What Makes Things Meaningful in Life
Do you like for experiences in life to have meaning?
What makes an event or experience meaningful?
It’s tempting to say it’s difficult to define. The dictionary defines meaningful as “Having meaning, function, or purpose” and meaning as “significant quality, especially: implication of a hidden or special significance.”
Those definitions seem vague to me. They just substitute the word quality for meaning. They don’t suggest how to make something more meaningful.
I’ve been using a definition that works for me since I wrote Leadership Step by Step based on the model of emotions in it. The model says that emotions have qualities like intensity and pleasure. If I haven’t seen a girlfriend in months, the emotion of missing her may be intense. If I haven’t seen a casual acquaintance for a couple days, the emotion will be more subtle, less intense.
One emotional property is duration, over what time frame it matters. If I buy an apple from a vendor I likely won’t see again, whatever emotions I feel are likely to be of short duration. If I invest a lot of money in a company, the emotions I feel will be of longer duration.
My working definition for meaning in life is how much the relevant emotions are long-term. If you want more meaning in your life, focus on more activities and relationships of longer duration, like hobbies, life passions, relationships with people you’ll collaborate with for longer times, and so on.
If you feel your life lacks meaning, what activities and relationships are enduring? Are there fewer than you’d like?
Could you increase the number of long-term ones, drop short-term ones, and make existing ones you can’t drop more long-term? If so, I predict you’ll find your life more meaningful.
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