Does knowing your direction, having a purpose, lead to happiness?  Photo credit: Jamie-street-_94HLr_QXo8-unsplash

Happiness, a sense of Meaning and Purpose are all things I value and am interested to learn more about, so that I can incorporate them more fully into my life.  I like to support others as they do the same, either through my coaching work or as a volunteer course leader for Action for Happiness (AfH), on their Exploring What Matters course.

As I was preparing for our AfH Bucks monthly meeting on the subject of Meaning, I thought about how often we seem to use the words Meaning and Purpose in the same sentence, almost interchangeably, so I decided to examine them more closely and also figure out how they relate to Happiness. 

Now, as someone with a logical and analytical mind, who likes to make sense of things, I decided to try mapping out these different concepts and here’s what I came up with.  I hope you find it both interesting and helpful.

I thought I’d start with the Greeks!  I like to mix a bit of ancient wisdom with modern psychology and scientific research because whilst our 21^st century lives may look very different to theirs, many of the basic questions we have about life are the same as those considered by philosophers and scholars, from many different civilisations, over thousands of years.

Happiness

“Happiness is the meaning and purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence”

Aristotle

The Greeks identified two different approaches to happiness – hedonic and eudaimonic.  From the perspective of Aristippus, our main objective in life is to experience as much pleasure as possible (often sensory and self-indulgent) and avoid pain.

Whilst I’m not averse to a bit of hedonistic pleasure myself in the evenings (by which I mean a glass of red wine), I recognise that the enjoyment I receive is somewhat fleeting; it doesn’t produce any sense of lasting happiness or well-being.  In fact, it could even be harmful if taken to excess. 

Aristotle, on the other hand, felt it was all about personal fulfilment and realising our potential – eudaimonic happiness, the happiness of our being.  Dr. Ilona Boniwell, who heads the International Masters course in Applied Positive Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University, explains that it comes from “eu” meaning good and “daimon” meaning spirit – “good spirit”, achieving the best conditions for a human being in every sense.  It encompasses not just happiness but virtue, morality and a meaningful life.

I believe that we often pursue the Aristippus version of happiness and then wonder why we don’t actually feel fulfilled or content with life. 

There are four elements of eudaimonia – Growth, Authenticity, Meaning and Excellence. 
(All four of these resonate strongly, in terms of what brings happiness and well-being to me personally and I’ll share my thoughts and learnings on each of these topics over the coming months.)

So, we can thank Aristotle for helping us to see the first connection between Happiness and Meaning – having Meaning is an essential component of a life that’s happy and well-lived.

 

Meaning

Turning now to writers from more recent times, Dr. Martin Seligman, commonly referred to as the “father” of positive psychology and author of many books including Authentic Happiness and Flourish, also identified Meaning as a core component in his PERMA well-being model (the other letters standing for Positive Emotions, Engagement, Relationships and Achievement).

Dr. Michael Steger, an expert on the psychology of meaning, at Colorado State University, identifies three core elements of meaning:

• Significance (a sense of life’s inherent value, that our life is worthwhile)
• Comprehension (our life makes sense to us, there’s coherence, the parts fit together)
• Purpose (having an over-arching mission that we value)

Emily Esfahani-Smith in her book The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life that Matters, identifies four components:

• Belonging
• Purpose
• Storytelling (that our life story makes sense)
• Transcendence (contributing to something outside ourselves)

You can see there is a lot of overlap in these writers’ explanations of Meaning and what is clear is that having a sense of Purpose plays a key role in feeling our lives have Meaning.

Purpose

So, what is Purpose?

Professor William Damon from Stamford University, a leading researcher on purpose in life, describes it as “one’s personal search for meaning” and explains that it has two facets – it’s both stable and involved.

The Japanese have the concept of Ikigai, which translates as “your reason for being” – it’s the sweet spot where what you love, what you are good at, what the world needs and what you can be paid for, come together. It’s a great model which I use in career coaching.

Purpose is about having a mission that we value; something we are motivated to do.  It’s far-reaching and open-ended, a direction we aspire towards and therefore sits above our shorter-term goals. 

 

To sum up, my understanding of how these three concepts relate is that having a Purpose serves to give our lives Meaning and having Meaning in our lives is key to our well-being and Happiness.

For myself, I see my mission, my purpose in life, as enabling others to live happier and more fulfilling lives, to identify their Purpose, to enable them to Perform at their best and to reduce that angst and dissatisfaction so many of us feel, so we can experience greater Peace of mind.  Purpose, Performance and Peace – the 3P’s I like to focus on for a good life!

I’ll be sharing more of what I’ve learned about Purpose – what it is, the benefits and how we find it – in future articles.

I’ll leave you now with some questions to reflect upon:

• Are you clear on your Purpose? 
• Does your Purpose give Meaning to your life? 
• How would you rate your level of Happiness and Well-being on a scale of 1-10? 
• What, if any, changes would you like to make in your life?

My intention with my blogs is to provide useful information, challenge thinking and pose questions for self-reflection, to create learning and insight.  My hope is that you do something with these insights to make changes and increase your happiness, well-being and fulfilment in life and work.  

If you’d like to receive my future blogs direct to your inbox, you are very welcome to join my mailing list (you can unsubscribe at any time). 

If you’d like a greater sense of purpose in your life and want to explore this in 1:1 coaching, please contact me and let’s have a conversation, to find out how I can be of service to you.