A person constantly asks oneself: “Does life even have any meaning, and if so, then what is it? What is the meaning of life? Is life simply a joke, meaningless, contemptible process of natural origin, development, maturity, wilting and death of a person and any other organic being?” The answers to those questions depend on religious beliefs, society’s outlook, level of education, our parents and many other factors.

Sooner or later these questions will worry everyone who is endowed with consciousness. And everybody will have to get to their own conclusions, as these problems are of a personal nature.

The meaning of life is something worth living for, it’s the result of life.

As Erich Fromm once said that humans are the only animal who sees their existence as a problem that has to be solved. When we say “the meaning of life” it reflects the full extend and complexity of life, understanding one’s purpose on this world (predominantly in the social aspect), one’s direction, orientation. The need for a meaning is a need in an integral understanding of the world, a universal explanatory principle. Without such an ideological sense a person doesn’t feel whole, can’t find his own direction.

A person without a purpose in life, without a higher goal, becomes a means for achieving a goal for other people. The establishment of higher goals and values of one’s own life forms a meaning of an individual existence. The need of meaning fixates the need of a person to find out his level of importance in interpersonal relationships, to understand his place in the universe. Involvement to higher powers, working according to them gives a person the chance to feel the value of his individual existence.

To decide if life is or isn’t worth living for means to answer a fundamental philosophical question. All else is secondary, really.

Philosophers have tried to understand the essence of a person, the reason for his suffering. Nature was considered the highest worthiness of life by the ancient philosophers, but not nature that surrounds us, but true nature – the eternal law of being. While people lived in the closed-off world of patrimonial mythology, while their behaviour was strongly regulated by traditional patrimonial morality, the question of the individual responsibility, of the accordance of the life of an individual in the community, didn’t arise.

Every era and every culture has attempted to uncover the meaning of life notion. There are different approaches to understanding the meaning of life: the philosophical approach, religious, routine and psychological approaches. Every one of them possesses a rational element and is worthy of consideration.
The ability to muse about the meaning of life, the inevitability of the end resulting in death has been often considered a peculiarity of people. Indeed, people, unlike other living species, don’t simply live, but know that they live with the inevitability of death. If it wasn’t for that inevitability, then maybe the need for the meaning of life wouldn’t be so crucial. An immortal would have all the time in the world to consider this question.

The urgent need to solve the problem of the meaning of life is usually felt by a society during the transition of eras, when there is a change in stereotypes of life values, a disregard of established traditional forms of behaviour.

The meaning of life problem rises significantly when a person’s emotions exacerbated, when a person feels a need for self-fulfilment, when one’s purpose is thought through, one’s role in social development.

The meaning of life involves something consciously chosen. As it is more than likely the wisest option to choose something that is in accordance with one’s own nature; when this path is chosen freely, not given by somebody else.

A person that simply consumes substances from the outside world and doesn’t experience grief, happiness, love, agony, that is not directed to actively react to the surrounding world simply exists. Basically life is a process of an active relationship with the world, adapting to the surroundings in accordance to one’s needs. So in order to live, it is insufficient to just satisfy biological functions.

Only the individual can find the right path. It is worth asking yourself about your place in the world. Afterwards, depending on the answer, chose among the possible options ways of personal self-fulfilment.

I think that the meaning of life is a hard subject to deal with for most people. And there are quite of few people that never find the answer for themselves. One could say that religious people have it a lot easier and maybe that’s true. The thing is, though, that most religions emphasize on the reward which you get in the afterlife. Which for me sparks up a question: so what are you meant to do in the meantime? You may be a good person to others, but does that necessarily mean that I’m going to feel fulfilled and happy? I mean we still have to somehow suffer through to the afterlife…

No wonder it is considered to be one of the eternal questions…

Our happiness is strongly connected intertwined with the understanding of the meaning of our life. And the deeper the meaning of life is comprehended, the higher our chances of happiness are. It is very important to have a goal, yet what it is exactly can be even more important.

“Know thyself” – is a famous quotes by Socrates. A sufficient amount of mistakes, the collapse of all hopes, fates are factors that surface because of inattentiveness to oneself, through the absence of an objective analysis of one’s wishes. It is also very important to remember that people are not static beings and that as time passes by we get older, have different opinions to the younger versions of us. As a result our needs and wants change and so should our meanings of life equally be modified.