Do you want a happy life or a meaningful life? Well, this question poses a false dichotomy. You can’t have a happy life without living a meaningful life. Meaning is a vital component of happiness. A life devoid of meaning would be devoid of happiness. So many people, sadly, pursue happiness without knowing how to, or that they even should, pursue meaning.
How do they miss building meaning in their search for happiness? They don’t understand happiness. Happiness, the way it’s generally pursued in our culture, is a mostly self-focussed act. We chase the positive emotions associated with happiness but not the undergirding characteristics and activities that lead to lasting happiness.
For instance, if you adopt an entitlement mentality, the idea you deserve happiness simply by being you, you’ll probably miss the emphasis on building meaning and you’ll miss happiness.
If you lead a self-centered life, a life that’s all about you, where you believe others and human institutions exist primarily to fulfill your needs and wants, if you always put yourself first, then you’ll miss meaning and you’ll mis-pursue happiness.
If you conceptualize yourself primarily as a consumer, looking for happiness in material objects, you’ll miss happiness.
If you think life is about building wealth and fame, you’ll almost guarantee you’ll miss happiness.
So, there are many ways to get off track. The lack of building meaning is one of the primary obstacles to happiness that exists in Western societies today.
So, let’s talk about meaning. What is “meaning” and why is it important for a flourishing life?
Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is a good lens through which to examine meaning. High school Psychology classes cover this. Certainly intro Psychology classes in college encourage students to learn the different levels of Maslow’s Hierarchy.
Maslow introduced the concept in a paper published in 1943, titled, “A Theory of Human Motivation.” That’s what it is, a theory.
Maslow was thinking through motivations. Persons who don’t have basic needs met will be motivated differently than those who have all their fundamental needs fulfilled. If you don’t secure shelter and food, you’ll not function like someone who has shelter and food. That person can and will focus on other, “higher” needs.
Through his observations Maslow posited five levels of needs that exist in a hierarchy. You have to meet the lower level needs before your mind can focus on meeting higher needs.
From lowest to highest, these human needs are:
Physiological Needs – food, water, air, etc.
Safety – shelter, job, basic financial security
Social Needs – friendships, romantic attachment, family, various groups
Esteem Needs – need for appreciation and respect
Self-Actualization Needs – achievement of full potential, using talents and capabilities to produce self-fulfillment.
Later, in life, however, Maslow modified his theory and added a sixth, higher, peak level of human need: the need for self-transcendence. This has to do with meaning, the need to connect to something beyond the self and help others find fulfillment in living. Self-transcendence means moving outside of and beyond your self to contribute to the good of others.
Through the years, Maslow’s theory been thoroughly debated in the Psychology community, I would add in Philosophy and Religion, also. When you examine Maslow’s methodology, you begin to see that his is more of a philosophical theory than a scientific one. The point is that this was highly influential in how people generally think about their own needs. The highest need according to the most widely spread and most influential version of Maslow’s Hierarchy is self-actualization. Most people, even psychologists, didn’t get the memo about self-transcendence and meaning. Even the way it’s taught today often leaves off this most important discussion of meaning.
Meaning is a vital aspect of happiness. Martin Seligman, some refer to him as the father of Positive Psychology, has evolved his conceptualization of happiness and meaning. In one of his later books, Flourish, he discusses meaning in detail. As a matter of fact, he includes meaning as one of his five major components of a flourishing or happy life.
Seligman defines meaning as, “belonging to and serving something that you believe is bigger than self” (Flourish). Meaning is an important part of the happiness equation and meaning cannot be pursued through merely self-focused methods and ways of being.
Viktor Frankl, an Austrian Neurologist and Psychiatrist, was born in 1905. Because he was Jewish, he and his family were rounded up and committed to Nazi concentration camps. His wife, father, mother, and brother all died. He survived the war and liberation, having spent a total of three years in four different camps.
While imprisoned, he made keen observations about human nature, both human cruelty and human resilience. When he was liberated, he returned to Austria where he wrote one of the top most influential books ever written, Man’s Search for Meaning.
The original title of the book in German is translated, Nevertheless, Saying ‘Yes’ to Life. The book was not only about meaning, but about finding hope in meaning.
Frankl observed that those prisoners of the concentration camps who could imagine, could visualize themselves pursuing meaning and purpose following this horrendously dehumanizing experience of living in a Nazi concentration camp were more likely to survive. So, for Frankl, meaning and hope go together. Being able to see past the circumstances of the present, and know that your life was going to matter on the other side, was a vital to survival. Those who gave up hope for meaning gave up their will to live.
Frankl wrote: “There is nothing in the world that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions, as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life... quoting Nietzsche ‘He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.’” – Man’s Search for Meaning.
Why? Why am I here? Why does my life matter? What is the meaning of my existence? These are big questions that need to be answered for us to know lasting happiness and experience flourishing lives.
Do you want a meaningful or happy life? Yes. You need both.
Everyone wants to be happy. Happiness without building meaning is impossible. You only build meaning when you see yourself making a contribution outside your self, when you make an impact on something bigger, something deeper, something that will be a blessing to others.
If you ask me, the greatest meaning in life, is living for our Creator God, the God who said to Abraham, I’m going to bless you and all the peoples of the earth will be blessed through you. That is the very definition of meaning, to be blessed by God so God can bless others in and through your life.
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The Video Version of this Post is Here.
Books mentioned (affiliate links):
Martin Seligman, "Flourish" https://amzn.to/3juhYJV
Viktor Frankl, "Man's Search for Meaning" https://amzn.to/3fDbxmB
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