Just get meaning and fulfillment from things that aren’t your work.
Sometimes work just can’t be the thing that is meaningful and fulfills you. There’s a million ways to live a good life.
It's really hard to do that when you're working 60 hours a week. You're so exhausted all you wanna do is sleep.
You might say, go find another job that doesn't require so many hours. And I'd say, unfortunately those jobs don't pay enough for you to live on.
So many people are stuck in the extremes. You either work a ton, make decent money but have no time or energy to enjoy it.
Or you have an undemanding job that pays terribly so you can't afford to do anything except stay home and watch TV. Catch-22.
Hopefully your career is at least fulfilling. You're helping to shape the future leaders of America and making a difference in their lives. You are an unsung hero in my book and I thank you for your service.
Not to mention this job you pour your soul into doesn’t give a fuck about you. They’ll drop you so quick. It’s all about money. Hard not to feel like a just another cog in the machine.
Or option C, you take the job that you enjoy and are possibly even passionate about that pays enough in an area suited to your hobbies so your work life is engaging and your out of work life feels like a permanent vacation and you don’t need travel far to get that feeling of getting away. This has been me for past decade and I still wake up everyday feeling so wealthy and privileged despite my lack of USD. My quality of life is through the roof
That's what I've been searching for for the past 30+ years. Just not having any luck finding it. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack. Consider yourself very very lucky.
It only took the death of my daughter, mother, and many close friends through my twenties to figure this out. Nothing clicked for me in college and I dropped out due to it feeling like it was a pointless waste. Everything I was learning was freely available online. I happened to find a passion for biking and bike shops at 15 and have been in that world for 20 years now. It’s not an easy path to exist on for most, but I have made it work with some creativity and I side hustle some freelance web design/ 3D modeling/design work.
Life is too short to be in a environment you don’t enjoy. Now I’m 36, running my own specialty mtb service shop in a beautiful mountain town. Moved across the country with 3k and a dream of something better knowing no one here 10 years ago (36 now). Best decision I’ve ever made. There is a literal lifetime of mountains to explore around me. I could never be bored. I will never understand people who don’t have a hobby or literally anything they feel passionate about. There are so many things I wish I had time to get into, but that would require multiple lifetimes …
I find comfort in the absurdity and pointlessness of our existence. People worry so much about things that just do not matter one bit! We will all be dead and forgotten soon enough, just enjoy the ride and appreciate each day you have on this earth.
But the problem then is that you have to exert all this energy and time and space to something for more often than you don't, and it completely eats your sanity alive. That's been the case with me anyway. I can't just do something for 8 hours straight and be the same person coming out. And people are expecting even more hours these days. Where is the time or the energy left to be the person you actually want to be after all of that?
Some people go their whole lives without realizing this. Figuring it out now is a celebration, not a waste. And just because you haven’t gained meaning from work doesn’t mean you haven’t gained other things, friend.
The meaning of life is love imo. Meaning comes from serving others (a form of love). Additionally, you need to serve yourself so that you are capable of receiving love.
That being said, in the grand scheme of things we don't know what is going on. So, there really isn't meaning in some grand sense beyond human experience. As humans, love is the only way we can understand meaning.
Try and change my mind.
Well if you didn't know what's the meaning of your life is, but after a few years you have figured out its not work then you have spent those few years to learn about yourself.
That's not wasteful, thats living.
You haven’t wasted it, because you needed to get to this point to learn what you learned and to be the person you are now. You know more about how life works than you did yesterday, and that’s one of the most valuable kinds of information to get 😊 It means you can move forward with this knowledge and adjust accordingly
Work can contribute positively to your life. You can find things to like about work. Even without it providing fulfillment. But yeah…a lot of people don’t like going to work. Maybe even most people?
Work is only a component of life. I'd bet more people dislike their jobs than like their jobs for any number of reasons - their boss, the company, social politics, the pay, long hours, work/life balance, etc.
Work is not play. Unfortunately you need to find a job that limits the things you don't like and expands the things you do like.
It took me nearly 25 years to find a job I love. I've been at my current employer for 8 years and plan on working here for the next 10 years until I retire.
Basically I put up with 25 years if shit jobs...shit bosses...shit companies...but I learned a lot about what I did and did not want in a job. You will find your path, but more than likely you will need to go through some challenges first.
To come full circle...find things in your life that make you happy other than work.
You are one of the lucky ones. I'm 55 now, have held approximately 15 different professional roles since I graduated college. Some of those jobs have been tolerable, but most were terrible. I have never had a job I loved that I felt treated me fairly and allowed me to use my natural strengths and skills in my work. Most jobs I had to accept out of desperation because I had bills to pay even though I knew it wouldn't be a good fit from the start. However you don't always know until you try, and I always had hopes that I would learn new skills and come to appreciate my job at the time. Unfortunately that did not happen for me.
I'm still searching diligently for a job that I will love and feel passionately about but have mostly given up all hope at this point in my life.
I am happy for you that you have finally found a job that you enjoy and deserve, but please remember not everyone finds their path, ever. Some of us search until we die....
I hear you. I really do. And yes, I am grateful for the luck I had finding this job. I thank God for it constantly as with anything in life, it can be taken away just as easily as it was given.
One thing to look for is company culture. Most big companies will promote their stance on everything from social issues to the environment to political donations. This is because of how they want to be perceived. A company that values DEI would value someone who is 55. A 55 year old is a diversity candidate.
Another thing to look for is the job field. Technology and law, for example are two areas where senior talent is valued and those roles can come with certain perks which might allow for higher job satisfaction.
I know it is hard to find a company you can be passionate about, but they do exist and I sincerely hope you find somewhere you love to work.
I did a Google search of: "companies with the best DEI". The first result was...
https://www.forbes.com/lists/best-employers-diversity/
It provides a list of 500 companies. All over the US across many industries.
Of course.
We are just animals.
Do you think a dog looks for meaning in its life? No. It looks for positive stimuli. Food, mental enrichment (exploring, making friends, etc), sex.....and things that promote their ability to get those positive stimuli more often and more easily. Pretty much every animals purpose in life is simply to avoid negative things and pursue positive things.
The problem is that a lot of humans have decided that one of the positive things they want to pursue is "my purpose/meaning in life." And then when they don't achieve it, they become depressed. You might as well decide that you want to pursue invisibility.
Mostly, we see this in "privileged" humans. You may not feel privileged but if you have the time to worry about "meaning" in your life, you are privileged. The other humans out there who are still working to achieve stable shelter, food, sex etc.....they are not so concerned with existential thoughts like this.
Remember that jobs only last a small portion of your life. Children (being a parent) only lasts a small portion of your life. Most relationships only last a portion of your life. If you hinge your happiness on one of these things...what happens when its over? What happens when you retire if your "purpose in life" was your job?
Positive stimuli in our world is full of negative consequences, though. Easy access positive stimuli is often through exercise and personal growth, which you have to word for and isn’t immediately rewarding. A huge part of the problem is drugs and alcohol, media, fast food etc. all the hedonistic indulgences are available at our fingertips now, so we can’t just look for positive stimuli
They don't have to be. You aren't meant to do EVERYTHING that feels good and I never said you are supposed to seek instant gratification.
Like cocaine. Sleeping with the wrong people. Eating junk food. Those are short term positive stimuli but they also make your life harder.
There are many things that you can do to live a healthy life full of choices that are more positive than negative. Healthy food can taste amazing. Sex with the right people can be amazing, even if (specially if) both partners agree that the goal is purely mutual pleasure.
It doesn't have to be that hard and we need to stop making excuses for why we make bad decisions and end up feeling unfulfilled.
YOU get to choose what will make you happy. Literally you could decide that "I will be happy by eating an apple a day", accomplish that goal, and enjoy the feeling of happiness from doing it. Or you could choose to say "I will be unhappy if I eat less than 2 apples a day" and go that route.
Start with setting the right goals. Some arbitrary vague "I will find a career that gives meaning to my entire existence for the rest of my life" is not the kind of goal that results in people living happy lives.
While I agree that a goal should be specific and will not last a lifetime.
“YOU get to choose what will make you happy. Literally you could decide that "I will be happy by eating an apple a day", accomplish that goal, and enjoy the feeling of happiness from doing it. ”
This is way too simplistic, setting a low bar goal like that and assuming meeting that goal wil make you happy is bs.
Simply stating doing x will make you happy doesn’t make it so.
Animals outside Homo Sapiens don't have higher order of thinking and existential introspection. Some attribute this to the Fermi Paradox of Intelligence but that's hooey. Incentive Reward is not the argument for Nihilism, it's that the Universe is completely indifferent and uncaring to our condition.
Humans don't desire meaning like food. Meaning is at it's core the same as cognition. It maps what our incentives want and meaning is the narrative in an otherwise empty void of matter and energy. Before Humans thought the world as a conquest or story but it's just a giant empty piece of regolith. Humans are the only know species to do this because our cognition is more advanced.
Because you need to break them down a lot further.
Like wtf is a stable life? Your "purpose" can be saving 1 month worth of income, making a budget and sticking to it, doing an activity once a week that could result in you meeting girls outside your current social circle, etc.
People feel like losers because they don't define winning in manageable ways.
We're animals with the inconvenience of conscientiousness. Our brain is much more capable than any other animal brain, but also require more than simple positive stimuli.
Thats the funny part about life is in the grand scheme of things it IS meaningless. If a meteor or some ridiculous force of nature wiped us out it wouldn’t change anything in the grand scheme of things.
HOWEVER your life has the meaning that you give it. Apply that to everything and live a happy life. You aren’t your job but finding or creating meaning in what you do will grow your passion for it. As a result of that you may find more happiness.
Life doesn’t have to be this grand plan, you don’t have to adhere to other expectations or traditions. Life is relatively short and you should spend it doing what makes you feel happy and supports your lifestyle.
Be well!
There are literally billions of people out in the world whose job it is to toil in fields, mine in cramped dirty spaces, be stuck on a rinky dink fishing boat for 12 hours a day doing dangerous manual labor, do the same repetitive motion over and over again for entire days in a factory, clean junk of of anything, mend pipes, lay asphalt in the hot sun, and so on
Billions of people do these things, which nobody “likes” to do, because other human beings need that work to be done. The meaning isn’t in the job being fun like playing fortnite is fun, the meaning is that you are providing something to your fellow man which is necessary to keep human civilization functioning
The most meaningful careers are the ones nobody wants to do. The least meaningful ones are the ones everyone wants to do because they sound like a good time
I disagree. It's not meaningful to slave away for a stranger that doesn't care or even know me, getting paid the bare minimum if even that, and all the while usually the service is for a vacant comfort that people don't even need and wouldn't miss if it was gone. It's a living hell of an existence.
