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...
Read MoreThe idea that the meaning of life can be so simple and elegant is a tough one to digest; there’s a reason why people say, “What is the meaning of life?” as a joke when someone asks them to bring up a topic for light conversation. But if it’s that simple, then why do people ponder it so deeply and frequently? Well, the answer brings up many...
Read MoreHaving advised executives for roughly 20 years at the time of this posting, I can tell you that I’ve had over a thousand conversations on strategy. These conversations are/were about 30 minutes long, meaning that I’d have to convey a lot of information in a short period of time. That makes it necessary to simplify as much as possible, making the...
Read MoreThere 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...
Read MoreYou 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...
Read MoreReligion is a difficult subject because of how it is tied to deeply held beliefs of the individual. Additionally, most people who analyze it are either making a case one way or another or are providing some sort of critique. (Note: I found this out the hard way for when I wrote that God was a great source of belief when someone doesn’t believe in...
Read MoreCritical thinking is an invaluable tool for testing information and determining what might be true as you make a decision or take an action in the real world. For example, you might be looking for a toaster on the internet and see one that is highly rated. Critical thinking would prompt you to ask yourself, “Is this really the best toaster, or is...
Read More“If I only had _______, then I would truly live my life to the fullest.” More money. A degree. When your kids are older. If only you didn’t have that one thing in your way, you would truly be your true self and live your true life. There’s another saying, though: “It’s always something…” So what is holding you back in life, and what is it holding...
Read MoreWhere do we come from? How did we get here? What happens when we die? Where do we go? These are a few of people’s big questions about how reality works. They are interesting philosophical questions, and, unfortunately, they are ones that I cannot answer definitively because I only speak about things that can be scientifically proven in my book and...
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 More