How To Find Meaning To Life

IMPORTANT: The final article MUST include schema blocks at the end of the content. These blocks are embedded below after the article content.

You’ve read the articles. Done the exercises. Asked yourself “what’s my passion?” a hundred times.

And you still feel stuck.

I spent most of my twenties feeling completely lost. Reading the same advice everyone else was reading. Doing the exercises. Still coming up empty.

Here’s why most advice about finding meaning gets it backwards. It tells you to search for meaning like it’s a hidden treasure waiting to be discovered. But research shows that searching for meaning—especially when you don’t already have it—can actually make things worse.

Finding meaning in life involves creating a sense that your life has purpose, coherence, and significance—that what you do matters beyond yourself. Research from Viktor Frankl, Martin Seligman, and Amy Wrzesniewski shows that meaning is created through action in three main pathways: what you give to the world (creative), what you receive from experiences and relationships (experiential), and how you respond to unavoidable challenges (attitudinal). Paradoxically, searching too hard for meaning can make it harder to find—the key is building meaning through small, concrete actions rather than endless introspection.

Key Takeaways

• Meaning is distinct from happiness: Happiness is feeling good (hedonic); meaning is functioning well and serving something larger (eudaimonic). Research shows they’re separate constructs that sometimes work against each other.
• The paradox of searching: Actively searching for meaning can reduce well-being when you lack it, but enhances well-being when you already have some. The shift is from searching to creating through action.
• Three universal pathways: Viktor Frankl identified three ways everyone can create meaning: through what you create/give, what you experience/receive, and how you respond to suffering you can’t avoid.
• Job crafting creates meaning even in unfulfilling work: You can reshape your tasks, relationships, and perception of your role to align with your values—you have more agency than you think.

What Is Meaning in Life? (And Why It Matters)

Meaning in life is having a sense that your life has purpose, coherence, and significance—a feeling that what you do matters beyond yourself. Unlike happiness, which focuses on feeling good in the moment (hedonic well-being), meaning is about functioning well and contributing to something larger (eudaimonic well-being).

Here’s the thing most people don’t realize. Meaning and happiness are related, but they’re not the same. They can even work against each other. Research shows this clearly. Giving to others is associated with meaning, not necessarily happiness. Raising kids can be exhausting and frustrating—but deeply meaningful. Sometimes the most meaningful choices require sacrificing immediate pleasure.

The PERMA Model from positive psychology identifies meaning as one of five core elements of flourishing. Martin Seligman describes it as “finding meaning is learning that there is something greater than one’s self.”

Why does meaning matter so much? The neuroscience research is pretty compelling. I love this stuff. People with a stronger sense of life meaning have more efficiently connected brains. Having a high purpose in life reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by half, according to one study. People with high meaning report lower depression and anxiety, greater happiness, reduced suicidal ideation.

And meaning isn’t a luxury for people who have their lives figured out. It’s a fundamental human need accessible to everyone, regardless of circumstances.

The Paradox of Searching for Meaning

But here’s where it gets tricky. Understanding what meaning is doesn’t automatically tell you how to find it. In fact, searching for it in the wrong way can make it harder to find.

Research shows that actively searching for meaning can actually reduce your well-being—but only when you don’t already have meaning present in your life. A meta-analysis of 147 studies involving over 92,000 people found that the search for meaning is negatively related to well-being when presence of meaning is low, but positively associated with well-being among those who already have substantial meaning.

Let me break that down because it’s important:

• Presence of Meaning (POM): actually experiencing meaning in your life (the outcome)
• Search for Meaning (SFM): actively seeking meaning (the process)

The irony is brutal. Search too hard? Meaning gets more elusive. It’s like trying to fall asleep by thinking about falling asleep.

Why? Because obsessive introspection without action leads to rumination. You spin your wheels. You analyze and overthink and question and doubt—and meaning stays out of reach.

If you’ve been spinning your wheels thinking about your purpose, this is why. I’ve been there. I know what it’s like to journal endlessly about your purpose and still wake up feeling stuck.

The shift isn’t about giving up on meaning. It’s about changing the approach from passive searching to active creation through small steps. Meaning emerges through doing, not through thinking about doing.

Three Universal Pathways to Meaning (Viktor Frankl)

So if searching doesn’t work, what does? Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who survived Nazi concentration camps, identified three universal pathways to meaning that work regardless of your circumstances.

Frankl’s logotherapy identifies three pathways to meaning available to everyone: creative value (what you give to the world through work, art, or relationships), experiential value (what you receive from the world through beauty, love, or nature), and attitudinal value (the attitude you take toward unavoidable suffering).

Here’s what’s powerful about Frankl’s framework—these pathways are universally accessible. I love it. You don’t need to change the world or find your one true calling. Meaning is available in how you show up today.