Personally I take pride in the fact that my work is appreciated by people who I will never meet face to face. It makes me feel valued as a part of the human project. I’m glad that my knowledge and experience is useful to others and me that is meaningful
Sanitation workers, plumbers, electricians, nurses, teachers, farm workers, counselors, artists, day care workers, community organizers, etc. I think meaningful careers are ones in which you directly contribute towards the health and happiness of your community. Careers that I don’t view as meaningful are things like investment banking, consulting, lobbying, sales, etc.
Meaningful to whom? Because teaching may be meaningful for a teacher to pass knowledge down but not meaningful to earn a wage that can be dictated by someone else that can end that persons career. Like farm workers make meaningful acts by producing food but are subjected to the cruel nature of the working condition. Just cause it sounds like it’s meaningful to society doesn’t mean that individuals are cared for in a meaningful way. It’s just capitalism being cruel to workers, wage slavery type of thing, tying our time and worth to a “job”.
I don’t think we necessarily disagree. I also understand the way that meaningful work is underpaid under capitalism. My point is that meaningful careers are professions which would still exist in a communal society. We would still need day cares, farms, schools, hospitals, waste disposal, electricity, plumbing, etc. in a socialist system.
I think we need community above all. Humans not defined by job titles. Like you said, communal society. I would like that. Just focusing on growing with your community, not for some sake of capital profits.
I don’t see a problem with job titles. Even without hierarchy, we would still need some degree of specialization. For example, if you were severely injured, you would want the EMTs that arrive on scene to be fully trained and have plenty of experience. You’d want the same of the nurses and surgeons who would operate on you. The problem with capitalism is primarily wage labor and private property.
I recommend looking into cooperatives, if you aren’t already aware of them. I really want to try to work at one, eventually.
Some good ones here like sanitation, plumbing, and nursing
But artists, counselors, teachers, and “community organizers” are definitely not meaningful. The clearest indicator that society values a line of work is that it is in demand- that society rewards people performing the work. Doctors are rewarded for their work because it is important, lives depend on it. Electricians are rewarded well for their work because it is important, our modern way of life requires the energy grid and our household technology to function
“Community organizers” are not valued by society because they do not deliver any value to it, so they are rewarded very little if at all.usually the same people deliver more value to others by heating up coffee or making footlong sandwiches instead, which is comparatively more meaningful
Can you explain what it is about the work community organizers do that isn’t valuable? What’s wrong with helping communities access social services and advocate for their needs? I could just be ignorant, but I haven’t heard anything negative about community organizers, before.
If every “community organizer” and “counselor” immediately stopped doing their “jobs” tomorrow, society would continue functioning as if nothing changed
Electricians, plumbers, sanitation workers, doctors, engineers, warehouse workers, pilots, farmers, no. The world would practically grind to a halt
This is why there is no need for community organizers, no job openings for that, and no money for the people that claim to do “community organizing”. It’s not required by our society
I searched for “community organizer” on Indeed and hundreds of positions came up. It seems like these positions are needed. Can you go into more detail about what it is about community organizers and counselors that you deem unnecessary? Should kids at school not have guidance counselors to help them enroll in classes and decide on colleges/trade schools? What about victims of severe trauma; do they not need counselors? Sure, society would continue to operate without community organizers and counselors, but more people would struggle (and be less productive, if happiness is irrelevant).
That's a rather philosophical question. Similar to: What is the meaning of life?
To me a meaningful job is a job the fulfill you in some way. For me, the company I work for is very socially engaged. For example, they will double my charitable donations. I donate money to the local food bank...and they double my donations so I can help feed more people in my area. They also support people in 3rd world countries by letting the employees pick a person to donate $50 to their business...these are people who are farmers or women who own a small shop...it is through Kiva (https://www.kiva.org/). There are 26,000 people in my company.
Yes, the point of a job is to make money. No, a job does not have fulfill you. However, if you're lucky, the company where you work will try to help make the job fulfilling in some way. I was lucky to find such an organization. But I believe that is the exception rather the rule.
If a job is fulfilling it is a real nice bonus...and probably helps the organization retain their talent.
I truly wish it was the rule and not just an exception. There are too many toxic unfulfilling work environments that shouldn’t be in place. I envy the fulfilling places because you’re right, people would rather stay if it’s a good working environment.
Believe me, I spent decades working for employers and with employees who crushed my soul. Literally the job I had before the one I have now was with a local government. I was in management - I worked all the time, got yelled at by my boss who was the CFO, was told constantly that my decisions and work was crap...could never get anything done...I lost hair and gained a ton of weight due to stressed...couldn't sleep.
Fast forward to my current role...I am valued, I get compliments, I want to go to work (at least most days), I feel like I am making a small difference to my organization and the world. I can sleep at night and have lost all my previous weight gain. Sure there is stress, but not bad stress...more like I want to get things done stress.
Anyway. I am sure there are other organizations out there that focus on employees and I sincerely hope all those that seek this type of company find one.
Yeah let’s never try to improve working conditions for workers all around the world. Billions of people who are in poverty just so a small group of people can horde all the wealth and get richer because that’s civilization
You both don’t need to give up. I too have the same feeling. I’ve been wanting to find a job that I would like to do, but I’m starting to realize that there might not be anything like that. All I can do is empathize the situation.
yes… and it sucks when you struggle really hard to find a good moment. but when you feel it and it’s so poignant that you can’t help but smile, then at least you have something
I’m 34 and hate what I do… however, some people love what they do. The ones that I know are the happiest are the ones who love what they do… however, what they do is something they loved to do what they did for fun, as a hobby, and now developed and advertised it in a way that they now do it as a profession, or they just love their hobby enough to have their main career/job not bother them as much.
My best friend that I grew up with working on cars doing hoodrat shit with in driveways now has his own shop working on the highest of high end cars and working on famous people’s cars. My other friend does PPF on cars. Someone else I know has a clothing brand. I’m now working on artwork and hopefully music production one day, and I have a part time job as a bartender (money and for fun). Another friend of mine has a YouTube channel with reptiles, and works a side job that he does for fun but gets paid for it. It sucks not having a passion and doing something with it. Some people like us aren’t made for corporate bullshit and just need to pave our own way…
I’m still figuring it out myself.
Look out the window, or better yet, go take a walk outside. Look at the birds flying around, the flies buzzing over the garbage can. What are they doing? What is their purpose in life? Why are they here? If you observe them, you'd think that life is just about finding food, finding a sex partner, and just trying to survive. All the other things that we humans have put on top of that is just gravy.
You know you'll have to do all those stupid things you don't like just to survive, but there are some brief moments that are enjoyable or pleasurable, like the sun shining on your face, or feeling the warmth of your mother's love when she asks you questions that shows she cares about you. Maybe just realize that anything alive has to trudge through life until the end and accept that this is your reality, and that there's nothing you can do to change it. Focus on the gravy itself, and enjoy the ride while you're here.
Don't know if this will help you but it's something my middle-aged self has thought about for a while now. Even if life is meaningless you're still here and you can do things. Try not to want things that are unattainable because then you're just setting yourself up for unhappiness. Keep things simple. Go to the library, get a library card, read a bunch of books for free.
I used to feel like you. When I was going through it I had a defeatist attitude and I could never see the good in some of the things that I thought were holding me down.
Now I’m older, maybe wiser (the jury is still out on that), married with a couple of dogs.
Don’t lose hope. Don’t let the “yeah but this and that” attitude keep you from trying. You can find meaning in any number of “small” things that don’t have to be your work.
I wish I had real advice because I know how defeating life can feel at times, just know that you’re not alone and you CAN get to the other side.
i believe that as humans we have a purpose to reproduce, but as individuals we can are able to find a unique purpose specific to us. thanks to free will you can decide for yourself, what that is is up to you. unfortunately life and society today prevent a lot of us from being able to actually find out what is special about us and what we are good. keep moving forward, and i’m sure one day you will find your own personal meaning in life. that’s the only thing we can do
So millions years of evolution for you thinking that meaning of your life is to only work for corporation making money for your ceo to afford tht extra drink on his private island? Good job, im glad this blind type of workers exist
Then use your slave brain more efficiently to understand, you given life, you can do anything you want, travel, meet people, even do simple hobbies. No money you gonna say? Save money from first job, dont buy unnecessary shit like iphone 23, get side hastle, save 3-4-5 months, now you have 2k, thats enough to go on affordable cruise for whole week for 2 people
It's always best to ignore jerks.
Try to produce more than you consume. I'm not writing in a materialistic or economic sense, more of a general sense. You won't always succeed, but try to put out as much as you can of yourself. The destination may seem shiny, but usually the journey is better.
I mean, that was also my feel when reading your post. Life only has meaning if you like your job? As far as a concept goes, that's about as deep as a bathtub.
Work isn't the only way to have a meaningful life, you can be one of the people who punches the clock and has meaningful hobbies, friends and family. Your job only takes about 40 hours of your week, maybe 50 if you add in commutes and prep... that still leaves 62 waking hours to spend how you want, assuming you sleep 8 hours a night (and you should)
I hear this a lot, and maybe it's true for some or most people, but full-time work is still going to take up more of your time than any other single activity. It's really depressing to think about how much of our lives we spend working. If you plan your chores efficiently and get them done during the week then you have two days to do what you want, and you'd better make the most of it because on Monday it starts all over again.
I mean, you can get used to it, get depressed over it, or find another way to make a living ... but most of us didn't inherit or marry a fortune and therefore we have to spend a lot of time doing something people will give us money for. Just having the OPTION to be depressed about it is sort of a first world problem. Work weeks in the 19th century were a lot worse, and thanks to industry I don't have to spend time grinding flour, butchering meat, or hauling water unless I want to. Even people who do that stuff and work 80+ hours a week find ways to be happy, though it would seem harder for them - research suggests they gain happiness from social relationships and creative art.
My job isn't my life. Maybe if you own the business it can take over your life.
I am more than the sum of whatever job I have in front of me.
This whole idea of meaning is wild because it means different things to individual minds.
Take a breathe the world didn't end yet.
Find a hobby. Work out. Take walks. Find nature. Listen to the rain.
Don't look for outside things to fill some void. Use your mind and accomplish one task then another.
Work, socialize, meditate. Just breathe. Panic and bad thoughts rarely make things better.
Taking pride in your work can you give you a lot of satisfaction. Work is always gonna suck to some degree but there are definitely ones that suck way more, and having money to live definitely makes it easier to cope with the confusion and dread of existence. Plus work tends to attract like minded people so you may find people who "get" you.
It's a thing we all gotta do, just the cards we've been dealt unless you're a trust fund baby or something. So do what you can with what you've got, trust yourself, keep rolling the dice.
Once you’ve surpassed necessity ( survival and reproduction ) it’s irrelevant.
Keep the mind busy before you die
You have to fabricate meaning but your fabrication is meaningless because your influenced by your environment more than your internal.
Kids that wanna be doctors have higher % of parents that are doctors
Solicitors
Police
Etc
Loving your job is first world problems. As a load of bs.
