I previously spoke of meaning as a catalyst for any positive change one wishes to create in life. I argued that if something doesn’t mean anything to you, then it is highly likely it will get ditched at one point or another. I write a lot in the context of health, but when it comes to any sort of aspiration—physical, mental, spiritual, or even in business—and the drive to achieve it, I believe people make a grave error by mistaking meaning with motivation. An error that comes with a high cost.

Many believe that if they were only motivated, they would be able to achieve their goals, and so they wait for motivation to pop out of nowhere or try to artificially create it, just so they can finally take action. But motivation in its very nature is a fleeting thing—sometimes you have it, and sometimes you don't. And by waiting for it to arrive, any work done is, by definition, inconsistent, sporadic, and unreliable.

Ironically enough, in a world so saturated with motivational content that is meant to “get you going,” “never give up,” “be your authentic self,” or “follow your dreams,” the crisis of meaning we experience as individuals has never been greater. I believe people are not aware that meaning is in fact the emotional fuel they need in order to achieve anything and cling to momentary, short-burst, dopaminergic arousals like motivation or happiness that come from outside of themselves.

We rarely ask the right questions when it comes to finding what means what to us, what our values are, and what our boundaries look like.

As a matter of fact, we almost entirely replaced meaning with motivation as the driving force and joy or satisfaction with momentary happiness as the ambition.

Many of us are so out of practice when it comes to how to seek and find meaning that we suffer dire consequences of living a type of life devoid of it.

In fact, I’d argue that the absence of deep meaning is one of the main causes of why so many people are unhappy, unfocused, and unhealthy these days, even though we live in the richest and most abundant time this world has ever seen.

However, as you are about to read, we subconsciously seek and chase meaning and purpose all the time, even though we behave in ways that distract us from it constantly.

Meaning is an inseparable part of us; it was built into us by whatever created us. We cannot and should not get rid of it.

As Viktor Frankl, a psychologist and survivor of the Nazi death camps, concluded in his masterpiece book “Man’s Search for Meaning”:

“Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose. What was really needed was a fundamental change in our attitude toward life. We had to learn ourselves, and teach the despairing men, that it did not really matter what we expected from life, but rather what life expected from us.”

Where, then, do we find meaning, and what concrete practices let us tap into a reservoir of energy that never evaporates the way motivation does?

In this piece we will trace that current back to its source: the bodily signals that tell us when an aim is authentic, how archetypal stories still shape our choices, and simple practices that convert a superficial endeavor into a spiritual one.

If you have ever felt like you are constantly jumping between life goals, or that there is something you always wanted but lacked the drive to get going with until now…

If you feel like you’re lost in a sea of random goals with no map, the compass you need is already in your hand; the task now is learning how to use it.

The crisis of meaning

The great psychologist Carl Jung argued that beneath our conscious goals lies a deep, unconscious drive for meaning. He proposed that there are common denominators we all share as human beings (archetypes) that shape our dreams, fantasies, and rituals, subtly steering us toward patterns that feel… well, meaningful. Jung also discovered that when life lacks meaning, the psyche responds with symptoms: restlessness, anxiety, repeating conflicts, and suffering—that creates pain that nudges us to seek purpose.

Up to the Enlightenment period in the late 17th century, things were very simple: religion, family, and community gave people the meaning they sought.

Many of us found deep meaning in simple religious life, worked hard because they needed to put food on the table, and found deep joy and satisfaction in spending time with our loved ones and communities in our spare time.

As our society became more and more sacrilegious, the sense of awe we had around God, nature, religion, and the sacred dissipated.

From a faith-based society, we became more of a fact, knowledge, and reason-oriented society. While facts and reason certainly brought much technical progress, the tradeoff was that we were forced to seek new meaning and purpose elsewhere.

However, what we so often fail to notice is that many of our supposedly personal goals and aspirations are derived not from deep within us, as we believe, but rather from outside, i.e., society.

