Use Your Imagination to Create Meaning

Human-beings are given the ability to create our own meaning. We write our narratives in our minds. If you want to make your life mean something, you’re in control of that. Just let things in life mean something to you and they will. You don’t need an external source to tell you life’s point, use your brain and craft one for yourself.

2. Who Needs Meaning When You Can Have Orgasms

La petite mort is French phrase that means “little death” and is used to describe orgasms. We all have the ability to dissolve into ecstasy, and I’m not just talking about sex. Your opportunities to experience pleasure in this life are endless. The more intense the pleasure the more you’ll forget that every second brings you closer to death. So close your eyes while eating sushi, jump out of planes and have consciousness shattering sex. Sure it might not lead to a meaningful life, but it will sure be a fun one.

3. Play One of Society’s Many Games

So life is a game. We’re playing the human game. The human game has many different sub-games, there’s the banker game, the stay at home mom game, the politician game, etc. If you invest in one of these games, it will give your life meaning. The more you invest, the more the victories will mean to you.

Think about an Olympian crying because they got the Gold Medal. In the bigger scheme of things does that mean something? Not really, but it means something to them because they were so invested in that game.

So pick a game and play it the best you can, even though you will die, you can at least have fun trying playing one of the many games life has to offer.

4. Immortality is Not a Prerequisite For Meaning

“We’re beings towards death, we’re featherless two-legged linguistically conscious creatures born between urine and feces whose bodies will one day be the culinary delight of terrestrial worms.” - Cornel West

So don’t take everything so seriously; we’re here so we might as well have fun with it. We all live and die, but that’s what makes our lives mean something. The fact that any of it happened at all is what makes life valuable.

“We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born...We privileged few, who won the lottery of birth against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state from which the vast majority have never stirred?” - Richard Dawkins

If you want to hear more of my thoughts check out my TEDxTalk!