Creative Pathway: What You Give

This is meaning created through what you produce or contribute. Work, yes—but also art, parenting, teaching, building, helping. A mentor shaping younger employees. An artist creating work that moves people. A parent raising children.

The job itself is not the calling. It’s an avenue of expression, an opportunity to activate.

Experiential Pathway: What You Receive

This is meaning created through what you receive from the world. Deep conversation with a friend. Witnessing a sunset. Experiencing music or art that moves you. Love, beauty, nature, connection.

Frankl believed experiencing another human being in their uniqueness—truly loving someone—could create profound meaning.

Attitudinal Pathway: How You Respond

Even when we cannot change our circumstances, we can still choose our attitude—and that choice creates meaning.

This was the pathway available to Frankl in concentration camps. He couldn’t control his circumstances, but he could choose how he responded. He could maintain dignity. Help others. Find small ways to preserve his humanity.

You don’t need all three pathways at once. Even one is enough.

The PERMA Model—Where Meaning Fits in Well-Being

Frankl’s framework shows what’s possible. But Martin Seligman’s PERMA model helps us understand how meaning fits into overall well-being.

Martin Seligman’s PERMA model identifies five core elements of well-being: Positive Emotion, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning, and Accomplishment. Meaning—the “M” in PERMA—prompts the “why” question: discovering something greater than yourself.

Notice how these elements work together. Positive emotion gives you energy for meaning-making. Engagement (flow) often emerges when you’re doing meaningful work. Relationships are both a source of meaning and enhanced by shared meaning. Accomplishment reinforces your sense that what you contribute matters.

Seligman’s insight here is key. The PERMA model focuses on flourishing rather than just the absence of distress—it’s about living well, not just surviving.

Chasing meaning in isolation while ignoring relationships or positive emotion is like trying to grow a plant without water. It doesn’t work.

Creating Meaning in Your Current Work (Job Crafting)

These frameworks are helpful, but what if you can’t change your life circumstances right now? What if you’re stuck in a job that feels meaningless? This is where job crafting comes in.

You don’t need to quit your job to find meaningful work. Research by Amy Wrzesniewski shows that people experience their jobs in three ways—as a job (for the paycheck), a career (for advancement), or a calling (as integral to their identity)—and these orientations are evenly distributed across all professions, meaning you can cultivate a calling orientation even in roles others might view as mundane.

Here’s what people get wrong. They assume job title determines meaning. Wrong. Wrzesniewski’s research found that roughly one-third of workers in every occupation—janitor, lawyer, teacher, executive—experience their work as a calling. And people with a calling orientation report higher job satisfaction and a more profound sense of existential purpose, regardless of what the job actually is.

Job crafting allows employees to reshape their work in personally meaningful ways, bringing numerous positive outcomes including engagement, satisfaction, resilience, and thriving.

There are three types:

Task Crafting: Reshape what you do. Add tasks that align with your values. Find ways to reduce draining tasks. A hospital janitor who sees their role as “helping patients heal” rather than “cleaning floors.”

Relational Crafting: Reshape who you interact with. Build mentoring relationships. Seek out collaborators who energize you. I’ve seen people mentoring interns find more meaning than any promotion offered.

Cognitive Crafting: Reframe how you think about your work. Focus on the impact of what you do, not just the tasks. One manager I worked with realized she was shaping junior employees’ careers, not just managing production lines.

Before you assume you need to quit, try reshaping what you have. But I need to be honest—job crafting isn’t about settling for less. It’s about taking agency where you can. Some work environments are toxic, and leaving isn’t giving up. It’s self-preservation.

Practical Exercises for Finding Meaning (Life Crafting)

Job crafting works for reshaping current work, but what about the bigger picture of your life? That’s where life crafting comes in.

Life crafting is a structured process where you actively reflect on your present and future life, set goals for important areas (social, career, leisure), and make concrete plans to align those areas with your core values. Research shows this seven-step writing-based intervention enhances study success, mental health, and helps participants find more meaning in their lives.

The seven steps are:

1. Explore your values and passions
2. Audit current vs. desired habits
3. Reflect on your social life
4. Envision your future career
5. Contrast your ideal vs. non-ideal future
6. Create goal-attainment plans
7. Make a public commitment

But you don’t need to do all seven steps today. Here are three exercises you can try this week:

Best Possible Future Self Exercise: Write for 20 minutes about your life at 109 years old where everything went as well as possible. What did you do? Who did you become? What mattered most? This Greater Good Science Center exercise helps clarify what you truly value.

Excitement & Frustration Audit: Ask yourself, “When did I feel most excited?” and “When did I feel most frustrated?” Rank your top five moments for each. I’ve worked with people who did this exercise and realized all their excitement came from helping others learn—which led them to start mentoring and teaching, transforming how they experienced their job.

Values Identification: Use a values worksheet to identify your top five core values. Then ask: which areas of my life align with these values? Which don’t?

