The Meaning of Life

What a profound subject to kick off the new year with, you may be thinking!

Well, I’m never one to turn down the prospect of an expanded readership, and if the title of the Blog Post can help achieve that without totally misleading the audience, then \”Why not,\” I say?

If you were looking forward to a straightforward answer to the age old question: “What is the meaning of life?” I may disappoint you. I have some ideas on that topic, of course, but there are others out there more eminently qualified to do that justice!

What I want to focus on today is how events and situations affect our lives based on the meaning we attach to them. Perhaps not as profound-sounding as the title implies, but nevertheless incredibly important in determining how we feel about ourselves and about life!

[box type=\”shadow\”]“Life has no meaning.
Each of us has meaning and we bring it to life.
It is a waste to be asking the question when YOU are the answer.”

– Joseph Campbell[/box]
 

 

The meaning of life (continued)

 

Attaching meaning

Each of us (often subconsciously) attaches a meaning to every situation that we find ourselves in and every event that happens to us. With that meaning comes emotions and feelings.

Let me offer a simple example that most can probably relate to:

Let’s say you arrange an important meeting with a person who you don’t know very well. You make sure that you arrive at the agreed venue in good time and wait for the person to join you.

It gets to fifteen minutes after the scheduled meeting time and the other person has still not arrived. You naturally start to assign a meaning to this situation.

Knowing yourself the way you do, which of the following types of of question would most likely be entering your head at this point:

“This person doesn’t care.”
“This person is rather rude.”
“This person clearly has little respect for me.”

OR …

“Perhaps something has happened to this person. I do hope he/she is OK.”
“He/she is probably stuck in traffic.”
“I just hope he/she won’t feel embarrassed about being a bit late.”

Meaning and emotions

The types of question you ask yourself are indicators of the meaning that you have chosen to assign to the event.

If you’re more inclined towards the first line of thinking, where the meaning has everything to do with how you believe the other person feels towards you (very ego based) then you’ll agree that the situation is likely to make you feel one or more of angry, hurt, resentful or bad (what we call ‘fear’-based emotions).

On the other hand, if you’re more inclined towards the latter interpretation, where the meaning you assign has to do with how you care about the other person, then you’ll likely feel one or more of understanding, empathy, connectedness or good (‘love’-based emotions).

Similar situations = similar meaning = similar emotions

Many people are inclined to infer, from a situation that doesn’t go to plan, that someone or something has been bad to them or has hurt them. When people perceive that a situation has hurt them, feelings of fear often arise. Then, when similar situations arise in the future, that fear comes rushing back!

Perhaps you can relate to this when you think back to certain events or situations in your life to which you chose to assign a negative meaning and which have set the tone for similar situations since then?

Life changing

If so, here’s an important concept that, when understood and applied, can literally change your life:

Any situation or event is just that … a situation or event. Inherently it carries no meaning, either good or bad, negative or positive, empowering or disempowering.

Any meaning that it has for you is the meaning that you have chosen to assign to it!

And, of course, it is the meaning that you attach to a situation that triggers the emotions that make you feel either good or bad, empowered or disempowered, happy or sad, fearful or loving, etc.

Take control

By becoming aware of how you are directly responsible for the way you feel in any situation you can begin to take control of this and dramatically improve your life.

You can consciously start to attach better meanings to situations and events that you would instinctively attach negative meanings to, by asking yourself a simple question like this:

\”What else could this mean?\” …

… and then by coming up with other, more love-based possibilities.

Man’s search for meaning

Victor Frankl, in his stellar book, Man’s Search for Meaning, spoke of the time he spent in a Nazi concentration camp. For eight years he was fed just bread and water and he was beaten or maltreated virtually every single day.

What would that mean to you?

To most of the inmates at the camp, it meant that life was not worth living and, as a result, they died within a short period.

To Frankl it meant that he had to survive to tell the story so that no one else would ever have to undergo this in the future.

He says now that it was the most powerful experience he has ever had.

A life coaching tool

It’s been my pleasure today to introduce you to another simple yet powerful life coaching tool that, if you let it, can have a profoundly positive impact on your life.

Don’t forget …

Nothing has any meaning other than the meaning you choose to give it.

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This is the official Blog for New Insights Life Coach Training.

Find out more about life coaching and becoming a life coach here:

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