Every well-adjusted person wants to be viewed as a good person. “Good” in this case means ethical. Everyone follows rules to live their lives optimally, and ethics are rules to follow when other people are involved to maximize your own growth while minimizing any harm done to anyone else in the process. But is that enough to find meaning and fulfil...
Read MoreAnyone who’s ever taken an introductory Psychology class knows Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. The hierarchy reviews the order of priority of needs for humans’ growth. At the base is biological needs such as food and water. Without having those basic needs met, no organism will be able to survive for long. The second level is safety—again, this is abo...
Read MoreMany people out there will hear that the meaning of life is growth and think, “Well, then, I’ve gotta get to it!” A short time later, you’ve burnt yourself out. Don’t conflate growth and effort; let’s explore. Everyone knows that to accomplish your goals in life, effort is required. Students study, employees and entrepreneurs work, and investors...
Read MoreDo you remember your first steps? (Probably not) Do you remember someone else’s first steps, such as a child’s? In either case, there was a lot of failure involved in the process. Maybe the child wasn’t strong enough yet, or maybe they fell a bunch of times. Maybe they were scared. Yet no one remembers that nor points to their failures while le...
Read MoreIf 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...
Read MoreWhen 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...
Read MoreIn my blog post a few weeks ago, “If You Want to Be Happy, Then You Have to Be Happy”, I spoke about how if you wait for things to be better before you’re happy, then you are making yourself miserable now for a future that either will come (and you’ll have been miserable for no reason up until then) or will never come (and you’ll always be miserabl...
Read MoreAs discussed in The Meaning of Life: A guide to finding your life’s purpose, growth underlies humans’ sense of meaning and purpose in their lives. Whether it’s helping others grow, growing themselves, or developing relationships through fun and excitement, growth is key to meaning.
Read MoreEveryone knows that people love a good story. It helps them learn, remember things, and stay engaged in a presentation or conversation. But why is it such a more impactful way to convey information than simply stating facts, such as “2+2=4”? Because the story is a journey, and effective engagement, influence, and relationship-building follows th...
Read More"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...
Read More