Answering Life’s Big Questions: What Is The Meaning & Purpose Of Life?
Viktor Frankl was an Austrian neurologist and psychiatrist who lived through the horrors of four different concentration camps, including Auschwitz, during World War II. His perspective and outlook on life must have changed dramatically during these kinds of hardships, however he followed one principle with great discipline:
“The meaning of life is to give life meaning.”
There is no such thing as a universal meaning of life. If there were, it would be bad because everyone would remain unfulfilled. We would not be free but all subject to the same goal and in competition with one another.
You have to set and realize your own goals.
Life is a single-player game and takes place in your head — the reality is neutral.
Today, we generally use the word stoic to mean someone who remains calm under pressure and avoids emotional extremes. But while this captures important aspects of Stoicism, the original philosophy was more than just an attitude. The Stoics believed that everything around us operates according to a web of cause and effect, resulting in a rational structure of the universe. And while we may not always have control over the events affecting us, we can have control over how we approach things.
Stoicism preaches to live in the moment, to praise small moments, to be kind, educate a lot, live healthily, listen well, and be one with nature, friends and family. They aim to regulate bad feelings and ways of thinking through gratefulness as much as possible in order to live virtuously.
Stoics use negative visualizations to cope with the worst-case scenario.
The fact that we have perfect conditions on our planet to allow life to thrive is bordering on miraculous. With factors like temperature, atmosphere, gravity, and the laws of physics, we live at the best possible time, considering the past.
Furthermore, the probability of being born is practically zero.
A man produces about 500 billion sperms in his lifetime and at the same time, one could have become a tree or a stone.
Besides, one exists only for a blink of an eye, if one considers the whole history. It is practically infinite darkness, short light and again darkness.
Author and biologist Richard Dawkins once stated:
“We are all going to die and that makes us the lucky ones”.
Dare things, live as healthy as possible to enjoy it fully.
Being curious as a remedy against boredom, asking questions often to nurture your mind.
Gratitude is the ultimate remedy against dissatisfaction.
Optimism is the active way, being open to new things, being open-minded is the passive way.
Live each moment to the fullest and make deep friendships and relationships. Realize that every moment, no matter how insignificant it may seem, is after all unique.
Do something with the means at hand in the place you are in.
Find meaning and purpose in life, at work, and at home.
Human beings are insatiable, they constantly strive for new experiences and achievements. It is important to pursue certain values during the process.
Every moment is unique, whether encounters with friends or strangers or everyday routines.
“Every human being has two lives, the second begins when you realize that you have only one.” — Confucius
What Science Has To Say
There are studies with two test groups and group B was reminded of their mortality shortly before (sometimes only very subtly e.g. cemetery opposite at the window).
They gave clearly different answers and behaved differently than group A. Being aware of your mortality makes people think and act in different ways.
If you ask people if they think about death, many say no, although in some situations it might be relatively beneficial to be aware of one’s limited time.
If you ask if they are afraid of it, they suddenly realize that this might be the case.
We humans have partly formed a culture to distract us from this and not to live in constant terror of the end of life.
Consciousness and suffering have a meaning only in connection with death, thus many innovations and revolutions arise because time is limited.
Here it doesn’t matter how long you live, because, on an infinite time scale, every number is closer to 0.
To have this awareness changes our actions enormously in some cases.
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