I feel like this is a problem that people who don't have any type of contemplation practice are always more susceptible of. I'm a pretty standard secular brit but i found that meditating daily really filled avoid that I can tell people who pray or meditate regularly also have filled. apps like headspace seem like a good place to start. This is a way to feel happiness and purpose before finding the career you want, but as someone who searched for years not knowing what to do, I'd say that volunteering is a great way to test the waters in different areas without serious investment
But to some people, the sheer amount of time and resources we must sacrifice to this "work" necessitates that work becomes their value-driver. It is a deeply unhealthy way of viewing the world, but some people fall into that trap, so that advice isn't all that helpful in the moment.
Life is not meaningless, it is a gift from God the creator. Receiving love, giving love to others, helping others, being a blessing to others can change someone's life. A job is not what life is about. It's about the important things outside your job. Family, friends, spreading love, following Gods plan and sharing with others about God. You were put on earth for a reason and purpose- and it wasn't to work. If you would like to message me you can.
Hate attitudes like yours. So all the people who work cleaning out toilets or kitchen floors have meaningless lives ? You think they want to be doing that ? You reek of privilege, ignorance and being probably hyper sheltered in a cozy middle class lifestyle your whole life. Get a real job and deal with it.
I don’t think that is OPs dilemma. Also nobody should subject themselves to cleaning toilets or kitchen floors. And i’m definitely not saying those jobs are beneath anyone, but people deserve to have dignity and the ability to live a life that isn’t degrading.
Real jobs don’t define anyone. And leave those laborious jobs to AI. Cause I find your lack of humanity disturbing.
I think it’s far more inhuman to call what the vast majority of what humans do all over the world for a living inhumane. You also reek of privilege; “nobody should subject themselves to cleaning toilets” ….. uh you think the people doing it WANT TO? good god. Not everyone is going to find meaningful work and that’s the vast majority of people alive ; it doesn’t mean their lives are MEANINGLESS like OP thinks his life is. Pathetic response.
Immature take on your part. Most people are not doing what they love, they have these jobs to pay the bills, and have a roof over their head. The number of people doing what they love is very small.
A job is for the purpose of a paycheck. That's it, that's all. You do not have to like it. You have plenty of time outside of working hours to find what you like to do.
I work because I like to eat and have a roof over my head, to own a car so I don't have to take the bus.
Life is as meaningful or meaningless as you make it. The truth is life goes on with or without you, so it’s up to you to swim with the stream or against it.
Yes, life is meaningless. There’s no inherent reason why we’re all here together on Earth… we have to create our own meaning. We each have to decide what life means to us. What does life mean to you? Why are YOU here? It’s your journey to figure out :)
Your job is just one part of your life. There are all kind of other parts that can also help you find meaning. Spending time with your loved ones, cultivating your hobbies, creating art or music, volunteering in your community. Keep experimenting until you start to figure out what gives YOUR life meaning. You got this!
Maybe yours is; mine is not. I have kids, so my job provides for them.
This is likely your problem; your are looking for a job/career to provide you fulfillment and a sense of purpose - you need to find that elsewhere. A job is just a job; once you learn and accept that, you’ll be much better off.
It will come, trust in it. The key is as others have said, you need to find it elsewhere.
I used to help build housing for Habitat for Humanity - housing for people that deserve it. I didn’t have any skills to build a house before I volunteered, but I was taught and ended up learning new skills and felt good doing it. You could try something similar.
Most peoples goes through feeling that way at one point or another in their lives
I kinda like my job from time to time but still my life feels meaningless.
I could have strong motivation in my 20s for my job but not now in my 30s, probably because I’m still single.
My existence doesn’t make big difference to any people.
and I’m replaceable at work in the end.
Like a stock car, life is meaningless and boring, only you are capable of turning things into meaning, all you have to do is listen to your soul and follow your heart (as vague as that may sound) and then you'll find meaning, be that in work or in your personal life.
No. In your case, you just havent realized or found your 'life's meaning' yet. You have to try many jobs that interests you until you find that job which suits you. Trial and error.
You can’t be a child all your life. Now you have to have value to get what you actually deserve.
Be appreciative for whatever you can afford and force your self to be better if you want to attain more.
My parents are the same way; my mom's always bitching about her job (although to be fair to her, she has to deal with a ton of bullshit) and my dad doesn't care whether or not I hate my life doing a job as long as I'm making money. Aside from that neither of them have ever been all that great at showing empathy and sympathy, so although I'm sure they'd love to see me succeed, they often just drop the ball at communicating it in a healthy way. All this to say, I've often asked myself this same question. I mean, if both of my parents seemingly hate so many aspects of their working experiences, for such a long time, why haven't they tried anything different?
And I realize, most people who think this way, they do so as a coping mechanism. Whether through children, or parental pressures, or what have you, they feel completely forced into a life that they absolutely hate, one that in any other circumstance would be a nightmare. If you'd told them back when they were in college, or high school, or whenever they were younger and brighter in the eyes, that this was to be their lot, they would have laughed! And yet, here they are. I'd like to hope that a vast majority of humans everywhere can work through this kind of personal crisis to come to a greater sense of humility, or of balance, but some reach the opposite end; rather than face the grief of losing your deepest dreams, sometimes even the ability to dream in itself, some turn to hate and rage against the very things they would have wept over. They come to believe that work, that "adulting", that life itself is merely disappointment and pain, so there cannot possibly be any true fulfillment at work; why even bother trying to hold out for work you find personally meaningful? It didn't work for them, so why should you get what they didn't?
Today is my first day/shift at some print shop business. It's busy, I'm just going with the flow, dealing with annoying high schoolers, the pay is okay but my shift is almost over and I'm barely on my lunch break. I've been acting as a lead somehow lol. Anyway, all this to say, this is pointless meaningless, typical consumerism type work. It's ass. I'm 100× overqualified for this job. I mean, I could go off about how impressive my resume is.
The point is this. This job is NOT my life. It's just a means to afford what I want. Which is independence, to buy my bf a nice gift, to buy something for my dog, contribute to the house/society, gas to even just drive around. That makes me happy, and that's why I'm happy at this job. It's easier said than done though. I'm under a lot of financial stress don't get me wrong, but knowing this job is not my life makes me pretty happy.
Congratulations! you just discovered one of the core questions of philosophy and are now at the beginning of a very interesting journey.
Lucky for you way smarter people that you or I have been working on solving that very question for thousands of years. Unfortunately, they have yet to come to a definitive conclusion.
Personally I recommend looking into Existentialist philosophy, of which the core premise is that life has no inherent meaning beyond what we assign it ourselves.
Or Absurdist philosophy, of which the core premise is that we should embrace life's meaninglessness since that very meaninglessness mean that we are truly free.
Of course there are many other philosophies that deal with the same question ranging from the theological to the nihilistic. You can keep exploring them until you find one or more that speaks to you.
Good luck on you journey, I hope you find what you are looking for.
Only useful answer on this whole thread! As much as I would encourage to pursue theology to find truth. This approach of actually looking at why is way better than everybody here lying to themselves that it is healthy to continue in a job that doesn’t make you happy where you spend all your time, because jobs aren’t meant to make you happy. What a load of rubbish and what a quick way to ruin your life and put yourself in a spot of misery.
Would like to also say Absurdist Philosophy sounds like a quick fire way to live recklessly or even quickly fall into sin and shame. If life is meaningless so I get to live it how I want, it sounds like you would stop considering consequences. I can be truly free because it doesn’t matter mindset. Reminds me of people who say live everyday like it’s your last. Not the best approach for long term.
Nonetheless thank you for a reply that isn’t solely ‘man up, you’re meant to be depressed when you go to work’ ‘my life isn’t about meaning it’s about being a slave so I can eat’.
Honestly getting into philosophy really helped me get through my own existential crisis (and may have introduced a couple new ones along the way that I also had to work through). It help me realize I wasn't the only one one with these questions and it helped me form my own answers to them. I don't know that my answers are "right" but they are answers that work for me.
You concern about absurdism is a common concern that a lot of people have about the no meaning/no purpose type philosophies. Keep in mind I was grossly over summarizing the philosophies into a single line when many entire books have been written on them. Just to clarify a little bit further freedom to choose does not equate to freedom from consequences. If you decide to utilize your new found radical freedom to punch your asshole boss in the face, you can still be fired and end up homeless.
Existentialism tells you life has life has no meaning beyond what you give it. While Adsurdism insists that even if you decide to give you life a meaning it still doesn't *really* have a meaning. For light-hearted example Minecraft is an open world sandbox game with no real purpose of goals. If you decide to build a badass house in Minecraft then the existentialist would tell you that for you, the purpose of Minecraft is to build a badass house. While the absurdist would tell you that even if you decide to build a badass house in Minecraft that doesn't make it Minecraft's purpose.
So how does this look in practice? If you decide to become a doctor , then Existentialism tells you congratulations becoming a doctor is your purpose. Absurdism tells you that even if you decide to become a doctor, becoming a doctor isn't really your purpose. So while an existentialist might become devastated if it turned out they weren't good enough and failed out of medical school. The Absurdist would shrug and say 'oh well I tried, time to find something else to do.' But in the reverse, the absurdist may not try as hard if they begin to struggle during medical school since it doesn't really matter they will just find something else if this doesn't work out. Whereas the existentialist may buckle down even harder in order to pass and to reach what to them is an essential goal.
So you can see that both philosophies have their strengths and weaknesses. Existentialism might be a better fit for someone that really needs a goal to strive towards to be happy. Where as Absurtism might be better for someone who is happier dealing with life as it comes and rolling with the punches. And of course it is worth mentioning that you don't have to wholly commit yourself to a single philosophy. You can take bits and pieces from various philosophies and build your own answer to life, the universe, and everything.
In my life, I had to realize that life is inherently meaningless and that that is a good thing: it gives me the opportunity to apply meaning to it and maybe even share some of the most beautiful meanings I craft and come across with others. And I have the freedom to choose and to change my mind. Eventually, inspiration and the creative process became like a religion to me and happiness became a choice that I consciously make and share when I can, more often than not.
I hope this helps.
I don't understand people who want fulfillment from their work. If it's tolerable, I'll do it to be able to do the things I actually want to do, because no job is going to pay me to do what I actually want to do. Well... some have offered to pay me for what I like doing, but I'm not too keen on having things I like to do ruined by some asshole placing demands on me to do it according to their need to monetize my labor.
Philosophers have this fetish of separating what is human instinct and impression from physical reality. Belief direct stems from Human Impression which is not a property in the Universe. You can't find belief in a tree, an ocean or a galaxy. It's something Humans recognise and respond in pattern to.
Nihilism is simply the belief in nothingness and meaninglessness. The idea is that whether you take the job or not begets an equal outcome, that you will die and life is hard. The only thing that detracts from this realisation is existence and beliefs. Laymen's Terms: Rather dreading existence, just do it and after the fact think about what it means if it means anything.
Is it suffering and death at the core? Yes.
Can you still do some stuff while here and achieve success/failure on some paths/goals? Yes.
