This episode is created and narrated using artificial intelligence (AI).
Does your life feel meaningful—or does it feel like a series of logical next steps you never quite chose?
Do you have things that look right from the outside but feel hollow from the inside? Are you quietly wondering whether what you are doing with your one life actually matters?
In Episode 47 of Labels Don't Define Us, Sarah is joined by guest William to explore one of the most important and most underaddressed questions in mental health and personal growth: how to create a life that genuinely feels meaningful—not by finding a grand calling, but by making specific, evidence-based choices that align daily life with what you actually value.
This is an episode about purpose, depth, and the difference between a life that is successful and a life that is yours.
What you will discover in this episode:
💛 The crucial difference between happiness and meaning—why they are not the same, why optimizing for happiness alone produces a thin life, and why meaning is the more powerful predictor of long-term well-being and flourishing
💛 Dr. Michael Steger's landmark research on meaning in life: the two dimensions of meaning (presence and search) and why its absence is associated with depression, anxiety, and existential distress even in objectively comfortable lives
💛 Viktor Frankl's logotherapy: why meaning is the primary human motivational force—and how his observations in Nazi concentration camps led to findings that empirical research has since consistently supported
💛 The happiness vs. meaning study: Dr. Roy Baumeister's research showing that meaning comes from contribution, self-transcendence, and accepting difficulty—not from getting what you want.
💛 Why meaning is a major social determinant of health: a meta-analysis of 400+ studies and 120,000 participants linking meaning to reduced mortality risk, better immune function, and lower rates of cardiovascular disease
💛 Dr. Martin Seligman's PERMA model and why meaning is the element most strongly associated with lasting psychological flourishing
💛 Dr. Amy Wrzesniewski's job crafting research: why you do not need a different life to find meaning—and how to build a different relationship with the one you already have
💛 Dr. Adam Grant's prosocial research: why choosing contribution to others is one of the most reliable and durable generators of meaning in daily life
💛 The power of narrative identity: how constructing a coherent story of your own life produces measurable increases in meaning, resilience, and integration of difficult experience
💛 William's honest account of a well-functioning but hollow default life—the one question that changed everything—and the slow, deliberate process of choosing depth over convenience
💛 Three practical, research-backed tools to begin building more meaning into your life this week
Whether you feel stuck in a life that looks right but does not feel like yours, are searching for purpose after a period of loss or transition, want to understand the science of what makes life feel worth living, or are simply ready to stop living by default and start living with intention—this episode is for you.
Follow Labels Don't Define Us on Acast, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts and never miss an episode.
If today's conversation helped you see your life a little differently, please leave a review—it takes less than a minute and helps this show reach every person quietly asking whether what they are doing with their one life actually matters.
10-Minute Guided Meditation
➡️ https://tinyurl.com/10-minute-guided-meditation
Visit my Make Money & Heal blog and digital shop here:
➡️ https://makemoneyandheal.blogspot.com
➡️ https://payhip.com/kickisshop
#findingmeaninginlife #howtoliveameaningfullife #purposeandmeaning #livingwithintention #ViktorFranklmeaning #mentalhealthpodcast #lifepurposepodcast #existentialmeaning #personalgrowthpodcast #meaningfullifepsychology
","author_name":"Kicki E Johansson"}