7 Ways To Inject Meaning Into Your Life—Part 3

At different levels in our lives, we have these feelings of emptiness that force us to re-evaluate the essence of our existence. Different people react to these feelings differently. When we lack meaning in life, it is never the same. Some people will look to fill the emptiness from the outside in. Some will ignore the feelings and move on to the next task in life.

In the previous article, I highlighted different ways that you can use to know you lack meaning in life. I probably didn’t cover all of them but what is there is sufficient enough. All in all, the heart or the core of your being is central in giving you feedback on whether you have meaning in life or not.

Facade of Meaning?

That’s why people might have a look at your outside appearance in life; they see the gadgets you have and the relationships you have built and the accolades you have and think that you have it made. However, your core, your very essence will give you feedback and tell you whether all that is a façade or whether it all relates to meaning.

That being said, we need to start talking about how exactly we can inject meaning into our lives. I have realized one thing: We might need to do this not just once, but several times. Even the people who have already discovered their purpose in life at one point in time will feel like they lack meaning. This might not be emanating from the purpose but probably from the lifestyle they are leading.

Injecting Meaning

There are seven different things that I can think of that you can do in order to inject some semblance of meaning and purpose into your life. Of course, these seven ways are always contextual. They will vary from one season of life to another and also from one person to the next. Other aspects such as your environment and culture might come to play but the core of finding meaning is the self.

1. Rebirth

To be honest with you, human beings are born more than once. This is regardless of whether you are a born again Christian or not. We are all born at least once. The first birth is the physical birth. We are unaware of it as we are passive participants in it.

However, as we grow up, we become aware of different things in life and the different directions that we can take. Our spirits and our core beings have developed well enough to start internalizing and mulling on the subject of meaning in life. Whether you like it or not, as long as you are human, the subject of a life of meaning will sneak up on you from time to time.

“Whether you like it or not, as long as you are human, the subject of a life of meaning will sneak up on you from time to time.”

— Lawrence Namale

There are different examples of rebirth. To me, rebirth is the conscious realization of a new direction that you have to take in life. This rebirth is always going to have the aspects of meaning, responsibility, action and direction. When someone gets a new faith, it is an example of rebirth.

Rebirth To Meaning

Perhaps the most overlooked form of rebirth relates to finding meaning in life. A rebirth can take place either orchestrated by circumstances around us or by our internal resolve. The catalyst is always that feeling of meaninglessness, like what we are doing at the moment doesn’t bring fulfilment in life.

In some situations, we go on a quest…a journey of sorts to find this meaning. We see this in the life of Steve Jobs when he went to India early on in his life. I honestly do not know of a human being who at least doesn’t have a quest to find their meaning.

“A rebirth is the conscious realization of a new direction that you have to take in life. This rebirth is always going to have the aspects of meaning, responsibility, action and direction..”

— Lawrence Namale

Rebirth To Purpose

A rebirth is needed at a time when you are leading your life without purpose. I know that many people from my part of the world and even the whole wide world have been brought up devoid of meaning and purpose in life. The best we are equipped to do are tasks, jobs, assignments, projects and so on that are geared towards making a living.

We faithfully do as instructed but deep inside of us, we find that what we are doing doesn’t have meaning and doesn’t bring fulfilment. The problem is that as long as we have been given the certainty that comes from the salaries we earn; we have become so adept at turning off the cry of our hearts for a life of meaning.

Let’s Balance Meaning and Bills

Even when we do not have jobs and are looking for a livelihood, we seldom approach this search from the angle of finding our meaning. The pain of the moment and the pressure of life speaks so loudly that we consider the meaning of life a thing that is a luxury, only to be embarked on after we have our bills paid.

Fair enough, we have got to pay our bills. However, as long as we have not discovered what our purpose in life is, we will always have the feeling of emptiness, the feeling of lack of meaning in our lives. We, therefore, have to orchestrate our rebirths and get to find out our purpose.

Rebirth is the first way you can inject purpose into your life. You have to be deliberate about it. I have created an online course towards that end that can help people to discover, own and deploy their purpose and thus live their lives with meaning. The course is for 8 weeks. You will do this just once and for all. Get it here.