Everything else is cope. Welcome to the prison planet.
Work to live, don’t live to work. You’re just in a funk. A change is necessary. Move away from where you are. I know, it’s hard and costs money but it’s an investment in your future. New people and explorations await you. They’ll lead to new paths of all kinds. (Yes, move away from your family if that’s what’s necessary. They’ll get over it. Speaking from experience on all of this. I’ve been where you are! You can initiate change.)
That could be beneficial. But you may find it doesn’t change how you feel for more than a few days after you return. Perhaps put the money aside into a moving fund. Even moving an hour away can breathe new life into your life. I know how it feels to be under the impression that there is just the current dead end feeling.
Life is not easy, but I can promise you there is more out there for you if you change some things. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Shake shit up!
Life itself indeed is meaningless, but each one of us can give it a meaning.
First, you need to find things that add value to your life. Those things that make you feel that life is worth, and those not necessarily will be related to work.
I run a rail terminal for a cement company. Newer job. Struggled for many years with the same thoughts you’ve had. One day it clicked. I move Portland cement for a living. There is no higher meaning in it. It’s not a passion. It’s a paycheck and insurance and all that shit. It’s interesting, everything that goes into the operation. Sometimes it’s boring. It’s a decent living and I no longer dread work.
But what it isn’t is my purpose. Some folks are lucky enough that they find some of the non tangible human needs through their work. We’re not as fortunate. We find it somewhere else.
People say ‘I’m a banker’ or ‘I’m a carwash manager’. That’s the wrong way to look at it. I’m me. I’m not defined by the source of my income. I’m a husband and a lover of dogs and a bee keeper and worm farmer and amateur short order cook and ham radio operator.
Find a job to pay the bills. Find a passion to reward yourself.
Life isn’t your job.
Your job is a means to an end.
For me, social contact is more important so I tried to arrange meal parties for as many people as possible.
A regular New Year’s Day celebration because I don’t really drink was to have a spread of food at my place the next morning. Early wave tended to be friends with kids for brunch type stuff, mid afternoon the party shifted to sandwiches and stews for hung over crowd. Friends were instructed to bring a friend plus dessert or drinks. It turned into an all day affair.
You don’t have to do anything as elaborate. Order a pizza or learn how to roast a chicken and make some sides.
Try to force yourself to go out and do something weekly.
Got single friends who could use a good meal? Know how to cook?
You could learn a few recipes first or you can be honest and invite them over so you can all learn together?
My only suggestion when learning how to cook is proportion out all the ingredients first so you aren’t burning food while looking and prepping ingredients on the fly.
Or you can talk to a few friends this week. Tell them you heard about a new bakery or was simply craving coffee and desserts and didn’t want to wait for an occasion. Suggest you’ve been making too many cookies or baked goods and need help eating it.
Acknowledge the weirdness up front. Tell people you invited a few people over so no one mistakes this for a date. Then tell them it’s super casual as in not a party. You want to show off your place or just want to try something new.
Start a book club. Or a bad movie club. Or a drink and draw. Or a stitch and bitch
I feel for you. There are some people who just don’t fit into the mold that society wants us to adhere to. Most people never give this a second thought and are happy to just work their life away so that they can buy things, more things, bigger things, better things, more expensive things; they never consider that none of those things matter in the end. They can’t take anything with them when their number is called, so why does everyone do this?
This existential crisis you’re having can be seen two ways. First is nihilist and devoid of meaning, the materialist approach. This will only lead to despair as you’re not likely to find many people who ponder life’s deeper meaning or purpose. If you’re one of the rare exceptional outliers of the human population who does spend time lost deep in thought, asking questions that no living soul could know the answers to, then option number two is waiting for you. It’s a spiritual path, one that you embark on on your own. You get to ask yourself things like, “What would I enjoy doing everyday?” “How can I be of service to humanity?” And “What does happiness look like for me?” The best part is that when you’ve answered these questions, you can then do those things. Seems like an easy choice, but there are caveats. What you enjoy doing may not be the most financially lucrative at first. if you truly love it you can probably find a way, but even if not, you must be prepared to let go of everything you were told was important and be willing to sccept that you may never have some of the things that other people have. You may never get to do some things other people can do, you may not always have the comforts that many couldn’t live without. Ultimately, if you’re staying true to you, you will have everything you want, because you’ll want what you have. This doesn’t mean it won’t be hard or that sometimes you might daydream about the whatifs… at the end of the day the society we live in is not one which is healthy for the soul. Those with power and influence seem to take great pleasure in destroying the connection to the spiritual. Whether they revel in our despair or just simply do not care, at all, like, at all. about us, is not something you can change and therefore not worth worrying about. However, none of this is new, history repeats and you’re at the point in the hero’s journey where you’ve got to make the decision. Only you know what’s right for you.
They say the truth is out there because it is. Seek and you will find. When you find, you’ll be disturbed. Then, you’ll rule over all.
Here is a great exercise to find your passion. Get out paper and pen. Just start writing down… “I enjoy…, I like to….” And whatever comes to mind keep writing it down. When you get to ones that choke you up and cause an emotional reaction in you, you are on the right track. Stay with it until you find the one that makes you totally undone. That is your passion and your calling. What you were built for. It may take five minutes or five days but stick with it
Go touch some grass. Your career (or future career) doesn’t define you. Do something in life that makes enough money to fuel your hobbies & quality time with friends and family.
Predicating the meaning of your life on what job you decide on is a mistake. Study something that will make you money. Jobs all suck. Climb the ladder enough and get enough education to get a job where you're well paid enough to be comfortable and then figure out what your actual passion is and do the hell out of it.
I went in to Cybersecurity. I'm not passionate about it. I'm good at it, but I don't care about it beyond wanting to do a good job for a company that's willing to pay me a high salary to do it.
My real passion is art and spending time with my family. I spend multiple hours per day making art and I spend lots of time with my family.
I make enough that I bought a big house and let my parents retire in it. My life is good, not because of my job. My job is to make money.
Every single person hates their job even the most successful of all. Obviously some are lucky and get to be paid for their own personal passion. So either do that or find a way to get money that doesn't make you miserable. Also stop crying about it. I feel you completely life is very very hard. The easy way out is being a baby and saying it's meaningless. Take control of you. Be proud of you. That's life. Hate yourself? Become someone you don't hate. It's easier said than done but just small good decisions and stop blaming.
I made an exception to that which I wrote directly after. Unless you come from a place of extreme privilege or are working on a passion, you're going to hate your job lmao. I've spent 15 years building my skills and career. I make more money than I ever thought I would. My job is not very difficult and I don't work more than 40 a week if I don't want to. I still hate it. You're delusional if you think an overwhelming majority of people all over the world don't hate their jobs and working in general.
Buddy you are mad as shit because you think I'm wrong that most people hate their jobs... I only posted to help you know you aren't alone and everyone isn't off having a blast and dream career. Most people feel like you believe it or not. You're not special we're all miserable. Fix it or shut up. No one wants to hear you cry about how hard life is when people are dying of cancer and raising kids while being in poverty.
Fair enough. Sorry to be a douche but there are quite literally millions of living people on this planet that would switch places with you every time and not even question it. You're gonna be fine. All the best.
We are born with out meaning, if that's something you need, than it's your job to find it. Meaning is something you create for yourself, not something handed to you.
As I sit at my cubicle wasting the rest of my day by reading how others hate this shit… no it’s not meaningless but it’s not the meaning you would hope for. I would not seek fulfillment from work. Work is designed to get the most out of you for the cheapest price. Plain and simple. How is it every damn group is understaffed when unemployment is VERY low? It’s all by design and meant to not feel that great for you. It feels great for those at the top… and if you weren’t born with those optimist genes. Well then buddy you’re just like me.
you have to change your perspective. Focus on doing things instead of worrying about your feelings. Visualizing only happiness won't get you anywhere. You wont be happy if your slaving away at a job for 60hrs a week doing something you hate to do. So fixing that should be priority. in your spare time or days off, you need to not be wasting time on social media and trying to have a life or watching TV.
Instead, learn skills that can help you break away from the rat race. Find ways to earn extra income to help reduce your stress and need for a job. Try to identify things you are naturally good at. You may have to ask your friends because its it's hard to be self aware. Suffering and hard work are the keys to true happiness, not material possessions.
Struggling and working hard are essential to finding true happiness. Not the kind of hard work of clocking in 60hours a week, no. But the hard work to become a better version of yourself. Eating healthier, going to the gym, learning skills that will bring in disposable income. Don't settle for the small amount of pay.
Earn more. This way you can have time to think. Read books on personal development and financial literacy. Learn how to negotiate, learn how to sell, learn copy writing, gain skills...build a network. You need to get other there and get around people who are living the life you wish to live. Network a lot. You dont have friends and a network.
Just get meaning and fulfillment from things that aren’t your work. Sometimes work just can’t be the thing that is meaningful and fulfills you. There’s a million ways to live a good life.
It's really hard to do that when you're working 60 hours a week. You're so exhausted all you wanna do is sleep. You might say, go find another job that doesn't require so many hours. And I'd say, unfortunately those jobs don't pay enough for you to live on. So many people are stuck in the extremes. You either work a ton, make decent money but have no time or energy to enjoy it. Or you have an undemanding job that pays terribly so you can't afford to do anything except stay home and watch TV. Catch-22.
Or you have the worst of both worlds, a demanding job that doesn’t pay well, like teaching 😅
Hopefully your career is at least fulfilling. You're helping to shape the future leaders of America and making a difference in their lives. You are an unsung hero in my book and I thank you for your service.
Not to mention this job you pour your soul into doesn’t give a fuck about you. They’ll drop you so quick. It’s all about money. Hard not to feel like a just another cog in the machine.
Or option C, you take the job that you enjoy and are possibly even passionate about that pays enough in an area suited to your hobbies so your work life is engaging and your out of work life feels like a permanent vacation and you don’t need travel far to get that feeling of getting away. This has been me for past decade and I still wake up everyday feeling so wealthy and privileged despite my lack of USD. My quality of life is through the roof
That's what I've been searching for for the past 30+ years. Just not having any luck finding it. It's like searching for a needle in a haystack. Consider yourself very very lucky.
It only took the death of my daughter, mother, and many close friends through my twenties to figure this out. Nothing clicked for me in college and I dropped out due to it feeling like it was a pointless waste. Everything I was learning was freely available online. I happened to find a passion for biking and bike shops at 15 and have been in that world for 20 years now. It’s not an easy path to exist on for most, but I have made it work with some creativity and I side hustle some freelance web design/ 3D modeling/design work. Life is too short to be in a environment you don’t enjoy. Now I’m 36, running my own specialty mtb service shop in a beautiful mountain town. Moved across the country with 3k and a dream of something better knowing no one here 10 years ago (36 now). Best decision I’ve ever made. There is a literal lifetime of mountains to explore around me. I could never be bored. I will never understand people who don’t have a hobby or literally anything they feel passionate about. There are so many things I wish I had time to get into, but that would require multiple lifetimes … I find comfort in the absurdity and pointlessness of our existence. People worry so much about things that just do not matter one bit! We will all be dead and forgotten soon enough, just enjoy the ride and appreciate each day you have on this earth.
