Nathanael Garrett Novosel - The Meaning of Life: A Guide to Finding Your Lifes Purpose

A guide to finding your lifes purpose

Copyright 2020 by Nathanael Garrett Novosel

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

The author of this book is a professional researcher, analyst, and advisor, not a religious leader, prophet, medical professional, lawyer, or psychiatrist. The information contained in this book is meant to provide insight into how to find meaning in your life and is not dictating what to think, how to live, which rules to follow, or which beliefs you should hold. It is neither claiming to be nor acting as a replacement for legal advice, medical diagnoses, or mental health services. It does not recommend harmful or unethical behavior. The author assumes no liability for any damages caused by misuse or misinterpretation of the information. Each individual is responsible for his or her own life choices.

Written and Published in the United States of America

Published by Nathanael Garrett Novosel

Crownsville, Maryland

1st Edition, January 2020

EPUB eBook ISBN: 978-1-948220-03-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019920080

Rate the degree to which you agree or disagree with the following statements using this scale:

I understand the ways in which I can grow as a person._____

I understand how I define success in my life._____

I know what I can do to make progress in my life._____

I appreciate what I have in life._____

I desire activities, abilities, or things that I currently do not have._____

I believe that I can do, be, or have what I want in life._____

I understand what my emotions are communicating to me._____

I follow rules in life that protect and benefit myself and others._____

I know how to use the resources I have to support my goals in life._____

I feel like I have a choice in what I do or accomplish in life._____

I live my life with a sense of purpose._____

I am pleased with how my life is progressing._____

My life will be better in the future than it is today._____

Total: _____

Results

13-39: Struggling to find meaning in life; dedicate time to life exploration and analysis

40-65: Experiencing some issues or uncertainty in life direction; focus on clarifying specific areas

66-91: Living life with purpose; monitor for changes and opportunities for improvement

Save your total score so that you may see if your scores increase after reading the book and completing the post-book assessment. If you scored low in a particular statement and wish to focus on improving it, refer to the following mapping of the assessments statements to the relevant parts of the book:

Section to Reference When Scoring Low in a Statement

Statements 12: Growth

Statement 3: Experience

Statements 45: Desire

Statement 6: Belief

Statement 7: Emotions

Statement 8: Ethics

Statement 9: Support

Statement 10: Choice

Statements 1113: Each Chapters Questions and Exercises

Life, under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning.

Viktor E. Frankl

My life is my message.

Mahatma Gandhi

Growth The meaning of life is to grow

Experience You grow through experience

Desire Desires motivate you to have experiences

Belief Beliefs shape your perception and sustain your desires

Emotions Emotions indicate your life direction and progress

Ethics Ethics are principles for your growth within a society

Support Support enables you to realize your lifes meaning

Choice Your choices create your destiny

What is the meaning of life? is a complex question. People who ask it usually want to know four things:

How did life come to be?

How does life work?

How should I live my life?

What should my goal in life be?

The more important question, though, is why they are asking it. Ultimately, people want to know what to do with their lives and how to do it successfully. A rational person, then, is trying to use knowledge about where life came from and how it works to inform their goals and behaviors.

Unfortunately, life is so complex that no one set of instructions or rules could cover the infinite number of possible situations. Still, there are plenty of people looking for guidance and plenty of people willing to provide this guidance. As with any advice, the recipient has to decide whether any particular recommendation applies to his or her situation.

The problem with most life advice is that it combines the answers to these four questions and makes them interdependent. For example, one recommendation might be that life was created by God and follows the rules of God, so people should have an ultimate goal to worship Him and behave following His rules to live a pious life. These universal recommendations answer all four questions collectively, requiring anyone who only asks one of them to subscribe to the whole worldview.

By combining them, they often conflate them. Many religious and philosophical texts start with how life began, what the point is, and then recommend how to live based on that. There are two problems with this approach: subsequent scientific findings regarding how life works are filtered through the lens of that particular worldview, and life recommendations are based on who or what created the universe.

People should not be trying to use how and why life and the universe came into existence to determine what their goal should be and how to behave. An athlete does not need to learn who invented the sport and why to understand it, appreciate it, and excel at it. Instead, people should use their knowledge of how life works to define their own goals and behaviors.

Because how life works should be the basis of how to lead a meaningful, successful life, three of the four questions can be set aside for now. How life originated may have a scientific answer (i.e., a chemical reaction) or a religious one (i.e., God), but the former has no bearing on lifes meaning while the latter can never be proven scientifically. Goals are subjective, so no one can say with universal applicability which goals everyone should have for their lives. Finally, you cannot understand how to approach life optimally until you understand how life works and what the goal is.

The reality is that no answer to the question of how to live life will satisfy everyone, and there is no single way to live life that is objectively best. There are plenty of successful approaches to follow when you have a specific goal, but people asking about the meaning of life are likely searching for what that goal should be.

Providing universal advice on how to identify the right goal and approach it in the best way possible is not easy. Philosophers have debated for thousands of years whether there are such things as objective, universal rules for living a successful life. Those conversations are often abstract, so most actionable guidance defines a set of common goals, such as health, wealth, status, and love, and explains to the listener what to think and do to succeed.