Here’s the critical insight. Stop waiting for the perfect answer. Meaning doesn’t come from journaling endlessly—it comes from trying things and paying attention to how they feel. Action creates clarity, not vice versa. Kendall Bronk’s research shows that purpose develops through a combination of education, experience, and self-reflection—it’s a process, not a destination.

Pick one habit to shift this week. Just one.

Beyond Career—Other Sources of Meaning

Life crafting and job crafting focus heavily on work and personal goals. But meaning doesn’t just come from productivity and achievement. Some of the deepest sources of meaning have nothing to do with your career.

Meaning doesn’t come from career alone. Relationships, community involvement, creative pursuits, and contributions to others often provide deeper and more sustainable meaning than professional achievement. The Japanese concept of ikigai—which translates to “a reason for being”—encompasses all sources of value: people (children, friends, partners), activities (hobbies, volunteering), and work.

Ikigai was first popularized by psychiatrist Mieko Kamiya in 1966. Research shows that having a clear reason for being—across work, relationships, and hobbies—improves health, increases longevity, and reduces all-cause mortality.

Frankl’s experiential pathway includes this too. Relationships, beauty, nature, love. Giving to others is linked to meaning, not just happiness.

Here’s why multiple sources matter. Consider a corporate executive who found all her meaning through career advancement. When she was laid off during restructuring, she spiraled—no job meant no identity, no purpose. Compare that to a teacher who also coached youth soccer, volunteered at a food bank, and mentored new educators. When budget cuts eliminated his position, he was hurt—but not devastated. He still had multiple sources of meaning to sustain him while he found new work.

If all your meaning comes from career and you lose your job, you face an existential crisis. If meaning is distributed across relationships, hobbies, contribution, teaching, creativity—you’re more resilient. One source takes a hit, but you’re not at zero.

If all your meaning comes from your job title, you’re one layoff away from an existential crisis. Diversify your meaning portfolio.

Common Obstacles and How to Overcome Them

Understanding pathways to meaning is one thing. Actually finding it is harder—especially when you run into the common obstacles that trip most people up.

The biggest obstacles to finding meaning aren’t external—they’re the myths we believe and the patterns we fall into. “Follow your passion” sounds like good advice, but research shows that preexisting passions are rare, and passion often emerges as a byproduct of developing expertise rather than existing beforehand.

The Passion Myth

Cal Newport’s research found that preexisting passions are extremely rare. There’s little evidence that matching your job to a pre-existing interest makes work more satisfying. Skills and mastery often create passion, not the other way around.

The “follow your passion” advice has done more harm than good. Most people don’t have a burning passion waiting to be discovered—and that’s completely fine. Build competence. Meaning will follow.

Newport recommends the craftsman mindset: focus on what you can produce (value you offer) rather than the passion mindset: what the job produces for you (fulfillment you receive).

Analysis Paralysis

Overthinking equals rumination, not progress. You’ve already seen this in the presence vs. search research. Action creates clarity, not vice versa. You need permission to try things that might not work.

Waiting for the Grand Revelation

Meaning is built gradually, not discovered in a flash of insight. Small sources compound over time. I’ve seen this pattern: volunteer for one hour a week, then two, then start organizing community events—meaning emerged through consistent action, not a lightning bolt moment.

Socioeconomic Constraints

Let’s be honest about this. Much meaning-seeking advice assumes you have resources—time, money, flexibility. Not everyone does. Job crafting and Frankl’s attitudinal pathway are available even with constraints. But survival mode is real, and basic needs must be met first.

When to Seek Professional Help

There’s a boundary between existential questioning and clinical depression. If you’re experiencing despair, hopelessness, or suicidal ideation—seek a therapist. Research shows that overcoming an existential crisis often involves professional support. Therapy can be part of the meaning-finding journey, not separate from it.

Start Where You Are

So where do you actually start?

You don’t need a grand plan to start building meaning. You need one small action this week—a conversation that matters, a task reframed toward impact, a value identified and honored. Meaning is built gradually through consistent choices, not discovered in a moment of revelation.

Key takeaways worth remembering:

• Meaning is created through action, not just searching
• Frankl’s three pathways are universally accessible, regardless of circumstances
• You have more agency than you think through job crafting
• Multiple sources of meaning create resilience

Here’s my challenge to you. Pick one action for this week:

• Try one job crafting change (reframe one task toward its impact on others)
• Do the values identification exercise
• Have one meaningful conversation where you’re fully present
• Volunteer for one hour somewhere that aligns with what you care about

Where to go deeper:

• Comprehensive guide to finding meaning in life
• Viktor Frankl’s logotherapy
• Living with purpose
• Five questions that reveal your life purpose

Waiting for certainty before you act is just another form of procrastination. Pick one thing. Try it. Adjust. Repeat.

Purpose develops through a combination of education, experience, and self-reflection—it’s a process, not a destination. The best time to start was yesterday. The second best time is now. I believe in you.