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comment by joelg236
joelg236  ·  4341 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: There's More to Life Than Being Happy

Is meaning equal to purpose? This article, and Viktor Frankl almost use the two terms interchangeably. For me at least, there is a huge different between having meaning and having purpose. Purpose is something you need to do, something achievable. Meaning is something entirely different - something you know is important to you and requires attention. These terms being used as basically the same says something about his outlook. He almost sees meaning as something you need to achieve. I'm not sure if I could get on board with that.

Otherwise, I completely agree with the man. He has a lot of wisdom from life experiences, and I admire him in that respect. I certainly agree happiness is not all there is to find. Just thought I'd point out that he has an interesting opinion on what meaning is.

    "Happy people get a lot of joy from receiving benefits from others while people leading meaningful lives get a lot of joy from giving to others," explained Kathleen Vohs, one of the authors of the study, in a recent presentation at the University of Pennsylvania. In other words, meaning transcends the self while happiness is all about giving the self what it wants. People who have high meaning in their lives are more likely to help others in need. "If anything, pure happiness is linked to not helping others in need," the researchers write.
I'd argue that meaning that transcend the self, but also be part of yourself. Meaning that basically, even if no other human being in the world existed, you could still find meaning within yourself.