Create a Life of Meaning

When I was a kid I wanted to be and do so many different things. As a teenager I wrote down a bucket list of things I wanted to do when I was older. I recently pulled it out for a class assignment and I just had to laugh at my teenage self. What I wanted to do then has changed so drastically from what I want now.

I think the reason for this is how much my life has changed since I was a teenager. I am now married and expecting a baby, I guess you can say my calling in life has changed.

I read an article by Jeffery Thomson, titled What Is Your Calling in Life? One quote paragraph in particular stood out to me, it reads “their sense of calling—they were part of it. The work was meaningful because of the trials and burdens. That is an important lesson. We can’t expect deep meaningfulness from our calling unless we are willing to assume its burdens as well.”

Now that I am about to be a mother I can see how my priorities have changed. I know what the rewards of being a mother can be (from examples of my own mother), but I also know that they don’t come easily. It will be a long and hard road but I am excited to do it.

Many of my choices in life have led me to this junction. Randy Pausch said “Experience is what you get when you don’t get what you want.” There is an ironic truth to this. I can see how many things that didn’t pan out or go exactly how I wanted them to but it benefitted me in the end. It is a hard lesson to learn to fail, even harder sometimes to keep going, but that is what this life is for. We are supposed to fail and learn and to try again.

I think a lot of creating a life of meaning comes from finding meaning in life’s failures or life’s unexpected blessings. No one will end up on the exact path the expect, but we can always find a purpose and a motivation to better ourselves from where we currently are. I think that’s how we create a life of meaning.