10 Ways to Live a Meaningful Life

How many of us are striving to live a meaningful life? And what, exactly, do we mean by meaningful? A meaningful life can be defined as one which has a purpose, and, of course, a meaning. Sometimes it can be hard to define just what these things are. We may think we know what we should be doing to make our lives fulfilling, but are we really sure, or just making decisions and judgments based on what we think we should be doing, or what society deems desirable. We must learn to figure this out before we can even begin to make our lives more meaningful.

1. Follow your passion.

Your passion is what makes your life worth living. It could be something as small as cooking a good meal. Or something as large as dedicating yourself to the eradication of world hunger. Maybe you want to save the planet, or simply make your neighborhood a better place. Whether it’s big or small, your passion is what gets you up in the morning full of enthusiasm and energy, and it sends you off to bed at night feeling happy and fulfilled. Even if your passion doesn’t pay the bills, spend a bit of time on it every day. With continued practice, who knows, perhaps it will pay the bills someday! Become an expert by working hard at it, although it may hardly be considered work if you are so passionate about it. Doing something about which you are passionate is its own reward.

2. Decide what is important to you.

Only you can know what this truly is. Simply spending time with your family and loved ones can be of vital importance. Perhaps maintaining a healthy diet, or learning to play an instrument. Making money could be of importance if it means allowing you to provide for your family or donate to charity. You may decide that living a life of simplicity rather than luxury is of importance to you, or maybe you value honesty and integrity. Needless to say, everyone should, but perhaps this is of utmost importance to you. Every one of us has a different measure of importance, and each is highly personal. You will never be happy if you spend your time striving to achieve something which is important to your neighbor instead of yourself. Don’t let society dictate what you consider important and look inside yourself for the answer.

3. Discover your life’s purpose.

Find what motivates you, and keeps you motivated. What gives you a reason to live. Have you decided that you were put on this earth to help the whole of mankind? The community in which you live? Simply your family? Do you want to inspire others? Some of us may feel that we just don’t have a purpose, and this is tragic. We don’t have to cure cancer or save the whales, after all. Our purpose in life might simply be to lead an honest and charitable life. We may strive to be a good spouse, parent, friend, or neighbor, and find our purpose in the effort. We may choose to make others smile or be our company’s go-to guy in accounting. No purpose in life is too small, as long as we are honest with ourselves about it. A life purpose is as simple, or as complicated, as we make it. And is just as personal. We should not judge ourselves by our purpose in life, nor should we judge others. We must simply live our truth, content to fulfill our goal for each day, whether they are big or small.

4. Be self-aware.

Constantly be aware that you do not live in a bubble. Be mindful of your actions, and how they can affect those around you. Make sure that you are abiding by a personal code of conduct and strive constantly to live up to that code. Be sure to pursue your passion every day, for this is what makes life worth living. And adhere to your purpose in life as best you can. You will find that some say this is more difficult than others. Take time to reflect at the end of each day to see just how well you succeeded in accomplishing each of these goals, and how you may have fallen short on some of them. Consider how to take action to correct any shortcomings and do not be discouraged by any small failures. Also, be kind to yourself over those small failures as life is a work in progress. As Socrates said, “The unexamined life is not worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining.”

5. Spend your money more on people than on things.

It’s only natural to want to show off to some extent. To show the world that we are successful and a good provider. While taking pride in our success feels good, give serious thought to what would truly make you happier. Are you going to spend your twilight years passing around pictures of the new cars you had or the fancy remodel of the house? Or, will you be showing pictures of your kids smiling on that trip to Disneyland or the Grand Canyon? Make wise investments regardless of the extent of our financial success, and investing quality time with family and friends as shared experiences will likely provide greater future benefits.

6. Be compassionate.

For some of us, compassion is such an important ideal that we consider it to be our true purpose in life. And we must learn to extend that compassion to ourselves as well as to others. Learn to look at people with sympathy and understanding, and do the same for yourself. It’s perfectly okay to feel sorry for yourself occasionally. Not everything is always perfect. Remember that the Dalai Lama has said, “One must be compassionate to oneself before external compassion.”

7. Keep your focus.

Narrow down your focus to one particular goal, and not a variety of things. By concentrating on too many things you reduce the energy of that focus, and likely reduce your success in achieving that goal. Not to mention the stress involved. It’s much more practical to pinpoint your focus and if that goal is of great importance, something about which you are passionate, you are more likely to be motivated to succeed.

8. Decide on goals for yourself each day.

Before you start each day, set a few goals. Make it just a short, manageable one. If it’s too long, you will wind up having a stressful day accomplishing much less than you wanted to. Make sure these daily goals coincide with your own set of principles and beliefs and be realistic about what you can achieve in a single day. Setting unrealistic goals will only cause you to multitask, which won’t help the problem, or have you feeling overwhelmed. Try doing the most difficult task first, just to get it out of the way. Remember, by doing less, you can usually accomplish more.

9. Give back.

Find something which coincides with your own beliefs and passions and find a way to use this to give back to the community. For example, if your passion is cooking, volunteer at a local soup kitchen. If you love children, volunteer as a Big Brother/Sister, or at a local after school program. Giving back will help you add purpose to your life while giving it more meaning.

10. Simplify.

You may never have tried to simplify your life before and doing so can be a major achievement. People often get caught up in the idea that they have to do more or accomplish more. In reality, many of the things we do each day are simply extraneous tasks, not necessary to fulfill our purpose or feed our passion. Mere busywork it would seem. Simplifying our daily life will reduce stress and free up more time for the things which are truly important to you, things which fall more in line with your life’s purpose and your driving passion. You can improve productivity when it comes to these more important items and allow yourself to do what really fulfills you. The benefit is that this gives your life purpose when you trim the excess from your life.

That’s quite a list for you to consider in helping you to live a meaningful life. At first glance, you may find this list to be overly long and quite ambitious. Remember, you don’t have to tackle it all at once. Pick just one step, or perhaps two, to implement at a time. Once you have mastered those, pick another and continue onward, making progress step by step. As you incorporate each new practice into your life, I’m sure that you will find the next step a bit easier and the process is well worth the effort. It has often been said that it is not about the destination, but the journey. Living a well-considered life, rich in passion and meaning, can provide you with fulfillment and purpose, making the journey all the more pleasant.

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