How Your Perspective Shapes Your Meaning of Life

What is the meaning of life? People most commonly answer that by asking questions like "What is my life purpose?" Or, "Is there a God?" Or, "Why am I here?" I could go on with many other questions people have asked throughout the ages. The answers will depend on whom you ask. The point is that the meaning of life can be looked at through a number of different perspectives. It is always relative to the context in which the asker is living. Stop to think right now how you would answer these questions. Perhaps you would answer with "being happy", or "making the world a better place". Your personal development or self improvement will depend on your ability to recognize the perspectives in which you live and breathe.

If you want to discover life's meaning, you could sit in quiet contemplation for long periods of time and perhaps come to some greater understanding of the question or its answer. I wrote about finding your "metaphor for life" in the article on the Meaning of Success. But if you want to shortcut the whole process and get right to the heart of the matter, it is really quite a simple thing to do. How? Simply look at your actions and the results you get in your life, and that will tell you all you need to know about the meaning of life.

At least your life - which is all any of us can knowingly do anyway. Let's put away any pretense that any one of us could explain the meaning of someone else's life. It's okay that different people will come up with different ideas about the meaning of their life. Life ends up feeling a lot more gracious and open if you stop projecting your meaning on someone else anyway.

Your Life Lens

Let me start by describing the importance of context. The context through which you live can be seen as a filter or lens through which you view everything. Some people choose to use one context for certain areas of their life, while using a different context for a different area of their life. This is often the case if one of their life lenses is something like "What others think of me". The "religious hypocrite" is a classic example. On Sundays, they live as though God is the center of their life because everyone at the church they attend expects something like that of them. But on Mondays, when it's back to the grind of work, this person is still living their life through the lens of "What others think of me", and so they adapt to the culture and behaviors more expected in their "dog eat dog" business environment. They have created a meaning of success that holds different values for the different "parts" of their life.

This type of compartmentalization of life can be very stressful on a person. It might also make it more difficult to discover the meaning of life for them since the over-arching connection may not be as clear. In other words, it's easy to confuse culture with context. A better way to understand this is that the beliefs you live by in each unique environment exist within the context of your life lens.

Whatever meaning you give life should apply equally within all areas of your life.

A more integrated approach would be to have several overlapping life lenses from which to view the meaning of life. Each of these contextual lenses would have varying levels of strength or importance with respect to the other lenses. For example, in my (Steve's) life, one of my contextual lenses could be described as "usefulness". I look at the meaning I get from my life as seen through how "useful" it is. "Useful" of course is also defined by me. Some of the definitions of "useful" that come to mind are best phrased as questions: "Does it teach me something?" "Does it bring good feelings to me or someone else?" "Does it produce the changes or results in my life I intended it to?"

How to Integrate the Meaning of Life in All Contexts

However, "usefulness" is not my only life lens and there are others that overlap or compliment it in different ways by emphasizing different aspects of life's meaning for me. Another example of a contextual lens for me gained through years of life lessons would be "graciousness". Giving grace to someone else doesn't necessarily feel very "useful" at times (at least in the moment). It can feel on the surface like I'm giving up the most "useful" thing in exchange for the other person to "rise from the ashes" so to speak. But I can (if I step back a bit) also see how "graciousness" is also "useful" (and visa versa) by noticing that it brought good feelings to another person - which often will produce good feelings within myself as well. When I feel this cascade of good will, life has more meaning for me.

Perhaps in the end, the entire meaning of life for me could be summed up in the word "love". But I honestly don't always live with that level of perception - where I exist as the essence of love in all I do. I am suddenly imagining the spectacular results that would fill my life if that were the case! But the reality is that we are all evolving in our lives. One shouldn't assume that just because one discovers the meaning of life now, it will remain the same throughout all of one's life. In any case, I can't say that "love" would be the meaning of life for everyone for all time - only that it is my hope, desire and focus to live with that end in mind. It seems "useful" to me anyway. What about you? What is your context for the meaning of life and how does that make a difference in your life?