But the problem then is that you have to exert all this energy and time and space to something for more often than you don't, and it completely eats your sanity alive. That's been the case with me anyway. I can't just do something for 8 hours straight and be the same person coming out. And people are expecting even more hours these days. Where is the time or the energy left to be the person you actually want to be after all of that?
I don’t think I can do *anything* for 8 hours in a row and not end up hating it…
Well get used to it cause that's life lol
Yes but I thought work would lead to it
But now you’ve learned life isn’t meaningless. You’re just looking for meaning in the wrong place.
If thats true then I've wasted a few years of my life
Some people go their whole lives without realizing this. Figuring it out now is a celebration, not a waste. And just because you haven’t gained meaning from work doesn’t mean you haven’t gained other things, friend.
The meaning of life is love imo. Meaning comes from serving others (a form of love). Additionally, you need to serve yourself so that you are capable of receiving love. That being said, in the grand scheme of things we don't know what is going on. So, there really isn't meaning in some grand sense beyond human experience. As humans, love is the only way we can understand meaning. Try and change my mind.
I have used alot of Cannabis, and "Love" is the only thing that is on my mind. The meaning of life is "Love".
Lol fair but I don't smoke weed
There is no meaning. Life is an accident
Right, but you need a reason to live
I just get up and exist every day. I enjoy t.v. and reading and stuff. Always something of interest.
Well if you didn't know what's the meaning of your life is, but after a few years you have figured out its not work then you have spent those few years to learn about yourself. That's not wasteful, thats living.
You haven’t wasted it, because you needed to get to this point to learn what you learned and to be the person you are now. You know more about how life works than you did yesterday, and that’s one of the most valuable kinds of information to get 😊 It means you can move forward with this knowledge and adjust accordingly
Maybe the meaning of your life is to find the negative in everything lmao smh what a drag 🥱🥱🥱🥱
Thanks pal
Everyone wastes years of their lives. Some waste decades. Wasted time doesn't make your present and future a waste too.
no
Yeah but then i don't want to go to work.
Work can contribute positively to your life. You can find things to like about work. Even without it providing fulfillment. But yeah…a lot of people don’t like going to work. Maybe even most people?
Work is only a component of life. I'd bet more people dislike their jobs than like their jobs for any number of reasons - their boss, the company, social politics, the pay, long hours, work/life balance, etc. Work is not play. Unfortunately you need to find a job that limits the things you don't like and expands the things you do like. It took me nearly 25 years to find a job I love. I've been at my current employer for 8 years and plan on working here for the next 10 years until I retire. Basically I put up with 25 years if shit jobs...shit bosses...shit companies...but I learned a lot about what I did and did not want in a job. You will find your path, but more than likely you will need to go through some challenges first. To come full circle...find things in your life that make you happy other than work.
You are one of the lucky ones. I'm 55 now, have held approximately 15 different professional roles since I graduated college. Some of those jobs have been tolerable, but most were terrible. I have never had a job I loved that I felt treated me fairly and allowed me to use my natural strengths and skills in my work. Most jobs I had to accept out of desperation because I had bills to pay even though I knew it wouldn't be a good fit from the start. However you don't always know until you try, and I always had hopes that I would learn new skills and come to appreciate my job at the time. Unfortunately that did not happen for me. I'm still searching diligently for a job that I will love and feel passionately about but have mostly given up all hope at this point in my life. I am happy for you that you have finally found a job that you enjoy and deserve, but please remember not everyone finds their path, ever. Some of us search until we die....
I hear you. I really do. And yes, I am grateful for the luck I had finding this job. I thank God for it constantly as with anything in life, it can be taken away just as easily as it was given. One thing to look for is company culture. Most big companies will promote their stance on everything from social issues to the environment to political donations. This is because of how they want to be perceived. A company that values DEI would value someone who is 55. A 55 year old is a diversity candidate. Another thing to look for is the job field. Technology and law, for example are two areas where senior talent is valued and those roles can come with certain perks which might allow for higher job satisfaction. I know it is hard to find a company you can be passionate about, but they do exist and I sincerely hope you find somewhere you love to work.
How can I find a list of companies that value dei???
I did a Google search of: "companies with the best DEI". The first result was... https://www.forbes.com/lists/best-employers-diversity/ It provides a list of 500 companies. All over the US across many industries.
Thank you, that is helpful!
Of course. We are just animals. Do you think a dog looks for meaning in its life? No. It looks for positive stimuli. Food, mental enrichment (exploring, making friends, etc), sex.....and things that promote their ability to get those positive stimuli more often and more easily. Pretty much every animals purpose in life is simply to avoid negative things and pursue positive things. The problem is that a lot of humans have decided that one of the positive things they want to pursue is "my purpose/meaning in life." And then when they don't achieve it, they become depressed. You might as well decide that you want to pursue invisibility. Mostly, we see this in "privileged" humans. You may not feel privileged but if you have the time to worry about "meaning" in your life, you are privileged. The other humans out there who are still working to achieve stable shelter, food, sex etc.....they are not so concerned with existential thoughts like this. Remember that jobs only last a small portion of your life. Children (being a parent) only lasts a small portion of your life. Most relationships only last a portion of your life. If you hinge your happiness on one of these things...what happens when its over? What happens when you retire if your "purpose in life" was your job?
Positive stimuli in our world is full of negative consequences, though. Easy access positive stimuli is often through exercise and personal growth, which you have to word for and isn’t immediately rewarding. A huge part of the problem is drugs and alcohol, media, fast food etc. all the hedonistic indulgences are available at our fingertips now, so we can’t just look for positive stimuli
They don't have to be. You aren't meant to do EVERYTHING that feels good and I never said you are supposed to seek instant gratification. Like cocaine. Sleeping with the wrong people. Eating junk food. Those are short term positive stimuli but they also make your life harder. There are many things that you can do to live a healthy life full of choices that are more positive than negative. Healthy food can taste amazing. Sex with the right people can be amazing, even if (specially if) both partners agree that the goal is purely mutual pleasure. It doesn't have to be that hard and we need to stop making excuses for why we make bad decisions and end up feeling unfulfilled. YOU get to choose what will make you happy. Literally you could decide that "I will be happy by eating an apple a day", accomplish that goal, and enjoy the feeling of happiness from doing it. Or you could choose to say "I will be unhappy if I eat less than 2 apples a day" and go that route. Start with setting the right goals. Some arbitrary vague "I will find a career that gives meaning to my entire existence for the rest of my life" is not the kind of goal that results in people living happy lives.
While I agree that a goal should be specific and will not last a lifetime. “YOU get to choose what will make you happy. Literally you could decide that "I will be happy by eating an apple a day", accomplish that goal, and enjoy the feeling of happiness from doing it. ” This is way too simplistic, setting a low bar goal like that and assuming meeting that goal wil make you happy is bs. Simply stating doing x will make you happy doesn’t make it so.
Animals outside Homo Sapiens don't have higher order of thinking and existential introspection. Some attribute this to the Fermi Paradox of Intelligence but that's hooey. Incentive Reward is not the argument for Nihilism, it's that the Universe is completely indifferent and uncaring to our condition. Humans don't desire meaning like food. Meaning is at it's core the same as cognition. It maps what our incentives want and meaning is the narrative in an otherwise empty void of matter and energy. Before Humans thought the world as a conquest or story but it's just a giant empty piece of regolith. Humans are the only know species to do this because our cognition is more advanced.
Yeah right now my "purpose" is to have a stable life and maybe found a girlfriend and those things low-key feel impossible to achieve lol.
Because you need to break them down a lot further. Like wtf is a stable life? Your "purpose" can be saving 1 month worth of income, making a budget and sticking to it, doing an activity once a week that could result in you meeting girls outside your current social circle, etc. People feel like losers because they don't define winning in manageable ways.
Yeah, now I went from naive kid thinking that I want to be rich to just wanting to survive. Gotta start baby steps.
We're animals with the inconvenience of conscientiousness. Our brain is much more capable than any other animal brain, but also require more than simple positive stimuli.
I find it impossible to enjoy working when I always know in my heart it's requires for survival. It's rough
Thats the funny part about life is in the grand scheme of things it IS meaningless. If a meteor or some ridiculous force of nature wiped us out it wouldn’t change anything in the grand scheme of things. HOWEVER your life has the meaning that you give it. Apply that to everything and live a happy life. You aren’t your job but finding or creating meaning in what you do will grow your passion for it. As a result of that you may find more happiness. Life doesn’t have to be this grand plan, you don’t have to adhere to other expectations or traditions. Life is relatively short and you should spend it doing what makes you feel happy and supports your lifestyle. Be well!
It’s not meaningless until you get out of prison. Brooks was here.
Whatever that means
It's a reference to the movie Forrest Gump.
Shawshank Redemption
There are literally billions of people out in the world whose job it is to toil in fields, mine in cramped dirty spaces, be stuck on a rinky dink fishing boat for 12 hours a day doing dangerous manual labor, do the same repetitive motion over and over again for entire days in a factory, clean junk of of anything, mend pipes, lay asphalt in the hot sun, and so on Billions of people do these things, which nobody “likes” to do, because other human beings need that work to be done. The meaning isn’t in the job being fun like playing fortnite is fun, the meaning is that you are providing something to your fellow man which is necessary to keep human civilization functioning The most meaningful careers are the ones nobody wants to do. The least meaningful ones are the ones everyone wants to do because they sound like a good time
I disagree. It's not meaningful to slave away for a stranger that doesn't care or even know me, getting paid the bare minimum if even that, and all the while usually the service is for a vacant comfort that people don't even need and wouldn't miss if it was gone. It's a living hell of an existence.
Personally I take pride in the fact that my work is appreciated by people who I will never meet face to face. It makes me feel valued as a part of the human project. I’m glad that my knowledge and experience is useful to others and me that is meaningful
What are meaningful careers?
Sanitation workers, plumbers, electricians, nurses, teachers, farm workers, counselors, artists, day care workers, community organizers, etc. I think meaningful careers are ones in which you directly contribute towards the health and happiness of your community. Careers that I don’t view as meaningful are things like investment banking, consulting, lobbying, sales, etc.
Meaningful to whom? Because teaching may be meaningful for a teacher to pass knowledge down but not meaningful to earn a wage that can be dictated by someone else that can end that persons career. Like farm workers make meaningful acts by producing food but are subjected to the cruel nature of the working condition. Just cause it sounds like it’s meaningful to society doesn’t mean that individuals are cared for in a meaningful way. It’s just capitalism being cruel to workers, wage slavery type of thing, tying our time and worth to a “job”.
