The Meaning of Life

Some people try to ask what the meaning of life is. The truth is maybe there isn't an exact answer. Or maybe it's whatever you want it to be. I can't tell others how they'd be able to find the meaning of life for themselves but early on in my life, I came up with an idea that helped shaped how I view what matters to me in my life. In this post, I thought I'd share that with you.

Three Key Factors

While I still don't know what the meaning of life is, I once asked myself what I wanted most out of life. The answer I came up with was three things: happiness, success, and fulfillment.

Happiness is fairly straight forward. Who wouldn't want to be happy. Success though, doesn't just refer to financial success (as is often the misconception). By success, I mean in whatever way I live my life or whatever accomplishment I hope to achieve. Lastly, fulfillment. You could live a life full of purpose but may still feel empty. Whatever fulfillment meant, I just didn't want to feel content and complacent.

However, saying I wanted happiness, success, and fulfillment sounds like the equivalent of saying nothing. Because none of these are specific towards anything. So the next logical question I had to ask was, what would it take for me to feel happy, successful, and fulfilled. Over the years, some of this has changed but most has stayed constant. This final framework is what I call The Six Pillars of Life. They are the focused areas of my life that I want to spend my time and energy on that I believe will help me accomplish my goal of being happy, successful, and fulfilled. In no particular order, they are...

Relationships

Not all relationships matter but it's hard to argue you can live a happy or successful life if you don't have deep meaningful relationships. Your circle doesn't have to be big, it just have to be meaningful. So early on, I identified the kind of relationships that mattered most to me and came up with that I now call the four Fs: Family, Friends, Founders, and Fans.

Family and friends is fairly straight forward. Founders is the peer group I most identify with, particular tech founders. Finally, there's a saying it's better to have 1000 fans than a million followers. I agree with that somewhat. As a creator and entrepreneur, I hope to build a following of avid fans I can connect with some day.

Wellness

For me, being healthy plays a major part of being happy and fulfilled too. It's hard to enjoy life if you're not healthy. Worse if you suffer from health issues. And being fit can also play a big role in confidence building. For me, there were also four key areas of wellness I cared about: health, fitness, mentality, and habits.

Here, diet and exercise is fairly self explanatory. I'd also argue having a strong growth mindset and a mentality to persevere is highly valuable. Developing good habits is also highly desirable. I love discovering new ways to optimize for a better life. I ascribe to the Kaizen way, believe in The Art of Friction, and truly believe overall wellness matters.

Growth

This next one may not matter to a lot of people. It's certainly not a major factor that many think of but it's a major one for me. I love learning. I try and experiment as much as I can. I continually invest in learning new things all the time. And I couldn't imagine a life where I wasn't actively pursuing something new. So for me, having a focus on learning and being able to apply what I learn is critical. Acknowledging this also allows me to ensure I make a point to make time for this over other recreational things that I could otherwise spend my time on.

Joy

To borrow from Marie Kondo's famous saying, we should all do things that Spark Joy™ and less on things we're simply content with. I don't think its realistic to always do only things that brings us joy (after all life is full of compromises, serendipity, and unknowns), but I think being intentional about pursuing what we enjoy doing more of without worry or fear is something not enough people do more of.

Impact

Some people don't care about making an impact in their life. Big impact. Small impact. Any impact. However, I do care. Even more so if it's with people I know personally in my own life.

Whether it's volunteering or donating to a good cause, whether it's giving locally in your own community, or perhaps doing something more noble like run a foundation or charity, there's something we all can do to help impact others and the world. Even something as simple as reusing grocery bags, recycling and composting, or upcycling, whatever you choose to do, every little bit helps.

This is particularly meaningful if you're able to impact the lives of people you personally know.

Finance

Last but not least, it's hard to argue against money playing an important role. Whether you think it's important or not, there's no denying not having enough of it causes lots of issues for many people around the world. Money affords you the life you want for yourself and your family. It afford you time and options you otherwise wouldn't have. You can accomplish a lot with it. As such, a focus on building wealth, including generational wealth, is a key pillar.

Take Away

The things that matter to you might be different. Maybe you share the same three key factors I do. Maybe you have five or six factors. Or maybe it's one. Everyone's different. Figure out what matters most to you. Then ask what needs to happen for those factors to be true. For me it was six key pillars that were important to my life. For you, it may be a different list. Or maybe we share some of the same key things we value.

Whatever it is you value, once you realize it, put more emphasis on doing something about it. Put more emphasis on evaluating where you really are with each of those, and what it would take for you to sincerely believe you've made it. And if you truly accomplish everything on your list, did it finally get you the life you always wanted? I believe that's a life worth living and working towards.