Five Reasons You Should Stop Searching

If you are still of the belief that the ultimate meaning of your life can be found “out there”, and you are committed to searching for that meaning, this post might help you take a different view.

Reason One: What are the chances?

Really, think about it, what are the chances that somewhere out there on this planet, there is someone or something that holds the answer to why we are all here and what we are meant to do while we’re here? Even if you are devoted to a particular religion, nowhere is it written in any scriptures or revealed to any human, what we are supposed to do while we’re here. Sure, in general terms you might be told that what you do or do not do while alive on Earth determines whether you get to go to heaven or not. But why do you even want to go to heaven, or partake in an everlasting afterlife? What’s the meaning in all of that? If anything, religions may leave more unanswered questions about the meaning of it all than for those of us who don’t follow a religion. Waiting for you or someone else to uncover “The Meaning Of Life” is just a waste of time.

Reason Two: Searching is Easier than Creating

I think one of the reasons that people prefer to search for meaning rather than create meaning is because it is easier. Many people search for the perfect partner to make their life complete. They are on the hunt for the perfect career or workplace, waiting for that one special job that will make their days fulfilling. They search for the perfect course to enrol in rather than embark on a new pursuit and learn as they go. Perhaps they read endless self-help books in the hope that there, on one page in one sentence, is the answer to what they should be doing with their life. All of these are ways to avoid moving forward with life and to avoid tapping into your deeper potential. Ultimately though, anything worthwhile takes some effort from you and small steps forward using your own volition to create a life you want to live is where real living starts.

Reason Three: There is too much Choice

Maybe you know that endless searching is the equivalent of endless procrastination, but you just can’t make a choice. On a recent episode of How I Met Your Mother, Barney Stinson’s dream came true; he has hundreds of gorgeous women calling him to hook up. Every time he meets up with a woman, his phone rings and he has another woman to choose from. This happens again and again and he can’t resist answering his phone in case it is a call from an even hotter woman. Now this was a really hilarious episode with a deeper and truer message. You have so much choice, so many options, that you may find it difficult to choose a path, choose a pursuit, choose something to care about, because what if that means you have missed a better path, a better pursuit? But how is that working for you? Aren’t you frustrated? Don’t you feel scattered and a little lost because you can’t commit? Choices aren’t permanent, they’re just for now. There is enough time for you to explore various sources of meaningfulness so just choose a place to begin.

Reason Four: Searching is Fun, But Only for Awhile

Searching for what your life could mean, how it could be fulfilling, improvements you can make, activities you could pursue is really fun. It’s like the ultimate research project. And let’s face it, with the internet as a resource you can just keep searching and searching. The problem here is that you will spend time on all the research and never actually come to putting it all together. It’s like you’re a PhD student who spends all their years reading and researching, but never comes to a point where they’ve clarified their thesis or begun writing their argument. The search often seems like the meaningful part, and in many ways it is, but in the end you want to actualise all this research and make it count for something. Allow yourself to research different avenues and to daydream about different possibilities, but give yourself a time frame and then start acting.

Reason Five: We’re All Creative

You probably don’t really believe that you are capable or creating your own life, you may feel this is reserved for the special more creative few. If you look around it seems there’s a lot of evidence to support this, most people are just going through the motions, even those people you most admire. That’s only because they haven’t yet made a choice to live differently. Each of us is creative. Perhaps not in the usual sense, as an artist or a poet. We are all creative in the sense that we can create our own direction, our own path, and we don’t have to travel the extremely worn path of all the generations who have come before us. You don’t have to be a Renaissance Man or Woman to forge your own path, you just have to decide that today that is what you’re going to do. You can create a life of your own choosing rather than just living in the default setting and you don’t have to believe for a second that you’re not creative enough to do so.

Are you reading to stop searching and start creating?

Related posts:

1. Are you really ready to create your own meaning?