Brian S. Lowery

Now, when psychologists talk about meaningfulness in life, what they're talking about is a sense that our lives matter, that the world makes sense, that we are more than the sum of our minutes, days and years on this planet.

Now, the research on meaningfulness in life suggests there are three big ideas associated with meaningfulness in life.

The first big idea is coherence.

The world needs to feel coherent.

After winter comes spring, after spring comes summer, you get up in the morning, you brush your teeth, you have breakfast, you get the kids off to school, you go to work.

Those little routines make the world feel knowable, predictable.

Coherent.

Now, when you think about personal achievement, it does create sometimes this experience of coherence because we achieve within a framework.

I understood what they expected of me for tenure.

I understood that if I got my papers published, that I did well in the classroom, that I talked to the right people, I did all the networking, there was a good chance I'd get tenure.

If you're trying to lose weight, you understand.

If you change your diet, you exercise, the weight will come off, or at least we hope so.

Now, those things, that framework, gives the world a sense of coherence.

Second big idea associated with meaningfulness in life, second big idea, purpose.

Purpose.

Now, sometimes people use the term purpose as a synonym for meaning in life, and that's not how I mean it here.

Purpose is a way of thinking about what your life can be and should be in the future.

It's a way of directing your actions.

It gives you goals.

When you get up in the morning, you know what you need to do.