How do we give Meaning or Purpose to our lives?
Humans tend to experience growth in multiple dimensions including, physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual spectrums. All these growth dimensions need nourishment. Our body thrives on food, our mind grows on thoughts, our heart sustains with compassion, and our spirit seeks meaning.
We, in our own unique ways, give meaning or purpose to our lives. Typically, we give meaning to our lives by equating the purpose of our existence to any one or more 4Cs - Challenge, Connection, Creativity, or Contribution.
Challenge
We can give purpose or meaning to our life by setting the achievement of the next challenge as our goal. These challenges can be determined by our external environment or can be determined by us intrinsically. They can be defined in terms of any of the growth dimensions we decide to grow in. It can be a challenge to stretch physically, to learn a new skill professionally (expanding intellectually), to evolve as a person (growing emotionally or socially), to grow as a being (evolving spiritually).
Connection
We can define the meaning or purpose of our lives in terms of maintaining/taking care of our connections. These connections can take shape of our family, friends, or anyone we feel connected with. The definition of connection also includes the connection we form with ourselves. For some people, a deeper connection with themselves gives meaning to their life.
Creativity
Most creative individuals give meaning to their lives by expressing themselves by way of their creations. For some people, an activity gives meaning to their life as it provides them a platform for self-expression and allows them to experience their peak moments or ‘flow’. This activity or creative expression need not take a conventional form. It can very well take the shape of a written piece, an art form, a venture, or an activity such as metalwork or carpentry. More than the activity it is about the passion/liveliness the activity brings in a person.
Contribution
Several people derive meaning in their life by contributing or adding value to something that exists beyond themselves. It can be a contribution to society or towards the environment. Such people derive tremendous satisfaction from their altruistic acts i.e. by doing the morally right things for others. The act of contribution makes them believe that they have the ability to positively impact systems that exist beyond them and hence makes them feel good about themselves.
Different people might derive a different magnitude of meaning from each of these 4Cs. Though, at some point in life, some of us might lose meaningfulness in life. This primarily happens when the Challenges we achieve are set by the external environment, or the Connections that we form lack the required depth. At times, we might feel disassociated in life if we are not highly connected to ourselves.
Lack of Creativity (self-expression) or Contribution can also lead to a lack of meaning in one’s life. More often than not, Creativity & Contribution gain deeper meaning as one progresses on this path. The reason behind this is that both these acts are highly intrinsically driven. Our creative expression helps us to know more about ourselves and be more of ourselves. Contribution gives us a feeling of oneness with anything we contribute to. It gives a feeling of vastness and connection beyond ourselves. Not undertaking enough creative or contributing acts might make us feel disassociated with life hence reducing meaning in life.
To summarize, to maintain a meaningful life one should
- Challenge - One should constantly challenge oneself. Make sure that these Challenges or goals are intrinsically driven.
- Connect - Form deeper connections. Form a deeper connection with others as well as oneself.
- Create - Identify your mode of creative expression and practice it regularly. It can be any activity that helps you provide a medium of self-expression, something that you feel deeply connected to.
- Contribute - The contribution need not necessarily take a shape of financial help. You can give someone your time, emotional support, or physical help. Contribution can be made towards society or the environment.
