Sometimes I think the things I talk about are just too simple and obvious, because these are very basic things.
I mean, what is meaningful life? I mean, it really can be very simple.
There’s no kind of complicated answer to it.
And I was asked the question: what does meaningful life even mean? What does it mean to have a meaningful life? And you’d think that since that’s in the name of my channel, that I would have a clear answer to it, but no, I don’t have a clear definition of what is the meaning of meaning.
I mean, it seems like this is something that, if you can define it, that really is being most of the way there to actually having it.
What is the meaning of life? Something that gives you something to believe in even when times are difficult.
Something that can tie the day to day moments of life into something bigger, something that you can connect your whole life to and feel like this makes it worth it.
And really, it doesn’t need to be anything grand or special, complicated in any way.
If you simply enjoy life, I mean, for many people, simply enjoying life is the answer to what is the meaning of life: to enjoy life.
And I think that there’s a lot of truth to this.
We simply need to enjoy these moments that we have, and not always be looking to change things, not always be looking to make something else out of it.
To simply be able to enjoy the simple moments of life is a big part of it.
But when we’re not feeling good, when we’re not enjoying the little moments of life, when the little moments are painful even, that’s when it becomes valuable to have something bigger to connect to, something that lets us say that OK, I’m dealing with all this difficulty, all this pain and suffering, I’m dealing with it, but it’s not meaningless.
It’s connected to something that has value.
So that even though I’m not enjoying the moment, I can have the strength to carry on through it, knowing that it will lead to something good.
And that’s something that’s a little bit trickier, beyond simply enjoying the moment.
Now, many people believe that life is essentially meaningless, and that looking for meaning is just simply kind of a desperate attempt to feel better.
Wanting to believe, wanting something to be there, when in fact there is nothing there.
And I would say in that case, if you really believe that there is no meaning fundamentally in life, then it’s up to you to create something that you care about enough to make it your meaning.
So that even if you believe OK, there is no inherent meaning, it’s all random, it’s all just meaningless life and matter and physics, you know, moving around, still you have the ability to create something that is meaningful for you, something that matters to you, something to think about when you’re having a bad day.
What is it that helps you through it? It doesn’t have to be something that is transcendent that you believe in.
It can be something that you make up, if that works for you.
So it seems like whichever way you go with this, there’s gonna be a different answer for everybody of what does it mean to have a meaningful life.
It’s either you can be connecting to something that’s already there, connecting to something that you perceive the universe is about and something that’s going on, you feel there’s something going on and you plug into it, you connect with it.
Or if you don’t feel there’s anything special going on, and it is just random meaninglessness, then it’s up to you to create it yourself.
So it’s some combination of creating meaning and discovering meaning that’s already there.
Creating something new, finding what’s out there, and blending it together into something that fits for you.
So this is a very generic answer to this idea, because I think that there’s so much range of what this can possibly mean, and it’s got to be different for different people.
But I would like to hear some ideas of what does it mean to you? What does meaning mean to you? Is this something that you have found, or is it something that you’ve created?
#meaningfullife #findmeaning #createmeaning