What Gives You Meaning & Purpose In Life?
Or what do you give meaning and purpose to in life?
I always thought to have meaning and purpose in life is to do work that makes us feel fulfilled. I think most of us think it’s associated with the work we do. But, meaning and purpose doesn’t necessarily stem from what we do, but rather from within.
When we ask ourselves “What gives me meaning and purpose in life?”, we answer by saying something along the lines of, “My job as a blank gives me meaning and purpose.” To answer that question, we examine what we do, typically whatever it is that brings us even the slightest sense of fulfillment and specify it as what gives us a meaning and purpose in our lives.
Yet, it’s not so much what we do that gives us meaning and purpose in life, but we, from within, give meaning and purpose to what we do in life.
We literally hold the power to give any single thing in our life meaning and purpose.
Rather than looking for what can give us meaning and purpose, we can give meaning and purpose to whatever it is.
For example, as I’ve mentioned in a previous newsletter, I work as a full-time administrative assistant to have a stable source of income, but I would love to be a full-time writer. Knowing that information, one might think that I dislike working as an administrative assistant because I would love to work as a full-time writer. It doesn’t give me meaning and purpose, but I give it meaning and purpose. I approach my job with pure love and good intentions, and it sparks the joy and peace within me. I do the same for writing, even though it’s work that doesn’t provide me with a stable source of income, I still give it meaning and purpose.
Most of us think that only one thing in life gives us meaning and purpose, often work, but you can give meaning and purpose to multiple things or everything.
The disconnect between something giving us meaning and purpose and us giving it meaning and purpose occurs because we seek for our work to provide us with a sense of satisfaction, contentment, and fulfilling outcomes, which only feeds an active ego’s never-ending cravings.
In a relentless cycle, we attach strings to and hold expectations over anything we do, which sets ourselves up for stress and misery when it’s not met. Thus, we think that it’s not giving us meaning and purpose in life, so we live in pain and suffering.
The feeling of joy, fulfillment, and peace comes from within. It's the way we approach something with no expectations and pure love that ignites those feelings.
You can work as a full-time administrative assistant that provides you with an income and work as a writer that doesn’t provide you with an income and give both meaning and purpose by showing up and putting in the work with pure love and good intentions.
And this isn’t limited to work because when you give meaning and purpose to anything, it’ll always be fulfilling.
With Love,
Jasmine