Have you found meaning in life?

What is more important to have more stuff or a meaningful life?

The latter we have the wisdom, knowledge, and understanding. Former we have the hustle, grind, and tenacity.

I bet you are thinking the latter makes sense, and it does you aren't wrong there. So let's examine how do you get to the latter.

How do we find meaning in life? Where does it come from? Why haven't we all found it? and who defines what meaning is?

For short answers: Having a purpose; Comes from within; We don't care to look for it; No one defines it for us but us.

Let's elaborate, I will still keep it short I promise.

Having a purpose

If you have never read the book by Viktor Frankil I highly recommend you do. Men's Search For Meaning, outlines one basic principle, Purpose. We can all ask ourselves how does a man imprisoned in a concentration camp during world war 2 find purpose and the meaning of life.

"It did not really matter what we excepted from life, but what life expected from us" Don't go searching for the meaning of life, instead take responsibility for the life you have and give your actions a purpose.

We all have a meaning under all circumstances, and we all have the freedom to choose to see that meaning.

Viktor suggest we have three ways to find this meaning that already exists. By creating work or doing a deed, experiencing something or encountering someone, or by the attitude we take toward unavoidable suffering.

Look around you right now and ask yourself, "am I doing something that is for a greater purpose than my selfish reasoning?".

Comes from within

The choice is ours. Even if it comes from an external source we are still the ones who decide to give our life meaning.

We don't care to look for it

We get easily distracted, even more so now than ever before. Do you chase the shiny objects? I am sometimes guilty of this myself. An article in Medical Daily suggests with studies conducted that our attention span has gone from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, in the last decade alone, due to digital disruption.

How can we possibly find meaning or purpose in what we do when we are too busy checking what our friend's are doing on Facebook or Snapchat.

I am here to tell you that we can find it, not if but, when we look hard enough and put aside all the distractions.

Answering the question "Why?" can better help us understand the purpose to what we are doing or wanting to do. Ask "Why" more than once.

No one defines it for us but us

No one dreams for us, no one loves for us, no one is sad for us. So how could anyone define what our purpose is?

Okay so now we got that out of the way, let's ask ourselves this, does a person with less stuff have a more meaningful life?

How would you answer that question? (Email me) I think if a person has less stuff and is content, or happy, than I would say yes. However it doesn't take stuff to give you meaning or purpose.

"Neither money or power will give you the feeling you are looking for no matter how much or how little you have of them." Morrie Shwartz

So what if you could have both? More stuff and a meaningful life.

I believe once you have found your purpose or calling nothing else matters.

This post has come at a good point in my life because I struggle with this, more so lately. What really helps is the education and wealth of knowledge of better understanding this subject. Even writing these words has helped me reflect further into my own purpose.

To be truly honest with you I was after the fame and glory most of my life, I didn't care if life had meaning or not.

What became a tipping point for me to understand my purpose? An incident occurred 7 years ago at my 9-5 job at which point I had to reevaluate what I was going to continue to do. Risk my life for someone else, or risk failing by taking an opportunity at which I can be my own boss.

Now more than ever I believe I am doing the right things with the right people. To be less vague, I believe that the companies I have founded are my tools and education that I need to push myself into the next stage in business.

Also  in my personal life as well I am forced to look at how the present is unfolding and I am coming to a fork in the road where I need to make a choice.

The choice is always ours. If you don't understand, the best thing to do is to learn, and keep learning, and keep learning, and than teach.

Thank you for taking the time to read this post. To be continued....

You can also find this article on the Karasingroup.com.

References from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logotherapy, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man%27s_Search_for_Meaning
Image by huffingtonpost.com