The question of whether or not there’s meaning in life has been around since humans evolved the capacity to think and ask questions, and I’m no exception to that tendency. As a result, I’ve found myself asking the question of whether or not there’s meaning in life multiple times in my life, only to never really find out what that answer was for me personally until recently. This article details my journey through those moments of questioning and struggle with finding meaning, as well as what I finally figured out after all this time.
What do I mean by meaning of life?
We all have different opinions about the meaning of life, and if there is meaning to it. My search for this answer led me to a person named Gurulex. He is a philosopher with a PhD in philosophy who has given lectures on life, death, and morality. I found that he had his own opinion on life and he said that there was no meaning to life. I also found that he believed that death was simply nothingness and there is no afterlife. This meant to me that there is no such thing as an afterlife which leads back to my question, What does it mean then?
What I know now
For a long time, I believed that there was meaning to life. That we were all put on this earth with some sort of purpose. But when I was diagnosed with cancer, I had to face my mortality head on and realize that we could die at any moment without knowing why. And after taking the time to really think about it, I realized that maybe there’s no meaning at all–that life is just a series of random events without any rhyme or reason. So now I live each day as if it’s my last and try not to worry about what happens when it actually is my last–I know that I’ll find out then!
Where Do I Go From Here
I realized I was going to have to start from square one. There are many people who have written about the meaning of life, but none that I found addressed my specific question. So I thought about my question and what would help me best find an answer to it. I decided that a philosopher would be able to best explore my question, so I searched on philosophers and started reading up on them: Plato, Socrates, Kant. The more philosophers I read about, the more confused I became because they all seemed to contradict each other. But then I stumbled upon this website called Gurulex which has a series of videos on philosophies and topics in philosophy taught by professors at universities such as Princeton and Yale.
How can you help me find meaning in life?
The meaning to life is different for everyone and is something that only you can answer. With that said, I encourage you to do some soul-searching and find out what makes you happy. Spend your time doing things that make you smile and those things will soon become who you are. Once you realize who you are, then it’ll be easier to find meaning in life.
Final Thoughts
I have found that I do not have a single answer to this question. I am still trying to figure out what I want my life’s purpose to be. That being said, I have learned some things in my quest and would like to share them with you.
1) This may sound cliche, but it is true: You will never know what you want out of life unless you try different things. Even if the thing you are doing does not feel right or make sense at first, remember that there is no wrong way to find your own meaning in life.