Are you doing what matters most to you? Does your work give your life meaning?
I’m not asking whether you are happy, but whether your life has meaning. A study in the Journal of Positive Psychologyexamined attitudes toward happiness and meaning, and found that a meaningful life and a happy life overlap in certain ways, but are ultimately different.
“While happiness is an emotion felt in the here and now, it ultimately fades away, just as all emotions do,” wrote Emily Esfahani Smith about the study in The Atlantic. “The amount of time people report feeling good or bad correlates with happiness but not at all with meaning. Meaning, on the other hand, is enduring. It connects the past to the present to the future.”
Another study confirmed this, she said. “People who have meaning in their lives, in the form of a clearly defined purpose, rate their satisfaction with life higher, even when they were feeling bad, than those who did not have a clearly defined purpose.”
Giving your work meaning can be a simple shift in perspective, as it was for me.
Back in the 1990s the focus of our company, Learning Strategies, was to sell more audio programs and enrollments. We were sales oriented as were most companies.
Then we switched our mindset from selling to helping more people experience their potential, and two things happened. First, I felt more fulfilled and happier, and second, our business grew significantly. The level of meaning in my life increased considerably as did the success we enjoyed.
My colleague Stewart Emery and his co-authors of the book Success Built to Last interviewed two hundred of the world’s most successful people and uncovered the same experiences.
“Above all else, no matter where they have chosen to excel—in business, the arts, sports, social service, community, or family—each has achieved success by focusing on the things that matter most to them,” he said.
“Enduringly successful people follow their hearts, aligning their thoughts and actions with their passions,” said Stewart. “They become energized by their work and stay on purpose and committed in the face of setbacks and challenges.”
Read more HERE.
About the Author
Pete Bissonette is author of the forthcoming novel, Breakfast Tea & Bourbon, wherein living a meaningful and joyous life is woven throughout the story. He is the president of Minneapolis-based Learning Strategies, a personal development training and publishing company founded in 1981.