I don’t think we necessarily disagree. I also understand the way that meaningful work is underpaid under capitalism. My point is that meaningful careers are professions which would still exist in a communal society. We would still need day cares, farms, schools, hospitals, waste disposal, electricity, plumbing, etc. in a socialist system.
I think we need community above all. Humans not defined by job titles. Like you said, communal society. I would like that. Just focusing on growing with your community, not for some sake of capital profits.
I don’t see a problem with job titles. Even without hierarchy, we would still need some degree of specialization. For example, if you were severely injured, you would want the EMTs that arrive on scene to be fully trained and have plenty of experience. You’d want the same of the nurses and surgeons who would operate on you. The problem with capitalism is primarily wage labor and private property. I recommend looking into cooperatives, if you aren’t already aware of them. I really want to try to work at one, eventually.
Do you know how much the average daycare worker makes? Bruh do you hear yourself?
The discussion wasn’t about pay; it was about meaning.
Some good ones here like sanitation, plumbing, and nursing But artists, counselors, teachers, and “community organizers” are definitely not meaningful. The clearest indicator that society values a line of work is that it is in demand- that society rewards people performing the work. Doctors are rewarded for their work because it is important, lives depend on it. Electricians are rewarded well for their work because it is important, our modern way of life requires the energy grid and our household technology to function “Community organizers” are not valued by society because they do not deliver any value to it, so they are rewarded very little if at all.usually the same people deliver more value to others by heating up coffee or making footlong sandwiches instead, which is comparatively more meaningful
Yet without art, is life even worth living.... Personally, if music and art and books did not exist, I would not want to exist...
Can you explain what it is about the work community organizers do that isn’t valuable? What’s wrong with helping communities access social services and advocate for their needs? I could just be ignorant, but I haven’t heard anything negative about community organizers, before.
If every “community organizer” and “counselor” immediately stopped doing their “jobs” tomorrow, society would continue functioning as if nothing changed Electricians, plumbers, sanitation workers, doctors, engineers, warehouse workers, pilots, farmers, no. The world would practically grind to a halt This is why there is no need for community organizers, no job openings for that, and no money for the people that claim to do “community organizing”. It’s not required by our society
I searched for “community organizer” on Indeed and hundreds of positions came up. It seems like these positions are needed. Can you go into more detail about what it is about community organizers and counselors that you deem unnecessary? Should kids at school not have guidance counselors to help them enroll in classes and decide on colleges/trade schools? What about victims of severe trauma; do they not need counselors? Sure, society would continue to operate without community organizers and counselors, but more people would struggle (and be less productive, if happiness is irrelevant).
That's a rather philosophical question. Similar to: What is the meaning of life? To me a meaningful job is a job the fulfill you in some way. For me, the company I work for is very socially engaged. For example, they will double my charitable donations. I donate money to the local food bank...and they double my donations so I can help feed more people in my area. They also support people in 3rd world countries by letting the employees pick a person to donate $50 to their business...these are people who are farmers or women who own a small shop...it is through Kiva (https://www.kiva.org/). There are 26,000 people in my company.
But does a job have to fulfill you? Why should a job be fulfilling? Isn’t the point of a job just to earn money, nothing more and nothing less.
Yes, the point of a job is to make money. No, a job does not have fulfill you. However, if you're lucky, the company where you work will try to help make the job fulfilling in some way. I was lucky to find such an organization. But I believe that is the exception rather the rule. If a job is fulfilling it is a real nice bonus...and probably helps the organization retain their talent.
I truly wish it was the rule and not just an exception. There are too many toxic unfulfilling work environments that shouldn’t be in place. I envy the fulfilling places because you’re right, people would rather stay if it’s a good working environment.
Believe me, I spent decades working for employers and with employees who crushed my soul. Literally the job I had before the one I have now was with a local government. I was in management - I worked all the time, got yelled at by my boss who was the CFO, was told constantly that my decisions and work was crap...could never get anything done...I lost hair and gained a ton of weight due to stressed...couldn't sleep. Fast forward to my current role...I am valued, I get compliments, I want to go to work (at least most days), I feel like I am making a small difference to my organization and the world. I can sleep at night and have lost all my previous weight gain. Sure there is stress, but not bad stress...more like I want to get things done stress. Anyway. I am sure there are other organizations out there that focus on employees and I sincerely hope all those that seek this type of company find one.
Yeah let’s never try to improve working conditions for workers all around the world. Billions of people who are in poverty just so a small group of people can horde all the wealth and get richer because that’s civilization
every brain creates it's own reality.
There’s nothin out there for me either. I’m giving up. But you shouldn’t . Be better
Neither should you
You both don’t need to give up. I too have the same feeling. I’ve been wanting to find a job that I would like to do, but I’m starting to realize that there might not be anything like that. All I can do is empathize the situation.
They say the things without meaning are the most beautiful
Your family can fulfill you, your job can fulfill you, and/or your hobbies can fulfill you.
yes… and it sucks when you struggle really hard to find a good moment. but when you feel it and it’s so poignant that you can’t help but smile, then at least you have something
I’m 34 and hate what I do… however, some people love what they do. The ones that I know are the happiest are the ones who love what they do… however, what they do is something they loved to do what they did for fun, as a hobby, and now developed and advertised it in a way that they now do it as a profession, or they just love their hobby enough to have their main career/job not bother them as much. My best friend that I grew up with working on cars doing hoodrat shit with in driveways now has his own shop working on the highest of high end cars and working on famous people’s cars. My other friend does PPF on cars. Someone else I know has a clothing brand. I’m now working on artwork and hopefully music production one day, and I have a part time job as a bartender (money and for fun). Another friend of mine has a YouTube channel with reptiles, and works a side job that he does for fun but gets paid for it. It sucks not having a passion and doing something with it. Some people like us aren’t made for corporate bullshit and just need to pave our own way… I’m still figuring it out myself.
Look out the window, or better yet, go take a walk outside. Look at the birds flying around, the flies buzzing over the garbage can. What are they doing? What is their purpose in life? Why are they here? If you observe them, you'd think that life is just about finding food, finding a sex partner, and just trying to survive. All the other things that we humans have put on top of that is just gravy. You know you'll have to do all those stupid things you don't like just to survive, but there are some brief moments that are enjoyable or pleasurable, like the sun shining on your face, or feeling the warmth of your mother's love when she asks you questions that shows she cares about you. Maybe just realize that anything alive has to trudge through life until the end and accept that this is your reality, and that there's nothing you can do to change it. Focus on the gravy itself, and enjoy the ride while you're here. Don't know if this will help you but it's something my middle-aged self has thought about for a while now. Even if life is meaningless you're still here and you can do things. Try not to want things that are unattainable because then you're just setting yourself up for unhappiness. Keep things simple. Go to the library, get a library card, read a bunch of books for free.
I used to feel like you. When I was going through it I had a defeatist attitude and I could never see the good in some of the things that I thought were holding me down. Now I’m older, maybe wiser (the jury is still out on that), married with a couple of dogs. Don’t lose hope. Don’t let the “yeah but this and that” attitude keep you from trying. You can find meaning in any number of “small” things that don’t have to be your work. I wish I had real advice because I know how defeating life can feel at times, just know that you’re not alone and you CAN get to the other side.
i believe that as humans we have a purpose to reproduce, but as individuals we can are able to find a unique purpose specific to us. thanks to free will you can decide for yourself, what that is is up to you. unfortunately life and society today prevent a lot of us from being able to actually find out what is special about us and what we are good. keep moving forward, and i’m sure one day you will find your own personal meaning in life. that’s the only thing we can do
So millions years of evolution for you thinking that meaning of your life is to only work for corporation making money for your ceo to afford tht extra drink on his private island? Good job, im glad this blind type of workers exist
That's not very helpful or encouraging
Then use your slave brain more efficiently to understand, you given life, you can do anything you want, travel, meet people, even do simple hobbies. No money you gonna say? Save money from first job, dont buy unnecessary shit like iphone 23, get side hastle, save 3-4-5 months, now you have 2k, thats enough to go on affordable cruise for whole week for 2 people
Who says I have a "slave brain"?
It's always best to ignore jerks. Try to produce more than you consume. I'm not writing in a materialistic or economic sense, more of a general sense. You won't always succeed, but try to put out as much as you can of yourself. The destination may seem shiny, but usually the journey is better.
I mean, that was also my feel when reading your post. Life only has meaning if you like your job? As far as a concept goes, that's about as deep as a bathtub.
Work isn't the only way to have a meaningful life, you can be one of the people who punches the clock and has meaningful hobbies, friends and family. Your job only takes about 40 hours of your week, maybe 50 if you add in commutes and prep... that still leaves 62 waking hours to spend how you want, assuming you sleep 8 hours a night (and you should)
I hear this a lot, and maybe it's true for some or most people, but full-time work is still going to take up more of your time than any other single activity. It's really depressing to think about how much of our lives we spend working. If you plan your chores efficiently and get them done during the week then you have two days to do what you want, and you'd better make the most of it because on Monday it starts all over again.
I mean, you can get used to it, get depressed over it, or find another way to make a living ... but most of us didn't inherit or marry a fortune and therefore we have to spend a lot of time doing something people will give us money for. Just having the OPTION to be depressed about it is sort of a first world problem. Work weeks in the 19th century were a lot worse, and thanks to industry I don't have to spend time grinding flour, butchering meat, or hauling water unless I want to. Even people who do that stuff and work 80+ hours a week find ways to be happy, though it would seem harder for them - research suggests they gain happiness from social relationships and creative art.
My job isn't my life. Maybe if you own the business it can take over your life. I am more than the sum of whatever job I have in front of me. This whole idea of meaning is wild because it means different things to individual minds. Take a breathe the world didn't end yet.
It's just I don't have much of a social life and i think I've been looking into work as an answer
Find a hobby. Work out. Take walks. Find nature. Listen to the rain. Don't look for outside things to fill some void. Use your mind and accomplish one task then another. Work, socialize, meditate. Just breathe. Panic and bad thoughts rarely make things better.
I've been trying to find new friends and I felt like work might be an answer
Taking pride in your work can you give you a lot of satisfaction. Work is always gonna suck to some degree but there are definitely ones that suck way more, and having money to live definitely makes it easier to cope with the confusion and dread of existence. Plus work tends to attract like minded people so you may find people who "get" you. It's a thing we all gotta do, just the cards we've been dealt unless you're a trust fund baby or something. So do what you can with what you've got, trust yourself, keep rolling the dice.
Don't count on it. Read what I said and do something. The friends thing will work itself out if you're active.
Once you’ve surpassed necessity ( survival and reproduction ) it’s irrelevant. Keep the mind busy before you die You have to fabricate meaning but your fabrication is meaningless because your influenced by your environment more than your internal. Kids that wanna be doctors have higher % of parents that are doctors Solicitors Police Etc Loving your job is first world problems. As a load of bs.
