The final of the 3 pillars of Martin Seligman’s phycology framework is the meaningful life. The meaningful life is the pinnacle of happiness where we find purpose, true fulfilment and meaning in our lives. This level of happiness transcends our own personal interests in the pursuit of serving others in a collective effort to improve society and humanity. We can do this through volunteer work, philanthropy or just making a conscious effort to help others, a conscious effort to put others first.

Mahatma Ghandi said “happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions serving others.” It is easy to think in a selfish way in the pursuit of short-term gain for yourself. It’s easy to look for personal gain with the potential for others demise because unfortunately our species dose seeks to gain, seek to better themselves, seek to control and overcome others, regardless of the consequences.

This pillar is the final stage in the search for enlightenment and a truly wonderful journey to follow. The more I read and learn about these amazing people’s perception of happiness, their ideas, concepts, frameworks, theories, and experiences, the more I recognise as a human what the potential formula is to the search for happiness. I have my ups and downs and am in a stage of growth, of learning, of searching but reading something like Dr Seligman’s framework helps me considerably in finding it.

I went to the Burning Man a few years back. It’s a festival in Black Rock City, on a dried-up lakebed in the Nevada desert. 75 thousand people migrate to a section of the flats, build a city with music, bars, entertainment. They build art displays that move you, famous authors, entrepreneurs and businesspeople contribute with speeches, creations and for a few days the world stands still and everyone there is there for each other. The ethos is pretty much that if everyone gives, then no one needs, there is not currency traded and everything is simply a gift. It was a magnificent experience but one of the most amazing things I learnt, felt and breathed was the potential utopia that could be.

Imagine a world where everyone’s objective was to work together as a collective to benefit the entire race as a whole. What a wonderful world that would be. What a happy world that would be

Thanks,

Dean