“I was supposed to have a spouse and kids by now.” “One of my classmates from high school is now a CEO.” “I’m so far behind in my retirement savings.” People naturally compare their life progress to others, and they start to wonder what they need to do to “catch up” to others when they fall behind.
Read MoreMistakes People Make in Their Search for Meaning When people are looking for their meaning in life, they will have trouble finding it if they make erroneous assumptions about how life works or what they’re supposed to do with the one that they’ve been given. Unfortunately, such fundamental assumptions are held sometimes without people having thoug...
Read MoreEveryone dreams of getting recognized for what they’ve done or the kind of person they are. Many people throughout history inspire people today for all that they’ve done for humanity. However, there is one depressing reality about many of those people who are revered for their accomplishments: so many of them never achieved even remotely the leve...
Read MoreAt some point, all living things die. Why does it have to be that way? Well, it depends on whether you’re asking that question scientifically or metaphysically. Let's take a look at why lifespans are limited from a scientific perspective and then derive some positive meanings that one could find in that fact from a "meaning of life, the universe...
Read MorePeople recommend that you should always be honest with and true to yourself. When referring to being the person you want to be and doing what you want to do with your life, this is important advice. However, there is a hidden interpretation that many people make from this that "honest" means being "real"--i.e., being realistic. Hence, the idea o...
Read MoreThe Meaning of Life Blog has a clear mission: To help individuals understand the primary drivers of humans' sense of meaning in life so that they can foster a greater sense of purpose in their own lives. Why is this so important, and what is different about how I help people with meaning and purpose compared to people who have been writing or speak...
Read MoreSuccess. It is what everyone talks about striving for. But what is success? Is it earning a lot of money or having a family? The American Dream, for example, was the secure job, the house with the white picket fence, the spouse, ~2 kids, and a dog. Is that success for you, though? And even if you could define what success was, how would you k...
Read MoreFiguring out what you want in life is difficult. You can spend hours agonizing over decisions. There’s a reason why ice cream shops offer free samples and many products and services offer trials: experience can be the best teacher regarding what you want or don’t want. So, how do you know when additional thought and discussion versus when more e...
Read MoreYou might not have chosen to be born, but you're surprisingly better off acting as if you had. You know the scenario: a parent and child get into an argument. There's usually some sort of pressure on the child to behave in some way or meet some set of expectations that results in the now-cliché response, "I didn't choose to be born!" What is caus...
Read MoreI know, I know—this headline is going to elicit groans from all of the memories of having to deal with an HR department when getting hired, promoted, or let go. I get the stigma associated with HR. But in my research and identifying the keys to success in life, I was looking for analogies that could best explain how it worked. When doing so, the...
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