How To Live A Meaningful Life

What’s the real purpose of life?

How do you make every day meaningful?

How can you say that you have lived a meaningful life?

Most of us can find ways to make our lives happier, but many of us question how to live a meaningful life.

We don’t just want our lives to be fun, we want them to be meaningful and fulfilling too. 

But what makes life meaningful?

How do you pursue meaning in life?

I can’t tell you how you can live a more meaningful life.  Only you can determine what will make life more meaningful for you. 

I can tell you what I did to figure out what would make my life more meaningful and the things you can do to figure out how to live a meaningful and purposeful life too. 

Life has recently given me an opportunity to re-evaluate the way I have been living. 

This has left me questioning if the things I am spending my time on even matter.  Are these things even that important to me?  Will the things I am putting my effort into lead to a happy and fulfilling life?

I feel like there should be more to life than these everyday responsibilities and routines.  I feel like I should be spending more time on things that actually matter.   

So, how can I change my life? 

On Saturday I went for a long walk in the park with the dog, to help me clear my mind and get some perspective on my life. 

I realized that while my focus on living a healthier and happier lifestyle has put me in the right direction, I was still missing something. 

I want the life I am living to be meaningful too.

That prompted me to do a bit of research and a lot more thinking.

What makes life meaningful?

How can I make my life better?

How do I live a meaningful life?

What Is A Meaningful Life

What does the word meaningful mean?

Dictionary.com defines meaningful as “full of meaning, significance, purpose, or value; purposeful; significant:”.

What does it mean to live a meaningful life?

Everyone’s idea of a meaningful life will be different since the things each person finds valuable and significant will be different.  Living a meaningful life means making sure your own life is full of the things you personally feel are significant, valuable and give purpose to your life.  

Is a happy life a meaningful life?

The study, “Some key differences between a happy life and a meaningful life” found that while the two do overlap, a happy life doesn’t necessarily lead to a meaningful life. While happiness was mainly focused on the present moment, meaningfulness involved the past, present, and future.   

Why is it important to live a meaningful life?

The study “Leading a meaningful life at older ages and its relationship with social engagement, prosperity, health, biology, and time use” showed that people who lived lives that were full of things they considered to be worthwhile, also had higher ratings in mental and physical health, as well as many other aspects of life. 

Doing more things that are meaningful to you doesn’t just affect your feelings of fulfillment, it affects your health too.

Meaningless Life

It would be great to live a life where everything we did was meaningful to us.  But for most of us, that’s just not a reality. 

It can be hard to see ourselves as having meaningful lives when so much of our time seems to be spent on meaningless tasks. 

Meaningless Tasks (That We Still Need to Do)

Whether we like it or not, our lives are full of meaningless tasks that need to be done.

Like household chores.  Regardless of how meaningless washing the dishes is, it still has to be done.  Living a meaningful life doesn’t rid you of your responsibilities. 

That doesn’t mean you have to let these things make your life feel meaningless.

It’s often our own perspectives that make us feel like our lives have no meaning.  

Life isn’t meaningless just because you have to spend your Saturday afternoon cleaning the house, or because your evenings consist of cooking supper, doing dishes and packing lunches.

I’m not saying that you can somehow convince yourself that doing the dishes is a meaningful task.  I’m just saying that making your life out to be meaningless because you have to wash dishes every day won’t help you to live a meaningful life.

Some of our time will be spent doing things that are meaningless.  It’s what we do with the rest of our time that can make our lives more meaningful.

Personally, I have been struggling as I go through my morning routine of making breakfast and getting the kids off to school.  Every day it’s the same thing and it was starting to feel so pointless, which made me start to feel like my life was pointless.

So, I changed my perspective.

Yes, I still have to go through the same morning routine, but I’m not putting as much thought into it anymore.  It’s only one part of my day, and while it doesn’t give much meaning to my life, I’m not letting it set my mood for the day anymore. Instead, I am focusing more on the things that are meaningful every day.

Fun Tasks (That Aren’t as Meaningful as You Think)

What about the activities that we do just for fun? 

If these things make us happy, won’t that lead to a meaningful life?

Not necessarily.

According to this article published by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, “happiness that comes from doing good or fulfilling your life purpose may be better for you than happiness that comes from self-gratification or pleasure seeking.”- Jill Suttie

That doesn’t mean that you need to give up all your hobbies if you want to live a meaningful life.  They just shouldn’t take up most of your free time.

As long as you are spending time on the things that bring meaning to your life too, there’s nothing wrong with unwinding with a movie, spending an hour or two playing your favorite game, or taking a couple of hours of “me time” on the weekend for self-care.

The key is, not making these meaningless activities the highlight of your life. 

Living a more meaningful life means choosing to spend your time doing meaningful things when you can. 

While watching TV is a pretty meaningless activity, some nights I’m just too tired to do anything meaningful and need to let my brain wind down before bed. 

The odd night I may even play a video game.

But that doesn’t mean I am going to waste a Saturday afternoon doing either of those things when that time could be spent doing something more meaningful, or at least more productive. 

What Makes Life Meaningful

If meaningfulness involves the past, present, and future, then maybe a meaningful life is one that’s focused on personal growth and making memories.

If you think about the things in your life that you consider to be meaningful you will probably think of all your happiest memories (likely with the people you care about most) and the things you are most proud of accomplishing.

That is the starting point in figuring out how to live a meaningful life.  Thinking about the things you have already done, or are working towards, that mean the most to you.

