The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life.........
Beautiful Minds
The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life
There can be substantial trade-offs between seeking happiness and seeking meaning in life.
The pursuit of happiness and meaning are two of our most central motivations in life. A wealth of research in positive psychology suggests that happiness and meaning are, in fact, essential elements of well-being. Happiness and meaning are strongly correlated with each other, and often feed off each other. The more meaning we find in life, the more happy we typically feel, and the more happy we feel, the more we often feel encouraged to pursue even greater meaning and purpose.
But not always.
parents often report that they are very happy they had children, but parents who are living with children usually score very low on measures of happiness. It seems that raising children can decrease happiness but increase meaning. Or consider revolutionaries, who often suffer through years of violence and discord for a larger purpose that can ultimately bring great satisfaction and meaning to their lives and the lives of others.
However, I also found some important differences:
The more people felt their activities were consistent with core themes and values of their self, the greater meaning they reported in their activities.
Seeing oneself as wise, creative, and even anxious were all linked to meaning but had no relationship (and in some cases, even showed a negative relationship) to happiness.
Beautiful Minds
The Differences between Happiness and Meaning in Life
There can be substantial trade-offs between seeking happiness and seeking meaning in life.
The pursuit of happiness and meaning are two of our most central motivations in life. A wealth of research in positive psychology suggests that happiness and meaning are, in fact, essential elements of well-being. Happiness and meaning are strongly correlated with each other, and often feed off each other. The more meaning we find in life, the more happy we typically feel, and the more happy we feel, the more we often feel encouraged to pursue even greater meaning and purpose.
But not always.
However, I also found some important differences:
- Finding one’s life easy or difficult was related to happiness, but not meaning.
- Feeling healthy was related to happiness, but not meaning.
- Feeling good was related to happiness, not meaning.
- Scarcity of money reduced happiness more than meaning.
- People with more meaningful lives agreed that ‘relationships are more important than achievements’.
- Helping people in need was linked to meaning but not happiness.
- Expecting to do a lot of deep thinking was positively related to meaningfulness, but negatively with happiness.*
- Happiness was related more to being a taker rather than a giver, whereas meaning was related more to being a giver than a taker.
The more people felt their activities were consistent with core themes and values of their self, the greater meaning they reported in their activities.
Seeing oneself as wise, creative, and even anxious were all linked to meaning but had no relationship (and in some cases, even showed a negative relationship) to happiness.
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