Crucial Elements of Meaning and Purpose

"Is it a personal quality, like honesty, integrity, industry, friendliness, ambition? Is it a personal talent or gift, such as intelligence, creativity, skills, intuition, street-smarts? Is it work accomplishments and successes? Or is it love and protection of your family? Would you want your tombstone to list: What you gave to the world or what you took from it? What you improved or what you made worse? What you criticized or what you appreciated? What you created or what you destroyed?"

"Maintaining meaning and purpose depends on remaining true to the most important thing about us. Personal Power Personal power is the ability to act in your long-term best interests, while remaining true to your deeper values. Emotional power is using inherently short-term emotions for your long-term best interests, which is no easy task. Most self-help advice on coping with negative emotions makes it almost impossible to act in your long-term best interests. They falsely describe emotion-coping as binary:"

Happiness is fleeting and depends on deeper meaning and purpose. Identifying the most important thing about oneself—qualities, talents, accomplishments, or love for family—anchors decisions and behavior. Choices determine whether one gives or takes, improves or harms, appreciates or criticizes, and shape legacy. Violating core values produces guilt, shame, and anxiety that can transform into resentment, anger, impatience, envy, or general misery when externalized. Maintaining meaning requires remaining true to the central aspect of identity. Personal power means acting in long-term best interests while honoring deeper values. Emotional power uses short-term feelings strategically for long-term aims.

Read at Psychology Today