Some things that may make life more meaningful are

• Spending time with the people in your life who are important to you.
• Discussing topics you feel passionately about.
• Being there for the people you love when they need you. 
• Sharing your successes and cherished memories with people you love.
• New experiences.
• Shared experiences with others.
• Spending time learning new things. 
• Setting personal goals, and reaching them.
• Helping others.

It is the things in life that become the memories that you cherish, the struggles you overcame, and the goals that you achieved, that make life meaningful. 

When I think about the things in my life that have been meaningful to me, all the happy memories I have with my family and friends are what come to mind first.

Not all of these memories are of exciting things either. Some of my most meaningful memories are of times spent doing simple things.  It’s the people in those memories that make them significant to me.

A few years ago, my mom took me, my sisters and our families on a vacation to Florida.  The memories of Disney World aren’t the ones that are significant to me.  It’s the memories of all 19 of us hanging out at the big house she rented that I cherish.  Sitting by the pool and watching all the kids play and goof around together was the most meaningful part of that vacation.

When The Husband and I went on our DIY couples retreat, the most meaningful part of the vacation for me was the time we spent together on the swing planning for our future.  Even the times we’ve spent at home together sharing memories from our pasts are some of my most meaningful memories.

These are all the types of things that bring meaning to my life.  . 

How To Live A Meaningful Life

So how can you live a meaningful life?

Once you make the decision to start living life more meaningfully creating a meaningful life isn’t that hard to do.

Determine What’s Meaningful to You

What things in your life do you value most? 

What are your most significant accomplishments? 

What makes you feel like your life has a purpose?

What are your most meaningful memories? 

Doing more of these things is what will make your life meaningful.

Personal Growth

Working towards achieving something can bring a lot more meaning to your life.  We should always be working on our personal growth. 

Set goals for yourself, and keep track of your progress daily to stay on track.

Make sure you are spending time every day working towards your goals, learning more about topics that interest you and learning how to improve the areas of your life that you aren’t happy with. 

Spend Time with The People You Love

Your most meaningful memories are probably of times you spent with the people you love.  Life is meaningful when we prioritize spending time with the people who are important to us.

Make plans to get together with your friends or at least talk to them on the phone regularly. 

Plan outings with your family. 

Play with your kids.

Prioritize making more meaningful memories.

Get Out

A little bit of “me time” at home can be good for you, but sometimes you need to get out too. 

Plan vacations, go out with friends or check out a new restaurant. 

Find a new activity or sport.  

Visit a new local attraction.  

Go to new places and try new things, even if you have to go alone. While these experiences can be great to do with other people, if you can’t find anyone interested in trying the new activity you found, do it by yourself. 

Be in the Moment

Whether you’re on a vacation with your family or hanging out with your best friend at home, be in the moment.  Relax and enjoy it.

Stop thinking about your to-do list or planning what you will do next.  Just enjoy what you are doing now and the people you are doing it with. 

Practicing meditation and mindfulness is a great way to work on being in the moment, so you can really enjoy the meaningful times.  

Don’t Stress About the Meaningless Things

Stop stressing about all the meaningless tasks that have to be done. While it may not give your life much meaning, stressing about it can lead to life feeling meaningless.

If you can, find a way to make these tasks seem more meaningful by not doing them by yourself. 

Call a friend while you do the dishes.

Get your kids to tell you about their day while you pack lunches.

Make cleaning up after dinner a family chore so you at least have company while you do it.

Do Less Meaningless Things

While you may not be able to control how much time you spend on your chores and responsibilities (unless you hire someone to help you), the amount of time you spend on other time-wasting activities is entirely in your control.

If you’re wondering just how meaningful something is, ask yourself, is this something that will be a happy memory I look back on?  Is it helping me reach a goal I will be proud of?

If the answer is no, then what you are doing isn’t very meaningful, so try not to waste too much of your time on it. 

Balance Meaningfulness and Fun

A meaningful life will help you live a happier life. 

But doing the meaningless things that you enjoy once in a while can bring you some short-term happiness too. 

If you want to live a meaningful life that means you need to make time for the things that are meaningful to you every day, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be time left for your hobbies or relaxing too.

Find a way to balance both, and learn to recognize when you are prioritizing the meaningless tasks over the meaningful ones.

For me determining what the meaningful things in my life are is pretty easy. 

The part I really need to work on is not stressing about all those meaningless activities that have to be done and to really being in the moment during the significant times.

I’m making it a goal to work on focusing less on the things that don’t bring meaning to my life and planning more of the things that do.

I’m also setting a goal to continue to learn how to live a healthier, happier and more meaningful life.  I plan to spend less of my evening free time watching tv and more of it reading books that will help me with this goal.

I’m also going to start planning more outings and activities with my kids on the weekends. There are so many new places I can take them and so many new experiences for us to have.

Living a meaningful life means making the things that are meaningful to you a priority.

While we can’t choose how we spend all of our time, we can choose what we do with our free time.

If you feel like you’re not living a life that is as meaningful as it could be, look at the things your spending your time on. 

Look at the things you put your effort into.

If it’s not the things that matter most to you, the things that make you feel proud or that you will look back on and remember, then that may be why your life feels so meaningless.

Are you living a meaningful life?  Do you have any other tips on how to live a meaningful life?  What makes your life meaningful?

Let me know on the Facebook post, and follow me on Facebook to see more ways to make life meaningful as I work towards this goal.