Part 1- There's More to Life Than Being Happy

In today’s fast paced world, people seek instant gratification and happiness constantly. But what if I told you that people who spend their lives searching solely for happiness end up the least content when all is said and done? Well one author asserts just that. Through his profound life experiences, he submits the notion of a more satisfying drive in life; discovering true self-purpose.

I recently read an online article by Emily Smith that resonated with me (I urge you to go read it now). In the article, “There’s More to Life Than Being Happy,” Smith writes, “…[Victor] Frankl concluded that the difference between those who had lived and those who had died came down to one thing: Meaning…As he saw in the [Nazi concentration] camps, those who found meaning even in the most horrendous circumstances were far more resilient to suffering than those who did not. ‘Everything can be taken from a man but one thing,’ Frankl wrote in Man's Search for Meaning, ‘the last of the human freedoms -- to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.’" Based on Frankl’s book, the article goes on to juxtapose finding happiness vs. finding meaning in life, “Leading a happy life, the psychologists found, is associated with being a "taker" while leading a meaningful life corresponds with being a "giver."”

It’s the above subject matter that has been vexing me for some time now. To be truly balanced, I believe life needs a certain equilibrium of both happiness and meaning. The happiness half seems to come relatively easily. Humans are naturally hedonistic I feel, so satisfying those little cravings and wants comes readily. But what about the meaning of life? What is my purpose in this tiny fraction of the space and time continuum my being currently encompasses? Well, due to personal circumstances in recent months, I have been doing a lot of self-reflection lately. Having lost certain aspects of my future, I also felt like I had lost much of the meaning in my life. Despite constantly filling my happiness meter, underneath it all I still felt an empty hole; a feeling of dissatisfaction and incompleteness. I’ve been trying to discover a way to fill that void; I’ve been trying to find a true purpose to my life.

Oddly enough, it took me until now, yes, now as in right now as I type this post, to figure out that I’ve had a purpose all along; I’ve just been thinking about things all wrong. The past few weeks I’ve been searching for some ‘grand’ purpose for myself, thinking that I’m destined to discover the cure to cancer or something. But that was my problem…my purpose in life doesn’t have to be that grandiose to have meaning, it can be much simpler than that and still bring me fulfillment and satisfaction. I’ve now come to realize that my meaning in life is twofold: 1. Spreading happiness and 2. Imparting the knowledge I have unto others. While neither of those things are necessarily eloquent or profound, together they are enough to provide a higher purpose and reason for my being; and they’ve been staring me in the face all along. What makes these two items truly meaningful though is that I am incomplete control of them; no one can take them away from me.

Please check back Sunday for Part 2- The Journey to Discovering My Purpose
And next week for Part 3- Why Your Company Needs to Have a Purpose

photo credit: Michal Osmenda via photopin cc      photo credit: the bbp via photopin cc