Purpose

Planning

What Drives You?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 10 2024

Understanding what motivates you is one of the most important things you can do to improve your sense of purpose in life. When you have a driving force, you will continue forward no matter what it takes. But how do you know what motivates you? There are a few ways to determine this, but let’s start with what motivation is and what things can...

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The Universe

Does Everything Happen for a Reason?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, January 24 2024

You know the feeling: you were just thinking about a song, and you hear it on the radio. You ask for a sign telling you which path to take, and you see a person with a tattoo saying, "Go for it!" You miss a flight only to find out later that the plane crashed. Why did that

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Life Goals

Something to Live for

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, September 13 2023

One of my favorite psychology studies of all time is the one where they give the test group a plant to take care of in their elderly home and then provide a plant for the control group that is taken care of by a staff member. The results were stark: the group who had the responsibility for taking care of the plant lived much, much longer than the...

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Meaning

You Don’t Have to Save the World

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, July 26 2023

The most common cliché for people graduating from school is that they want to “change the world”. Of course, that is a very subjective statement since you change the world just by existing (because it’s different than if you didn’t exist) and there are plenty of ways to change everything—from the Pet Rock to travel to Mars—that can be seemingly...

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Planning

Writing Your Life Résumé

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, May 10 2023

I've spoken before about how HR departments cracked the meaning of life and success by optimizing professional growth within their organizations. In there, I linked to the life résumé template for folks to create their own. Today, I'd like to talk a little bit about when, how, and why you should create your own "life résumé" to plan your own...

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Meaning

What You Need in a Meaning of Life Book

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, April 12 2023

There are a lot of books out there on the meaning of life and your existence in this universe. Some are focused on the religious or the spiritual, while others are focused on the philosophical or the ethical. Of course, there is only one that I know of that worked back from evolutionary biology and psychology to conclude the human drivers of...

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The Meaning of Life

Where Most "Meaning of Life" and "Life Purpose" Books Might Mislead You

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, January 25 2023

You can't write a book called The Meaning of Life: A guide to finding your life's purpose and not have a strong opinion as to challenges with most philosophy, self-help, and personal growth books. Obviously, there are many, many takes on the question of what the point of it all is, and the overwhelming majority of them are honest and have...

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Growth

New, Better, More

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, August 10 2022

If someone were to ask me what their life mantra should be, I would suggest, “New, Better, More”.  Why?  Because that’s what keeps life interesting, engaging, and meaningful.  Let’s discuss. This blog and the book, The Meaning of Life, talk a lot about growth.  Growth is ultimately the point of life, as all living organisms strive to grow and it ma...

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Meaning

And Then What?

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, August 3 2022

When talking about the meaning of life, you always have to start by defining your terms.  Why?  Because people almost always equivocate when you don’t.  You can look up the definition of life in the dictionary, for example, and no one will claim that that’s what they meant.  In addition to the literal definition of life, other meanings of “the mean...

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Growth

Money Is the Root of All Awesome

Nathanael Garrett Novosel, March 23 2022

"Money is the root of all evil."  Yes, it's a cliché because people will do horrible things over money: lie, cheat, steal, fight, and even kill.  It's also the source of much jealousy in this world: some people have it; some people don't; some people resent that others have more than they do (regardless of how much they have).  But most anger, jeal...

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