Explanation

8.1 Purpose and life meaning

Martin Seligman (2011) proposes that having a life with meaning or purpose has to do with feeling connected to something greater than ourselves.

The "greater" things can be many: ecology, nature, God, family, a political cause, an artistic or social project, among others, but what they have in common is that it is not about thinking only about us, but in others. Even something small, like caring for a pet or a plant, can contribute to people's life purpose.

The terms purpose and meaning of life are sometimes used interchangeably and sometimes differ.

Meaning is broader than purpose and encompasses it. When talking about purpose, we generally refer to certain important goals or objectives in life. The purposes are translated into behaviors, what we do to get closer to those goals.

While meaning does not necessarily connect with one or several goals or with certain specific behaviors, but belongs to the scope of sense, with the way in which we interpret and find coherence to our experiences.

For example, let us think that the purpose in John’s life is to eradicate parasitic infections in Mexico. That goal directs him towards other intermediate goals, such as studying medicine, or microbiology, living in a tropical area of the country to conduct his research and create a non-profit organization to disseminate information on how to prevent parasitic diseases. All this contributes to Juan's sense of life.

If we ask him if his life is worth it, he would probably say yes because he is contributing to the world being a better place or because he feels that he lives a congruent and full life working to the best of his abilities.

Investigations about the purpose and meaning of life

Dr. Todd Kashdan, from George Mason University, in the USA is one of the researchers who have studied the role of purposes and the meaning of life. Kashdan and McKnight (2009) say that a purpose of life is an objective that organizes our goals and our efforts; we can have more than one purpose in life, and this is a good idea, because if we focus exclusively on one goal and we do not achieve it, it can be very disappointing; although having too many can disperse our efforts.

Dr. Michael Steger, of the University of Colorado, specializes in studying the meaning of life. For him, people interpret and organize our experiences in such a way that we have a sense that we are valuable, we identify what is important to us and we focus our energies on that. He thinks that in general "meaning in life refers to the belief of people that their life has meaning and transcends the ephemeral present" (Steger, 2009).

Robert Emmons, whom you already know from his gratitude studies, has also studied the meaning of life and has found that for most people there are 4 important sources of meaning in their lives (Emmons, 2003):

Work
Close personal relationships
Spirituality
Transcendence

A series of investigations reviewed by Steger (2009) indicate that people who feel that their life has a purpose or meaning have less depression and anxiety and experience higher levels of happiness and satisfaction in life.

Kashdan and McKnight (2009) have found that having a purpose in life correlates with longevity and physical and mental health. People who work as volunteers have a lower mortality rate than people of the same age who do not participate in volunteering.

Diener and Biswas-Diener (2008) report an "experiment" they did in a class they gave at the university:

They assigned students two activities. The first was a hedonistic, pleasurable activity. They had to do something fun and enjoyable (but legal, says Diener) like going dancing or eating at a good restaurant. Then they asked them to do some meaningful activity, such as volunteering with an organization, picking up trash from the street, helping someone, in short, activities that could be satisfying but not necessarily fun. All the students thought that the first activities had been fun, but the positive effects they had happened very quickly. Most of the young people said that if they had to recommend one of the activities to a friend, they would recommend the second one (which was not as fun but was more meaningful). The activities that make sense to us make us feel better later, because they connect with our values. Living in a manner congruent with our values is fundamental for wellbeing.

Diener and Biswas-Diener say that we need a sense of purpose to live fully. We need values that are important to us and goals that are worth working for. "One of the special characteristics of human beings is that they can live in a virtuous way and find a purpose in life" (Diener & Biswas-Diener, 2008).