Please, don’t chase meaning in the wrong places: means don’t look for purpose, fulfillment, identity, or validation in things that May not sustainably provide them.
What it may mean
Sometimes we try to fill an inner need through external sources:
- Status: believing achievement will finally make you feel worthy.
- Money: assuming more wealth will give your life meaning.
- Romantic attention: using another person’s love to prove your value.
- Fame or recognition: needing others to admire you to feel significant.
- Power or control: trying to feel secure by controlling everything.
- Constant stimulation: confusing excitement with fulfillment.
- Fantasy or grandiosity: creating an extraordinary identity to escape ordinary dissatisfaction.
- Other people’s approval: allowing their opinions to determine your self-worth.
The problem may not be that these things are inherently bad. The problem is expecting them to answer a deeper question they were never designed to answer.
A better question
Instead of asking:
“What will make me feel important?”
ask:
“What is genuinely worth investing my life in?”
Meaning may come more reliably from values, relationships, contribution, learning, responsibility, creativity, service, and living consistently with what matters to you.
A useful principle
Don’t confuse intensity with meaning.
Something may feel powerful, exciting, mystical, romantic, or important without actually being meaningful.
Real meaning may look surprisingly ordinary:
Doing worthwhile things repeatedly, developing your abilities, caring about people, accepting difficulty, and contributing something beyond yourself.
In short:
Stop searching for meaning in places that merely provide temporary validation. Build meaning through what you value and how you live.
Shervan K Shahhian
LIBERTY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION 