’s no ground where we can show our courage (except for the one-in-a-year talk to the boss about the salary rise).
Thus there are only two options for us. Work and Love.
Love and Work
I find this very true because these are the happy people. I know some people who declare that their lives are meaningful. And from my experience, they are moms loving their kids to the fullest and living their lives for them or businessmen who sacrificed everything for their work and live only by their work.
To me, former seems too instinctive to represent an answer to the search for life’s meaning. The latter reminds me more of the will-to-power than will-to-meaning.
That’s why, these two will not suffice for me — and for you if you are somewhat like me — who are searching for the meaning of life in our everyday routine.
What’s left for us here is to push forward and try to find out independently what is the meaning of our own lives.
Conclusion
Luckily, I am — and possibly you are — not the only ones looking for the meaning of their lives nor the first ones.
According to Viktor Frankl, the life of every single person is meaningful and all we have to do is learn to see life as meaningful under all conditions.
Yes, your life has a great meaning. You are unique and you are here to make a change. If you don’t know what the change is yet, keep in touch and I will help you to find out.
