Realising Your Meaning

At some stage of our time on earth, we might wonder what is the meaning of our lives.

If you have ever had this thought – then take comfort that you are not alone. There is ample anecdotal evidence that people are looking for ways to live a more meaningful life.

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Living a meaningful life – and deciding what is meaningful – is an age-old question (e.g., Marcus Aurelius wrestled with this question when he was Emperor of Rome from 161 to 180 AD).

If you are reading this article, then living a meaningful life must be of interest to you. However, you could be wondering what do we mean by ‘meaningful’, and whether there are any benefits to striving towards such a way of living? And are there any practical suggestions for how to achieve a meaningful life?

The Big Questions: How to Find Meaning in Life

The question of finding meaning in life has its roots in two fields, philosophy and psychology.

The philosophical question of ‘finding meaning in life’ is aimed at understanding the meaning of life, in general, and our role in that meaning – the philosophical slant on this question is not relevant to this discussion. As psychologists, we can’t contribute to this answer.

However, the second variation of this question – how we find meaning in life – is a psychological question and one of more interest to us. It is this question that we are interested in!

A Psychological Take

At some stage in our lives, we will be confronted with a variation of the following questions:

Why am I doing this?
Do I want to do this?
What do I want to do?

These questions are also repackaged by popular psychology and leadership self-help books, such as ‘Find your why’ (Sinek, Mead, & Docker, 2017), or ‘Find your passion’ (e.g., Gaisford, 2017).

Observant readers might comment that these are questions typically asked about our vocations or professional activities – this is true. However, there is no reason why people who are unemployed or employed part-time, would not also ask questions such as these, or seek a meaningful life. These questions are easily repurposed for other spheres of our lives.

Before we can answer the question of how to find meaning, we first need to consider what is meant by meaning. For these answers, we turn to research from psychology.

Psychological researchers conduct research and measure psychological concepts, for example, happiness, depression, and intelligence. However, constructs first need to be defined before they can be measured.

Although the construct ‘meaningfulness’ is often confounded with the constructs such as purpose, coherence, and happiness, some researchers argue that these constructs are not interchangeable, but instead form a complex relationship and exist separately.

For example, Steger, Frazier, Oishi & Kaler (2006) posit that meaning consists of two separate dimensions: coherence and purpose. Coherence refers to how we understand our life, whereas purpose relates to the goals that we have for our life.

Reker and Wong (1988) argue that meaningfulness is better explained and understood using a three-dimensional model consisting of coherence, purpose, and a third construct – significance. Significance refers to the sense that our life is worth living, and that life has inherent value. Together, these three constructs contribute to a sense of meaningfulness.

In some research, coherence, purpose, and significance have been reframed as motivational and cognitive processes. Specifically, Heintzelman and King (2014) suggest a model with three components: (a) goal direction, (b) mattering, and (c) one’s life making sense.

The first two components – goal direction and mattering – are both motivational components and are synonymous with purpose and significance respectively, whereas the third component – one’s life making sense – is a cognitive component, which is akin to significance.

Together, these three components – coherence, purpose, and significance – result in feelings of meaningfulness. Knowing that meaningfulness is derived from three distinct fields, let’s look at ways in which we can find our meaning.