The Art of Living a Meaningful Life

Over the years, I’ve known many people who were frustrated by life.  Now, none of those people had objectively bad lives.  They had nice careers.  They lived in lovely homes and had pleasant friends and families.  So, their circumstances weren’t the cause of their frustration.  Rather, their frustration stemmed from one issue: They hadn’t yet figured out how to live a meaningful life.

The problem is that people who are frustrated by life often look for answers in the wrong places.  They think, “Well, if my life looked like a sitcom on television, then I’d be happy.”  Or, they think, “If I was married to someone more glamorous, or if I had a more interesting job, then I’d be happy.”  So, they seek all of those things.  And when none of those things make them happy as expected, they find themselves further frustrated.

The reality is that the only way to stop being frustrated by life is to master the art of living a meaningful life. 

If you are seeking to master the art of living a meaningful life, consider the approaches below.  Adopt these approaches, and get yourself on the path to a much happier and more meaningful existence.

Become A Helpful Person

Admittedly, you can go through life being unhelpful.  Frankly, there are lots of folks who sit back while others do all the work.  That happens in homes, and it happens in the workplace.  And if you choose to be unhelpful, not much will happen… except your life won’t be as meaningful as it could be.

Realize that serving and helping others is what gives meaning to our lives.  We know this to be true because helping others is energizing!  For example, if you spend your day helping another human being or caring for an animal, by the end of the day, you’ll feel very good.  By contrast, if you spend the day having others wait on you, you’ll feel blah.

The problem is that we have this misguided idea that the key to happiness is to have other people make our beds, cook our food and chauffeur us around.  That’s the lifestyle of the rich.  But you just have to look at the news to see how miserable the ultra-rich are.  Their lives are hollow because they don’t spend their time helping others.  Instead, they spend their days being helped and served.

So, Step One to having a meaningful life is to become a helpful person.  Help others at every opportunity.  Help around the house and in your workplace.  Be the kind of person who steps up to the plate to serve, rather than the person who sits on the couch waiting to be served.

Become A Creator

As a society, we’ve misguidedly labeled certain people as “creative,” and others as simply “not creative.”  But realize that every single person has the ability to create and therefore has the ability to be creative. 

To create is simply to make something where there was nothing.  So, as I write this blog post, I’m creating words where there once was a blank page.  When I play the piano, I’m creating sound where there once was silence. 

The challenge for each one of us is to figure out where our natural creative abilities lie.  For instance, I’m suited to express myself creatively through writing.  The written word is where my creative abilities lie.  By contrast, try as I might, I cannot use my hands to create!  Knitting, drawing, painting – those are all creative activities that elude me.  I can do them at only the most remedial level. 

By contrast, my daughter is quite gifted in creating with her hands.  Specifically, she is gifted at drawing.  As my husband often notes, “She can have an image in her head, and that image will flow out of her hand and onto the paper.”  My daughter is just naturally good at drawing.

Realize that as human beings, we’re meant to create.  Creating brings us satisfaction.  Even something as mundane as cooking dinner from scratch brings immense satisfaction when it’s done with thoughtfulness and creativity. 

And when we create something beautiful, whether it’s a painting, a garden or a pie, we’ve done something to make the world just a little bit nicer.  And that not only give our lives meaning, but it just feels wonderful.

Become a Life-Long Learner

Learning doesn’t just stop when our formal education ends.  To the contrary.  When our formal education ends is when the real learning begins!  That’s when you have the ability to choose your intellectual pursuits.  And to be a life-long learner means to engage in intellectual pursuits until your dying breath. 

Realize that learning is what makes life both meaningful and interesting.  Now, I happen to take a Renaissance approach to learning.  I love learnings about lots of different things.  So, at the moment, I’m studying languages, history and piano.  I find that developing my knowledge and skills in several different areas makes my life so much richer.

Now, my intention in these intellectual pursuits is not to become a professional foreign language interpreter, historian or pianist.  Rather, I learn simply for the joy of learning. 

We each need those kinds of intellectual pursuits in our lives.  We all need to have interests with no end goal other than to enjoy learning.

So, don’t just go to work, come home, turn on the television and go to sleep.  You deserve a richer life than that!  Develop your interests. Study a subject that appeals to you. Develop a new skill. Create a truly meaningful life by becoming a life-long learner.

Become a Thinker

I know people who go through life in a very simplistic manner.  They don’t give much thought to personal ethics or justice, or to the lot of the other human beings and animals who populate our earth.  And I suppose that’s fine.  But having a shallow existence doesn’t make for a meaningful life.

To have a meaningful life, you need to become a thinker.  You need to grapple with what you think is right versus wrong.  More importantly, you need to be the kind of person who isn’t just evaluating the behavior of other people.  Rather, to be a true thinker, you also need to take a hard look at yourself.

Being a thinker means taking a critical eye to your own ways of looking at the world.  For instance, we all have blind spots in our thinking.  We all carry prejudices and inaccurate ideas about ourselves and others.  And when you’re a thinker, you question those ideas.

When you start questioning yourself, your own actions and motives, that’s when you become a more sophisticated human being.  And that’s when life starts to become very meaningful.  Because as you question yourself, you become a deeper type of person.

Life becomes more meaningful when we ask the question “Why?”  “Why did I do that?” “Why did I say that?” “What was the cause of my reaction?”

And we should be asking “Why?” not just at a personal level, but at a societal level.  For instance, I often ask myself, “Why are wars and conflicts necessary?”  And after a lot of thought about the matter, my answer is, “They aren’t necessary.  Ever.” 

So, become a thinker.  Ask yourself the hard questions.  Don’t go life blithely along through life, accepting things as they are.  Question them.  If you do so, life will become far richer and more meaningful.

If you are seeking to have a more meaningful life, consider adopting the approaches above. By doing so, you’ll develop a life that is very more meaningful and interesting than you could have ever imagined. (To read more about how to craft a meaningful life from where you are today, click here.)