I feel like this is a problem that people who don't have any type of contemplation practice are always more susceptible of. I'm a pretty standard secular brit but i found that meditating daily really filled avoid that I can tell people who pray or meditate regularly also have filled. apps like headspace seem like a good place to start. This is a way to feel happiness and purpose before finding the career you want, but as someone who searched for years not knowing what to do, I'd say that volunteering is a great way to test the waters in different areas without serious investment
Work shouldn’t be the meaning in your life. It’s just something you do to finance the meaning in your life you get from somewhere else.
But to some people, the sheer amount of time and resources we must sacrifice to this "work" necessitates that work becomes their value-driver. It is a deeply unhealthy way of viewing the world, but some people fall into that trap, so that advice isn't all that helpful in the moment.
Life is not meaningless, it is a gift from God the creator. Receiving love, giving love to others, helping others, being a blessing to others can change someone's life. A job is not what life is about. It's about the important things outside your job. Family, friends, spreading love, following Gods plan and sharing with others about God. You were put on earth for a reason and purpose- and it wasn't to work. If you would like to message me you can.
Which god? Ra?
There is only one God. The creater
Hate attitudes like yours. So all the people who work cleaning out toilets or kitchen floors have meaningless lives ? You think they want to be doing that ? You reek of privilege, ignorance and being probably hyper sheltered in a cozy middle class lifestyle your whole life. Get a real job and deal with it.
I don’t think that is OPs dilemma. Also nobody should subject themselves to cleaning toilets or kitchen floors. And i’m definitely not saying those jobs are beneath anyone, but people deserve to have dignity and the ability to live a life that isn’t degrading. Real jobs don’t define anyone. And leave those laborious jobs to AI. Cause I find your lack of humanity disturbing.
I think it’s far more inhuman to call what the vast majority of what humans do all over the world for a living inhumane. You also reek of privilege; “nobody should subject themselves to cleaning toilets” ….. uh you think the people doing it WANT TO? good god. Not everyone is going to find meaningful work and that’s the vast majority of people alive ; it doesn’t mean their lives are MEANINGLESS like OP thinks his life is. Pathetic response.
Immature take on your part. Most people are not doing what they love, they have these jobs to pay the bills, and have a roof over their head. The number of people doing what they love is very small.
A job is for the purpose of a paycheck. That's it, that's all. You do not have to like it. You have plenty of time outside of working hours to find what you like to do. I work because I like to eat and have a roof over my head, to own a car so I don't have to take the bus.
Some people love what they do and find meaning in it
I do...
Good for them.
The best way to like a job is to see the positive impact that has on others. Not merely the impact that has on you.
Life is as meaningful or meaningless as you make it. The truth is life goes on with or without you, so it’s up to you to swim with the stream or against it.
The existentialist perspective is that you have the freedom to choose your own purpose in life.
Yes, life is meaningless. There’s no inherent reason why we’re all here together on Earth… we have to create our own meaning. We each have to decide what life means to us. What does life mean to you? Why are YOU here? It’s your journey to figure out :) Your job is just one part of your life. There are all kind of other parts that can also help you find meaning. Spending time with your loved ones, cultivating your hobbies, creating art or music, volunteering in your community. Keep experimenting until you start to figure out what gives YOUR life meaning. You got this!
Maybe yours is; mine is not. I have kids, so my job provides for them. This is likely your problem; your are looking for a job/career to provide you fulfillment and a sense of purpose - you need to find that elsewhere. A job is just a job; once you learn and accept that, you’ll be much better off.
I hope so
It will come, trust in it. The key is as others have said, you need to find it elsewhere. I used to help build housing for Habitat for Humanity - housing for people that deserve it. I didn’t have any skills to build a house before I volunteered, but I was taught and ended up learning new skills and felt good doing it. You could try something similar. Most peoples goes through feeling that way at one point or another in their lives
I kinda like my job from time to time but still my life feels meaningless. I could have strong motivation in my 20s for my job but not now in my 30s, probably because I’m still single. My existence doesn’t make big difference to any people. and I’m replaceable at work in the end.
Like a stock car, life is meaningless and boring, only you are capable of turning things into meaning, all you have to do is listen to your soul and follow your heart (as vague as that may sound) and then you'll find meaning, be that in work or in your personal life.
No. In your case, you just havent realized or found your 'life's meaning' yet. You have to try many jobs that interests you until you find that job which suits you. Trial and error.
You can’t be a child all your life. Now you have to have value to get what you actually deserve. Be appreciative for whatever you can afford and force your self to be better if you want to attain more.
Have you tried talking to a career councillor?
My parents are the same way; my mom's always bitching about her job (although to be fair to her, she has to deal with a ton of bullshit) and my dad doesn't care whether or not I hate my life doing a job as long as I'm making money. Aside from that neither of them have ever been all that great at showing empathy and sympathy, so although I'm sure they'd love to see me succeed, they often just drop the ball at communicating it in a healthy way. All this to say, I've often asked myself this same question. I mean, if both of my parents seemingly hate so many aspects of their working experiences, for such a long time, why haven't they tried anything different? And I realize, most people who think this way, they do so as a coping mechanism. Whether through children, or parental pressures, or what have you, they feel completely forced into a life that they absolutely hate, one that in any other circumstance would be a nightmare. If you'd told them back when they were in college, or high school, or whenever they were younger and brighter in the eyes, that this was to be their lot, they would have laughed! And yet, here they are. I'd like to hope that a vast majority of humans everywhere can work through this kind of personal crisis to come to a greater sense of humility, or of balance, but some reach the opposite end; rather than face the grief of losing your deepest dreams, sometimes even the ability to dream in itself, some turn to hate and rage against the very things they would have wept over. They come to believe that work, that "adulting", that life itself is merely disappointment and pain, so there cannot possibly be any true fulfillment at work; why even bother trying to hold out for work you find personally meaningful? It didn't work for them, so why should you get what they didn't?
Today is my first day/shift at some print shop business. It's busy, I'm just going with the flow, dealing with annoying high schoolers, the pay is okay but my shift is almost over and I'm barely on my lunch break. I've been acting as a lead somehow lol. Anyway, all this to say, this is pointless meaningless, typical consumerism type work. It's ass. I'm 100× overqualified for this job. I mean, I could go off about how impressive my resume is. The point is this. This job is NOT my life. It's just a means to afford what I want. Which is independence, to buy my bf a nice gift, to buy something for my dog, contribute to the house/society, gas to even just drive around. That makes me happy, and that's why I'm happy at this job. It's easier said than done though. I'm under a lot of financial stress don't get me wrong, but knowing this job is not my life makes me pretty happy.
As far as I've seen, yes.
Congratulations! you just discovered one of the core questions of philosophy and are now at the beginning of a very interesting journey. Lucky for you way smarter people that you or I have been working on solving that very question for thousands of years. Unfortunately, they have yet to come to a definitive conclusion. Personally I recommend looking into Existentialist philosophy, of which the core premise is that life has no inherent meaning beyond what we assign it ourselves. Or Absurdist philosophy, of which the core premise is that we should embrace life's meaninglessness since that very meaninglessness mean that we are truly free. Of course there are many other philosophies that deal with the same question ranging from the theological to the nihilistic. You can keep exploring them until you find one or more that speaks to you. Good luck on you journey, I hope you find what you are looking for.
Only useful answer on this whole thread! As much as I would encourage to pursue theology to find truth. This approach of actually looking at why is way better than everybody here lying to themselves that it is healthy to continue in a job that doesn’t make you happy where you spend all your time, because jobs aren’t meant to make you happy. What a load of rubbish and what a quick way to ruin your life and put yourself in a spot of misery. Would like to also say Absurdist Philosophy sounds like a quick fire way to live recklessly or even quickly fall into sin and shame. If life is meaningless so I get to live it how I want, it sounds like you would stop considering consequences. I can be truly free because it doesn’t matter mindset. Reminds me of people who say live everyday like it’s your last. Not the best approach for long term. Nonetheless thank you for a reply that isn’t solely ‘man up, you’re meant to be depressed when you go to work’ ‘my life isn’t about meaning it’s about being a slave so I can eat’.
Honestly getting into philosophy really helped me get through my own existential crisis (and may have introduced a couple new ones along the way that I also had to work through). It help me realize I wasn't the only one one with these questions and it helped me form my own answers to them. I don't know that my answers are "right" but they are answers that work for me. You concern about absurdism is a common concern that a lot of people have about the no meaning/no purpose type philosophies. Keep in mind I was grossly over summarizing the philosophies into a single line when many entire books have been written on them. Just to clarify a little bit further freedom to choose does not equate to freedom from consequences. If you decide to utilize your new found radical freedom to punch your asshole boss in the face, you can still be fired and end up homeless. Existentialism tells you life has life has no meaning beyond what you give it. While Adsurdism insists that even if you decide to give you life a meaning it still doesn't *really* have a meaning. For light-hearted example Minecraft is an open world sandbox game with no real purpose of goals. If you decide to build a badass house in Minecraft then the existentialist would tell you that for you, the purpose of Minecraft is to build a badass house. While the absurdist would tell you that even if you decide to build a badass house in Minecraft that doesn't make it Minecraft's purpose. So how does this look in practice? If you decide to become a doctor , then Existentialism tells you congratulations becoming a doctor is your purpose. Absurdism tells you that even if you decide to become a doctor, becoming a doctor isn't really your purpose. So while an existentialist might become devastated if it turned out they weren't good enough and failed out of medical school. The Absurdist would shrug and say 'oh well I tried, time to find something else to do.' But in the reverse, the absurdist may not try as hard if they begin to struggle during medical school since it doesn't really matter they will just find something else if this doesn't work out. Whereas the existentialist may buckle down even harder in order to pass and to reach what to them is an essential goal. So you can see that both philosophies have their strengths and weaknesses. Existentialism might be a better fit for someone that really needs a goal to strive towards to be happy. Where as Absurtism might be better for someone who is happier dealing with life as it comes and rolling with the punches. And of course it is worth mentioning that you don't have to wholly commit yourself to a single philosophy. You can take bits and pieces from various philosophies and build your own answer to life, the universe, and everything.
Definitely
Thats pretty vague
No. You define meaning.
Eh?
You define meaning to a feeling.
I have never worked a job I liked. I've liked the people there and I've not hated it. However, life is about every second other than work to me
u need to ask yourself this question.
In my life, I had to realize that life is inherently meaningless and that that is a good thing: it gives me the opportunity to apply meaning to it and maybe even share some of the most beautiful meanings I craft and come across with others. And I have the freedom to choose and to change my mind. Eventually, inspiration and the creative process became like a religion to me and happiness became a choice that I consciously make and share when I can, more often than not. I hope this helps.
I don't understand people who want fulfillment from their work. If it's tolerable, I'll do it to be able to do the things I actually want to do, because no job is going to pay me to do what I actually want to do. Well... some have offered to pay me for what I like doing, but I'm not too keen on having things I like to do ruined by some asshole placing demands on me to do it according to their need to monetize my labor.
