Common definitions of meaning in life involve up to four components – purpose, self-awareness, individual responsibility and satisfaction.

  1. You need to choose a worthy purpose or a significant life goal.
  2. You need to have sufficient self-awareness and understanding of who you are – your values, strengths, weaknesses.
  3. You and you alone have the individual responsibility for deciding what kind of life you want to live, and what constitutes a significant and worthwhile life goal.
  4. You will have a deep sense of satisfaction and enjoyment when you have exercised your responsibility for self-determination and active pursuit of a worthy life-goal.

Most psychology researchers consider meaning in life as a subjective feeling or judgement.  Most philosophers propose that there are also objective, concrete criteria for what constitutes meaning in life.

So what do you think?  Subjective only, or also with a bit of objectivity?

Life in itself doesn’t appear to have any meaning, in the same way that a building or a machine doesn’t normally have any meaning – although it may well have a purpose.

Perhaps the question and focus should be on what is the purpose of life.