Author: Alex Thompson

What Is Meaning? And How to Create a More Meaningful Life

Here are some actions that can point you in the right direction. You can also talk to one of the thousands of Americans who answered the question for themselves. Most of them found meaning through their families, careers, or making money. Luckily, there’s no shortage of resources to help you on your journey. You’re free to consult countless religions, philosophies, and doctrines to piece together your ideal life path.

How To Build Meaning Into Your Life

Koreen Odiney is the creator of We’re Not Really Strangers. She used her skill of photography, and her interest in fostering human connection, to remind people that, as humans, we’re far more similar than we are different. Learning how to make life meaningful is an exercise in self-discovery. We spend so much time looking at external factors, like our jobs, friends, or spouse, for an instant sense of purpose.

When placed in a decision-making context, participants higher in trait self-awareness tended to perceive their choices as more subjectively meaningful than those lower in trait self-awareness, irrespective of condition. In addition, that meaningfulness held regardless of external feedback about choice self-relevance. In my “What to do when you feel like a small fish in a big pond” post, I touched on the discomfort we might feel when stepping into something new and challenging. This discomfort can be daunting, bringing intense self-doubt and impostor feelings. This form of loneliness isn’t born from solitude but from half-hearted engagements.

Examples of create in a Sentence

In fact, a study by Russo-Netzer showed that the more we prioritise daily activities that are intrinsically meaningful, the higher will be our wellbeing. In other words, we should intentionally seek out activities and make choices conducive to experiencing meaning (as opposed to seeking meaning itself). When you do something that matters to you, you naturally become a more disciplined person.

For example, parenting contributes to more meaning but tends to contribute to less happiness. While it may seem obvious that clarity of message and meaning would stem from greater clarity of self, it is the proactive and joyful attitude with which the meaning is sought out that is of significance. These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word ‘create.’ Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.

Can you easily create meaning from any experience?

Or maybe you find meaning in spending time with your pets. There are all sorts of little things that can provide meaning if you take the time to notice them. Here are some examples of meaningful situations that many people experience. People say it like it’s a simple task, as if letting go of pain is something you can check off your to-do list. But letting go of a memory, an experience, and most importantly, the feelings tied to them—like guilt, sorrow, despair, and shame—is anything but simple.

How are personal values formed? Discover the joy of a life aligned

  1. Where some are breaking into gleeful song, others become frustrated and doubtful with the process.
  2. But for this to be truly fulfilling, you’ll have to reflect on why helping others is personally important to you — and your reasons for donating to charity will differ from someone else’s.
  3. We can often feel like we are operating on “automatic pilot.”
  4. A sense of purpose leads us to identify certain goals for ourselves which we can strive to achieve.
  5. This post reviews the best insights about how to build a meaningful life.

And while they can eventually be sources of meaning for you, they can’t fulfill that role until you do the Inner Work®. Spending time on activities you love is the crux of a good life. Whether it’s music, rock climbing, or running, making time for your interests helps you find meaning. And, in doing so, you’ll learn to focus on the things that matter most — an important lesson for living a happy and healthy life.

Otherwise, your grudges will tie you to the past like a ball and chain. But hopefully, we can point you in the right direction. Practice bringing full presence and a sense of newness to the unfolding moments in your day, like an actor performing a play for the first time. It’s interesting to see how meaning may more often come from difficulty than ease.

What does it mean to live a meaningful life?

But, even if these resources are helpful, the work doesn’t end there. Someone can suggest what makes life meaningful, but you’ll have to figure out how those lessons fit into your life. Meaning also often comes from experiencing challenges, while happiness does not. Doing things that are hard can often generate a sense of meaning—we feel like we’ve done something important or meaningful. Self-awareness serves as a decisive filter that allows us to make decisions and create meaning with greater ease and confidence. This holds true especially when we frame our meaning with a bigger audience in mind, thereby touching upon something universal – an insight, trait or strategy that speaks to the needs of our global society.