What You Need in a Meaning of Life Book

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 meaning: The Meaning of Life: A guide to finding your life’s purpose.

But regardless of which angle you choose, there are a certain set of things that you will likely be looking for to find that the book resonates with you. After reading many of these kinds of books (and writing one), I can tell you what to look (out) for in these books. Specifically, I want you to know what you can or will find so you can both understand yourself and understand what these books are trying to accomplish.

Let’s take a look at the common components of these kinds of books that most will discuss:

• How You Got Here – This is the big mystery that many people are looking for. Science books will tell you about the Big Bang Theory, while (monotheistic) religious text books will have explanations of how God created the universe. While there isn’t a way to scientifically prove if anything caused the universe to come into existence or life to form from organic compounds, but an explanation of what happened to get us here is a popular topic that most will cover.
• Why You Are Here – In addition to the causal mechanism, many books will discuss what intentions are behind your existence. There are two sides to this: what intention a God or Creator might have, or what you are here to do in life (more on that in a moment). On the intention outside of your body, these kinds of books will explain how God created life or how you existed in a non-physical form before you decided to come to Earth to have this life experience. More scientific or humanistic explanations will be around how life evolved and how humanity is born, grows, reproduces, and dies like every other life form. This topic is meant to help you see what you want the overall point is, whether to live, learn, love, help others, etc.
• Your Goals in Life – An expansion on the previous item, meaning of life books can also include specific goals, such as self-help books talking about how to earn money, find a relationship, or raise children. This kind of guidance is helping you figure out what you should aim for in your own life and, of course, how to pursue said aim. This will likely have the most diversity, since there are books for pursuing a multitude of goals.
• Ethics – No meaning of life book would be complete without discussing ethics. In fact, it’s kind of difficult to separate what you should strive for in life from the best way in which you should approach it (I should know—I tried to separate them completely). Some books do a good job of telling their readers that how they approach things or what they decide is up to them, but there is no shortage of texts that are very prescriptive as to how you should behave to be successful. This is for a multitude of reasons. From an action ability perspective, a book has to recommend specific ethics if it is going to help you incorporate them into your life. From an intention perspective, it could be either to guide you best in life or, if you’re a cynic, to try to get you to behave in the way that they want you to behave. Whether the ethics are based on some objective proof like amount of harm or subjective such as “it worked for me” or “this is how you should do things”, you will get recommendations.
• Truth (or “Answers”) – Of course, anyone searching for meaning is looking for “truth”. This is, of course, a difficult term to define in this context since it can mean factual evidence, statements of how the world works, or general faith-based beliefs about how God or the afterlife works. People are looking for the truth, a “higher” truth, or “answers” to their questions about what they should be doing with their lives—or even just how to think about them. Of course, none of these texts would claim to knowingly lie to you, so whether they actually provide truth is for you decide…but they all claim to offer it.
• Guidance/Advice – Many people ask these kinds of questions when they are lost, confused, suffering, or in trouble. As such, these kinds of books offer guidance on how to get back onto the right path, from behavioral recommendations to ways of viewing the world to where to go for help.
• Emotional Support – In addition to direct thought or behavioral guidance, many times people just don’t want to feel alone, sad, or burdened. Many books of this type, therefore, make sure to remind you that you have value, that people (or God) care about you, and that you are worthy of love. That support is often what people need even more than actionable guidance or answers.
• Motivation – More of a component of the self-help genre, many people look for meaning to be motivated in life. Being told, for example, that you can achieve your dreams or accomplish anything can feel invigorating and put people on a positive path. But even religious and philosophical texts can provide insight as to why you should do things in life to provide a nudge forward toward beneficial activities.
• Life Experience – Human connection is important, so many provide stories and other means of conveying via life experience how life works or what you should do to be happy, successful, or purposeful. Many of these kinds of books are providing the benefit of others’ experience so you don’t have to go through the same trials to succeed in your life.

So as you search for a book to reach or begin to look for answers to your questions, don’t forget about these components. The obvious takeaway is to make sure that you find these attributes in the book you choose, but my main goal of writing this post is for you to know that books of this nature are actively including these components in how they present the information to you. I can’t speak to the intention of any of the writers of those texts, but just be careful that they are often (if not usually or always) mixing the goals they recommend, the ethics they state, how live began, and their guidance to you. Even if they have positive intent, they might still believe firmly that you need all of what they convey to be successful or not realize that they are pushing their ethics onto you when they give advice. But, of course, if they have intent to get you to their way of thinking, then they will suggest certain behaviors that might not be best for you but are based on how they want you to view the world.

Best of luck on your search. Make sure to get the guidance you need and be wary of anything that a person or book might recommend for you that isn’t right for you (even if it’s a good recommendation for most people). My only advice to you on that front is that if the person or book is recommending that you continue growing into the best version of yourself, their advice can’t be all bad.