There is an uncomfortable truth about life many of us spend years trying to avoid: Meaning is not discovered, it is created.
Most of us grow up believing life will become meaningful once we have achieved enough.
A better salary, a larger house, a promotion, a measure of financial independence, all of these are expected to arrive carrying a lasting sense of fulfilment.
They improve the quality of our lives, certainly, yet they seldom answer the deeper question of why we are living them at all.
History is crowded with people who possessed extraordinary wealth, influence and success, and who remained profoundly unhappy. The philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is one such example. Though materially comfortable for much of his life, his writings portray a man deeply at odds with existence itself, convinced that satisfaction, once reached, only gives way to fresh longing. His life reminds us that prosperity and purpose are not the same thing, and that the first does not produce the second.
Perhaps that is why happiness so often slips through our fingers. We look for meaning in possessions, titles and achievements, when meaning tends to reside instead in what we willingly give ourselves to.
Every meaningful life requires sacrifice.
A parent surrenders comfort to raise a child; an entrepreneur accepts years of uncertainty to build something worthwhile; a student sets aside leisure in pursuit of a qualification; even a lasting friendship asks for time, patience and forgiveness.
The discomfort is never the point. The purpose behind it is.
This is what gives suffering its context. We all encounter hardship, but hardship tied to something we value becomes far easier to bear than hardship that feels directionless.
Meaning is also deeply personal. Communities, faith, families and organisations can offer a shared sense of purpose, yet they cannot define it on our behalf. Two people may belong to the same cause for entirely different reasons, and what matters, in the end, is the significance each of us attaches to it.
That is why authenticity matters. Living according to values that genuinely belong to us creates a sense of ownership over our own lives. The contradiction between who we are and how we live begins to dissolve, replaced by a confidence that our actions are aligned with what we believe is worth pursuing.
Death remains life’s only certainty, and perhaps that is precisely why meaning matters so much.
Our time is limited.
The responsibility of making it worthwhile belongs to each of us.
– Johannes Shangadi is a Namibian legal professional and managing consultant at Strategic Corporate Advisory Namibia.
