Define the Meaning of Your Life &
The Strategy to Achieve It
We have struggled and loved, been cared for and parented, solved problems and anxiously awaited results, valiantly expended energy against disorder, planned, failed, succeeded, lathered, rinsed, and repeated. We are sure that at times, in our best moments, our efforts have not gone unnoticed and that they damn well meant something. We burden our poets, snuggle our children and smell their hair, and meditate in solitude to examine our life quest, whose object—as corny as it may seem—is the meaning of life.
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I believe there is meaning in the multiverse for us!
A quest for personal meaning is a heroic one.
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First there is a separation from the ordinary life where you think (incorrectly) that there is nothing special about you,
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Next, there are trials of initiation, starting with your planning, ending at a final trial against "The Big Boss" (who can be a person, a task, or even your "self"), and
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Finally, a return and service, sharing the meaning you attained with others.
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Meaning is found most profoundly in:
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Flowing with Existence or
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Being Mindful of Experience
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States of flow or mindful experience can be had whether there is all-natural universal meaning (like I suggest in my book "Meaning in the Multiverse") or if meaning is purely personal. However, there are a few additional types of meanings to consider
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Meaning is a sparkler, a constant source of energy from our truest nature. We must put it over kindling--our strategy--if it is to sustain us.
Having a plan to achieve your life's meaning and share it with others will ensure that your life is purpose driven. A set of life strategies and long-term goals is the best way to set yourself on a path of meaning.
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In business, strategies are targeting toward the future and against the competition. Life strategies are directed to the future but the competition is a life lived without purpose--not paying attention to how we want our life to go.
We won't always accomplish everything we set out to do, but a life driven by purpose is part of making our life meaningful. Most of the meaning will be in the journey, not in attaining your goal.
Strategies often break up our life into important components:
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Creativity
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Relationships
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Wealth Building
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Service
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Intellectualism
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Spirituality
In the modern world of relative abundance, we search for the apex of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we search for meaning. We understand our better selves are inside us and we turn to church, friends, or the self-help section to understand the habits that will draw that awesome-us out for her cotillion.
We know the path of least resistance is no way to find ourselves; the easy path is a tar pit of life, where the fossilized remains of the selfish and unexamined lives lie bleached and exposed. We learn from our mistakes. Our path to meaning is a twisted maze full of iteration, edits, and reboots.
In most instances, we can’t just treat the symptom, we must go to the cause, change our diet to enable our five-hour energy, smile and laugh to be loved, and question our beliefs to grow.
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To deal with life means to abandon one's self to chaos but to retain a belief in meaning. It is a very serious task.
- Hermann Hesse
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