(In Search Of…) The Meaning of Your Life

A few weeks ago, my grandma sent me the book by Arthur C. Brooks, The Meaning of Your Life (Finding Purpose in an Age of Emptiness).

I’ve been reading and digesting and processing, thinking about the meaning of my life.

And how for so many of us, there is an unspoken emptiness in our lives.

That emptiness has become louder over the last few years. Louder as I have ticked the boxes of things that others have labeled as what matters.

Despite that, I have continued to preach that I care more about who you are BE-ing, not what you are DO-ing. While I’ve said that it’s an easy stance to take that is only validated more strongly in a community where everyone is doing the same “cool” things, it is truthfully a hard stance to hold.

When the world is dead-set on moving in one direction, and you are swimming in the other, it takes its toll on you. There have been countless times I have questioned my sanity, my standards, and my core values.

But reading this book, I feel so much of it validated. The world is getting sick, and people are losing their way. I have judged myself before for obsessing over purpose and meaning, and now with this book in hand, I see this as some of the most important work that we need right now.

We need to find our way back to ourselves and our humanity.

We need more human connection, not more AI.

We need funding in arts, not tech.

We need eye contact, not screens.

I don’t know about you, but I’m burnt out by it. I have a soul-deep fatigue, sprinkled with anger and disappointment.

This isn’t the world I signed up for.

Reading this book, I’ve been drawing my own map back to my humanity.

Despite intentional practices around technology use, I have carried a feeling of emptiness for years. And as I dug into Brooks’ words, I finally began to understand why. Meaning is made up of a simple equation.

Coherence + Purpose + Significance.

With an ah-ha moment, I realized that though I have always carried a strong knowing of what my purpose is, and I have belief systems in place to trust the process of life… the place my life has lacked is in Significance.

I’ve had a yearning to be a pillar of the community, a resource to make the world a better place. And for whatever reason, I haven’t found a place where that dream has found roots in reality.

I don’t know where that takes me, but I know that when you are in the wrong environment, you will spend all your energy trying to survive instead of living your purpose. And if that’s the case, I invite you to take an energetic inventory of your life.

Does life feel hard, or does it carry ease? If the former… well, maybe it’s time to look at your meaning map.

Because I truly believe that if we are in the right place, life does not have to be something that feels hard. If we are in the right place, things will fall into place with a little more ease.

If you’re craving more of this, I wrote an essay on my Substack (where I am showing up most in the online world these days: Reclaiming the Wild Woman). You can dive into that over here, “Here is Your Permission Slip to Be Angry.”