John R. Miles

What did you notice that told you this was more than stress or burnout?

So does modern life fail because it's overwhelming the young kids or is it because it makes them feel interchangeable?

I love what you're talking about.

I often talk about how so many of us have fallen into this trap of living the life we should be leading instead of the life we could be leading.

And it seems that for many of us, we reach that point older in life.

It now seems that young adults are getting there quicker.

Is what you're saying a reason for that?

I know you're familiar with self-determination theory, and I've had Richard Ryan on this show.

For those who aren't familiar, it's really about three things, autonomy, competence, and relatedness.

In your book, you go into coherence, purpose, and significance when you're defining meaning.

When you look at modern life, which of those three do people struggle the most to experience?

Arthur, what happens psychologically, speaking of significance, when it erodes, but performance remains?

Since we're recording this just before Christmas, and I'm Catholic like you are, so it's a very significant time of the year for us, you bring up It's a Wonderful Life.

And I think with what you were describing, George Bailey is probably the poster child of what you were just describing.

But he discovers his meaning by getting the gift of seeing who would suffer without him.

Why do so few people today ever receive that kind of verdict?

Before we continue, I want to pause for a moment.

One of the core ideas in this new series, Purpose by Design, is that meaning isn't something you stumble into, it's something you build.

But most people don't pause long enough to actually ask the questions that matter, such as, why am I doing what I'm doing?

What is this all for?