Maybe you’re reading this because you sometimes imagine sitting on your metaphorical front porch, thinking back on your life. While Jeff Bezos says the last thing you want to feel is regret over chances you didn’t take, more likely you’ll consider whether your life had meaning. More likely, you’re reading this because you currently sometimes ask yourself whether your life has meaning.
How do you answer that question? If you’re Oprah Winfrey, you think about whether you make a difference in the lives of other people. Or maybe you think about whether you feel content. Or fulfilled. Or, most likely, whether you feel happy.
All are good answers, but which emotion consistently predicts a stronger sense of meaning?
According to a study published in Emotion, the answer is hope.
Emma Grede Doesn’t Build for Attention. She Builds for Results
Emma Grede Doesn’t Build for Attention. She Builds for Results
From Good American to Skims, her approach is the same: focus on what sells, what scales, and what lasts.
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Why? Feeling a sense of fulfillment could seem like the key to living a meaningful life, but fulfillment comes from having achieved a desired outcome. You feel good about something you’ve done, but what about the future?
What about what you will do? As a friend of mine likes to say, regardless of your age, you aren’t old until the day you stop imagining, and striving to achieve, a better future.
Other research backs that up. A study published in Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry found that participants who spent five minutes a day for two weeks imagining their “best possible self” in terms of professional, relationship, and personal goals experienced significant increases in optimism, and overall life satisfaction.
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