What is a meaningful life?

#1. Does it have a purpose, a goal to achieve? Maybe. Goals do help us in self-improvement. They help us keep learning and exploring. But is that enough? Why are we doing all these improvements? Do we feel fulfilled just by making many improvements in our personality?

Better could be in any way—physically, Mentally, Spiritually, Financially, Prestigeously. But the question remains: why are we getting better? Is it to do something? Or is life all about just getting better infinitely?

#2. Perhaps not. More than any goal may be needed to find meaning. The improvements that we made in ourselves should be a means to an end. They can't be an end in itself. The improvements have to be a stepping stone to a higher purpose. Something bigger than our individual life.

It is evident in our desire to attach ourselves to a company, society, religion, nationality, and many more gatherings. The finding should be something we cannot achieve on our own.

#3. But more than just finding that aim is needed. We might conjure imaginary solutions to world problems. But the devil always lies in the execution. We have to take action. Thought without actions is just theory. It might be accurate, but it is no different from a lie. There needs to be proof that it works.

Only when we take action to solve a problem higher than ourselves do we encounter challenges bigger than our individual problems. We find demos far superior to the ones we faced in self-improvement.

A family trying to raise a child.

A team trying to win a tournament.

A company fighting against the economy.

A culture adapting to evolution.

A nation adjusting to the demands of its population.

Technology altering the course of entropy.

What are our self-improvement goals in front of these higher purposes? A lot of people happily die for them every day. They openly admit that their milestone means nothing in front of them.

#4. But like every goal, a goal is accomplished once it has some impact in the real world. A change that we brought. A solution that we created. Elevating the status quo and generating a result that was better than what existed previously.

And the definition of better is not defined by our subjective experience. Otherwise, we will still be stuck at #1. It is to cause some change in the real world that is accepted as a better solution by the world external to ourselves. By people around us, our team, our customers, our friends, and perhaps the environment.

When we bring about that change in a purpose higher than ourselves, improving on the way by taking inspiration from people other than ourselves, taking actions for a cause bigger than ourselves, and being accepted by people other than ourselves, we can really say that we have accomplished something. Only then we are done.

That is what gives meaning to a life. That is the meaning of life.