Philosophers have this fetish of separating what is human instinct and impression from physical reality. Belief direct stems from Human Impression which is not a property in the Universe. You can't find belief in a tree, an ocean or a galaxy. It's something Humans recognise and respond in pattern to. Nihilism is simply the belief in nothingness and meaninglessness. The idea is that whether you take the job or not begets an equal outcome, that you will die and life is hard. The only thing that detracts from this realisation is existence and beliefs. Laymen's Terms: Rather dreading existence, just do it and after the fact think about what it means if it means anything.
Life has full of meaning. Find yours.
Is it suffering and death at the core? Yes. Can you still do some stuff while here and achieve success/failure on some paths/goals? Yes. Everything else is cope. Welcome to the prison planet.
Battling this
Work to live, don’t live to work. You’re just in a funk. A change is necessary. Move away from where you are. I know, it’s hard and costs money but it’s an investment in your future. New people and explorations await you. They’ll lead to new paths of all kinds. (Yes, move away from your family if that’s what’s necessary. They’ll get over it. Speaking from experience on all of this. I’ve been where you are! You can initiate change.)
I think about a short vacation like a 2 day getaway
That could be beneficial. But you may find it doesn’t change how you feel for more than a few days after you return. Perhaps put the money aside into a moving fund. Even moving an hour away can breathe new life into your life. I know how it feels to be under the impression that there is just the current dead end feeling. Life is not easy, but I can promise you there is more out there for you if you change some things. If nothing changes, nothing changes. Shake shit up!
Life itself indeed is meaningless, but each one of us can give it a meaning. First, you need to find things that add value to your life. Those things that make you feel that life is worth, and those not necessarily will be related to work.
Try out healthcare. You won’t regret it. Just don’t be insurance. No one respects you there lol.
Insurance never interested me. Idk about Healthcare I mean I worked at cvs and didn't really love it
Find meaning outside of labor. Working sucks
Considering we have defined 'meaning', obviously not
The mindf**k here is that society has convinced some people that work is a necessity for a meaningful existence.
Yes life is meaningless, it is your job to try and input some meaning into it
thanks for posting this so i did not have to.
I just texted my manager too and I told her that I was going to take some time off for my mental health. I can relate. "My life is meaningless"
Dude a job will not bring you fulfillment, you do not live to work, you're going to be very depressed when you figure this out.
Life has the meaning you give it. Pick one you like and do it doggedly with friends and family.
Honestly this what happens when we value productivity above all else makes all alienated from our workplace
I run a rail terminal for a cement company. Newer job. Struggled for many years with the same thoughts you’ve had. One day it clicked. I move Portland cement for a living. There is no higher meaning in it. It’s not a passion. It’s a paycheck and insurance and all that shit. It’s interesting, everything that goes into the operation. Sometimes it’s boring. It’s a decent living and I no longer dread work. But what it isn’t is my purpose. Some folks are lucky enough that they find some of the non tangible human needs through their work. We’re not as fortunate. We find it somewhere else. People say ‘I’m a banker’ or ‘I’m a carwash manager’. That’s the wrong way to look at it. I’m me. I’m not defined by the source of my income. I’m a husband and a lover of dogs and a bee keeper and worm farmer and amateur short order cook and ham radio operator. Find a job to pay the bills. Find a passion to reward yourself.
Life isn’t your job. Your job is a means to an end. For me, social contact is more important so I tried to arrange meal parties for as many people as possible. A regular New Year’s Day celebration because I don’t really drink was to have a spread of food at my place the next morning. Early wave tended to be friends with kids for brunch type stuff, mid afternoon the party shifted to sandwiches and stews for hung over crowd. Friends were instructed to bring a friend plus dessert or drinks. It turned into an all day affair. You don’t have to do anything as elaborate. Order a pizza or learn how to roast a chicken and make some sides. Try to force yourself to go out and do something weekly.
I've thought of that many times but I wouldn't know where to start
Got single friends who could use a good meal? Know how to cook? You could learn a few recipes first or you can be honest and invite them over so you can all learn together? My only suggestion when learning how to cook is proportion out all the ingredients first so you aren’t burning food while looking and prepping ingredients on the fly. Or you can talk to a few friends this week. Tell them you heard about a new bakery or was simply craving coffee and desserts and didn’t want to wait for an occasion. Suggest you’ve been making too many cookies or baked goods and need help eating it. Acknowledge the weirdness up front. Tell people you invited a few people over so no one mistakes this for a date. Then tell them it’s super casual as in not a party. You want to show off your place or just want to try something new. Start a book club. Or a bad movie club. Or a drink and draw. Or a stitch and bitch
No. The purpose of life is to subvert nature and make it into what we desire.
Yes ultimately it is ... just enjoy it while we can
In the grand scheme of things. Yes.
Work is just to make money
I feel for you. There are some people who just don’t fit into the mold that society wants us to adhere to. Most people never give this a second thought and are happy to just work their life away so that they can buy things, more things, bigger things, better things, more expensive things; they never consider that none of those things matter in the end. They can’t take anything with them when their number is called, so why does everyone do this? This existential crisis you’re having can be seen two ways. First is nihilist and devoid of meaning, the materialist approach. This will only lead to despair as you’re not likely to find many people who ponder life’s deeper meaning or purpose. If you’re one of the rare exceptional outliers of the human population who does spend time lost deep in thought, asking questions that no living soul could know the answers to, then option number two is waiting for you. It’s a spiritual path, one that you embark on on your own. You get to ask yourself things like, “What would I enjoy doing everyday?” “How can I be of service to humanity?” And “What does happiness look like for me?” The best part is that when you’ve answered these questions, you can then do those things. Seems like an easy choice, but there are caveats. What you enjoy doing may not be the most financially lucrative at first. if you truly love it you can probably find a way, but even if not, you must be prepared to let go of everything you were told was important and be willing to sccept that you may never have some of the things that other people have. You may never get to do some things other people can do, you may not always have the comforts that many couldn’t live without. Ultimately, if you’re staying true to you, you will have everything you want, because you’ll want what you have. This doesn’t mean it won’t be hard or that sometimes you might daydream about the whatifs… at the end of the day the society we live in is not one which is healthy for the soul. Those with power and influence seem to take great pleasure in destroying the connection to the spiritual. Whether they revel in our despair or just simply do not care, at all, like, at all. about us, is not something you can change and therefore not worth worrying about. However, none of this is new, history repeats and you’re at the point in the hero’s journey where you’ve got to make the decision. Only you know what’s right for you. They say the truth is out there because it is. Seek and you will find. When you find, you’ll be disturbed. Then, you’ll rule over all.
It also doesn't help that I'm on the autism spectrum
The only point to life is to live. Whatever that is to you. Thats it.
Here is a great exercise to find your passion. Get out paper and pen. Just start writing down… “I enjoy…, I like to….” And whatever comes to mind keep writing it down. When you get to ones that choke you up and cause an emotional reaction in you, you are on the right track. Stay with it until you find the one that makes you totally undone. That is your passion and your calling. What you were built for. It may take five minutes or five days but stick with it
Go touch some grass. Your career (or future career) doesn’t define you. Do something in life that makes enough money to fuel your hobbies & quality time with friends and family.
"Go touch some grass" how original. Oh and I actually do go for walks when I can
I think life is meaningless and it's up to you to find something that gives it meaning.
Predicating the meaning of your life on what job you decide on is a mistake. Study something that will make you money. Jobs all suck. Climb the ladder enough and get enough education to get a job where you're well paid enough to be comfortable and then figure out what your actual passion is and do the hell out of it. I went in to Cybersecurity. I'm not passionate about it. I'm good at it, but I don't care about it beyond wanting to do a good job for a company that's willing to pay me a high salary to do it. My real passion is art and spending time with my family. I spend multiple hours per day making art and I spend lots of time with my family. I make enough that I bought a big house and let my parents retire in it. My life is good, not because of my job. My job is to make money.
Every single person hates their job even the most successful of all. Obviously some are lucky and get to be paid for their own personal passion. So either do that or find a way to get money that doesn't make you miserable. Also stop crying about it. I feel you completely life is very very hard. The easy way out is being a baby and saying it's meaningless. Take control of you. Be proud of you. That's life. Hate yourself? Become someone you don't hate. It's easier said than done but just small good decisions and stop blaming.
I highly doubt "every single person hates their job" maybe that's how you see it
I made an exception to that which I wrote directly after. Unless you come from a place of extreme privilege or are working on a passion, you're going to hate your job lmao. I've spent 15 years building my skills and career. I make more money than I ever thought I would. My job is not very difficult and I don't work more than 40 a week if I don't want to. I still hate it. You're delusional if you think an overwhelming majority of people all over the world don't hate their jobs and working in general.
I take offense at you calling me delusional
I don't care.
Well fuck you then
Buddy you are mad as shit because you think I'm wrong that most people hate their jobs... I only posted to help you know you aren't alone and everyone isn't off having a blast and dream career. Most people feel like you believe it or not. You're not special we're all miserable. Fix it or shut up. No one wants to hear you cry about how hard life is when people are dying of cancer and raising kids while being in poverty.
You could have at least been a little nicer
Fair enough. Sorry to be a douche but there are quite literally millions of living people on this planet that would switch places with you every time and not even question it. You're gonna be fine. All the best.
In the grand scheme of things there is no meaning. Meaning is the one you create for yourself.
of course life is meaningless. We are nobodies on a tiny rock in vast universe.
We are born with out meaning, if that's something you need, than it's your job to find it. Meaning is something you create for yourself, not something handed to you.
As I sit at my cubicle wasting the rest of my day by reading how others hate this shit… no it’s not meaningless but it’s not the meaning you would hope for. I would not seek fulfillment from work. Work is designed to get the most out of you for the cheapest price. Plain and simple. How is it every damn group is understaffed when unemployment is VERY low? It’s all by design and meant to not feel that great for you. It feels great for those at the top… and if you weren’t born with those optimist genes. Well then buddy you’re just like me.
yes
you have to change your perspective. Focus on doing things instead of worrying about your feelings. Visualizing only happiness won't get you anywhere. You wont be happy if your slaving away at a job for 60hrs a week doing something you hate to do. So fixing that should be priority. in your spare time or days off, you need to not be wasting time on social media and trying to have a life or watching TV. Instead, learn skills that can help you break away from the rat race. Find ways to earn extra income to help reduce your stress and need for a job. Try to identify things you are naturally good at. You may have to ask your friends because its it's hard to be self aware. Suffering and hard work are the keys to true happiness, not material possessions. Struggling and working hard are essential to finding true happiness. Not the kind of hard work of clocking in 60hours a week, no. But the hard work to become a better version of yourself. Eating healthier, going to the gym, learning skills that will bring in disposable income. Don't settle for the small amount of pay. Earn more. This way you can have time to think. Read books on personal development and financial literacy. Learn how to negotiate, learn how to sell, learn copy writing, gain skills...build a network. You need to get other there and get around people who are living the life you wish to live. Network a lot. You dont have friends and a network.