The time has come to choose a university career, break off a relationship that has lasted for many years, or leave your country in search of other opportunities ... These and other situations can shake the foundations of our life making us doubt our deepest beliefs and therefore unsurprisingly, we find ourselves wondering what we're going to do with our lives from then on.The meaning of life: The compass that guides us
Finding the meaning of life isn't always easy. There are people who go through an existential crisis before finding it while others have never even considered this problem but simply live by inertia. However, the meaning of life is what motivates and drives us, what fills us with energy and makes us happier.
Having a purpose in life helps us overcome obstacles and allows us to understand what are really important things and what nonsense that only serves to make us waste time and energy. So ultimately having meaning in life allows us to be more effective, to approach problems in a more mature perspective and, of course, to be happier.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the meaning of life is not a magic formula or an object that can be transferred from one person to another, but rather a response that comes from within and satisfies us alone. However, some questions can help us find the true meaning of life. But before answering, consider the famous phrase of the essay Voltaire: "A man is not judged by his answers, but by his questions."
The key: appropriate questions, personal answers
1. What things would you be willing to suffer for? The first step is not to look for the things that make us happy or that we like, it would be too easy and even trivial. Instead, ask yourself what you would be willing to sacrifice for; these are the really important things in your life that you would be willing to drop everything for and really worth fighting for.
2. How do you envision your life in the next 5 years? We are often so immersed in our daily routine that we don't realize we need to plan for our future. If we don't, today's habits will decide tomorrow's life. So, take a stretch of the imagination and think about what you would like your life to be like within the next 5 or 10 years. Recreate the context down to the smallest detail and when you wake up from the dream, ask yourself if the life you lead today will lead you to that ideal life or, conversely, if it will take you away. Remember that if you don't know where you are going, you won't get anywhere.
3. What would you do if you weren't afraid? Fear is an immobilization mechanism, it forces us to stay in our comfort zone without taking risks. There are people who live their whole life in fear; the fear of taking that step that could make a difference. So, imagine what you would do if you were not afraid and then plan the practical activities that allow you to gradually reach that state.
4. What would you do if you were sure you were not going to fail? Fear of failure and social criticism also immobilizes us. We often have great ideas that we have never tried to put into practice because we have convinced ourselves that they are absurd. Then we see that another person has put them into practice and been successful and we feel like a failure. If we want to give a new meaning to our life it is important to eliminate the “failure” variant from the equation.
5. What are your 3 biggest talents? The meaning of your life is the intersection point between the passions and needs of the external environment. Identify what your true talents are and learn to exploit them so that you can make a living from them. Because it is not enough to be passionate about something, it must also be shown that it is possible to transform our passion into a profitable business.
6. What work are you willing to do, even for free? Money is important, because thanks to it we satisfy some of our needs, but that's not all that matters. When you are truly passionate about a job, you can be satisfied even if you earn less because you do not live it as a job, but rather as something to dedicate yourself to body and soul and of which you are proud, something that fills you.
7. When was the last time you felt alive? Try to remember those moments when a burst of energy went through your whole body making you feel truly alive, energetic, capable of conquering the world. Then you were surely practicing something that you were passionate about, something that could be the key to your happiness; retrieve it. Make these feelings more and more common in your life.
8. What are the 3 things you absolutely cannot do without? Imagine you are on a deserted and wild island where there is no trace of modern life. What can you not do without? What is it that you would miss terribly? By doing this mental exercise many people say for example that they would like to have books with them, but surprisingly, in their daily life due to stress and lack of time, the books are not there. So, no matter what you choose, we should always make sure that we have the things with us every day that are a source of great satisfaction to us.
9. If you had only one hour left to live, how would you use it? Certainly not in social networks or by sending text messages with a mobile phone. So why do you spend your day doing things that aren't important to you? Life is shorter than you think, but we still have time to change our habits and make room for those things that really matter.
10. Who do you admire the most in the world? While it's not about choosing a role model in the strict sense of the term, we all have someone who inspires us with their behavior and choices. Focus on your model and do everything to look more like him with each passing day.