As most people seek to find their space in society, we often match ourselves to it by living its patterns. If society as a whole is deprived of spiritual values and is more pragmatic, and we aspire to blend ourselves into it, our aspirations will be condensed into a similar stencil:

We want to be more attractive so we can date more attractive people, we want to make more money so we have more freedom to do whatever we want, and we want to accumulate property or climb up the ranks at work so we can be more respected and appreciated by others.

Of course, all of these aspirations are valid. However, what I wish to point out is that since all of these goals originate in the outside world, they are by definition not cohesive with your inner world. That is why it feels so meaningless to chase them.

The reason you chase them nonetheless is that part of them is cohesive with your inner world—the “why” behind them.

In other words, what these aspirations mean to you is the part that gets you to chase, move, and work towards them. Not the aspiration itself.

As you are about to see, focusing on the outer, more superficial layers of things shifts your focus from the inner to the outer, detaching yourself from the very center of your being.It turns the meaningful to the shallow, it focuses on momentary happiness instead of on a more permanent sense of joy, but more important all, it's inconsistent.

By shifting our focus inwards, we can understand the personal meaning behind those outer goals and connect the superficial layer to deeper and more purposeful motives. We can then operate from the inside out.

That way, not only are we going by things in a sense that is true to who we are, but we actually tap into an endless reservoir of energy and true motivation and live by our values—not by society’s expectations.

In short, when aims are set by the outer world, they have no backbone, and we turn to motivation or hope for inspiration to pump us up and push forward. When they are set by meaning and have a “why,” the outer world realigns in response.

Where is meaning?

Meaning, for starters, can be traced to the stories we tell ourselves; as Jung discovered, the desire for meaning is implied in everything we do, and what we tell ourselves moves us every day.

And indeed, the narratives we tell ourselves are the most powerful tool we humans have to navigate the world of subjective reality. Stories that have a stark personal meaning to us, the ones that carry the largest weight over our lives, are often the ones that contain the most potential to move us forward.

It is important that we are aware of the narratives we tell to ourselves and know the power they have.

We should investigate the key memories and the conclusions we made about them and seek clarity regarding the motives for our past and present actions.

Doing so will allow us to intellectually perceive their significance and will serve as key puzzle pieces on the map towards understanding ourselves. But meaning, as I have mentioned in previous articles, isn’t found in the story alone.

Meaning is something that is embodied and felt within our body as well, in realms that go beyond the cognitive and the linguistic and into the sensory and spiritual.

To put things in plainer terms: meaning is felt upon experience—both physically and emotionally. Just think back to one of your most pivotal life moments, where you felt incredibly inspired, unusually excited about an upcoming project that seemed important, or felt a deep sense of calling towards something. The moment your first child was born, or when a loved one was lost.There’s a reason why these moments were carved in your memory, instead of other random or insignificant ones—because they contain hidden energetic potential.

There is a direct connection between the ability to purposely seek, find, and experience meaning and the ability to initiate and then leverage positive change in life.

It is therefore crucial that we learn to identify meaning upon experience when we experience it. Doing so will create a constant source of fuel that moves us towards our aspirations, rather than depending on motivation, which surfaces unpredictably and vanishes just as quickly.

As I mentioned before, the first component of finding meaning involves the stories we tell ourselves around what is important to us.At the same time, we must be able to pick and choose between the endless number of stories we tell ourselves and focus our energy on the ones that align with who we want to be.

Otherwise, we will swim in endless confusion and stagnation, helplessly jumping from one story to the other without making any progress.

But the second component I mentioned before is equally important in finding meaning: the embodied sensation of it.

It is with both these components combined that we can separate the wheat from the chaff and categorize the many stories in our minds by order of importance.

Understanding the story and connecting with the embodied sensations that come along with each of them. In my personal experience as well as from working with my clients, the stories that create the largest emotional “umpf” are usually the stories that are worth taking the time to work with and focus on.

Such stories help us understand what’s important to us, what our boundaries or values are, in which direction we want to go, and what we absolutely will or will not accept. They are essentially a map towards the center of the mandala—a map to our very soul.

Not all stories with emotional significance contain meaning, just like not all the roads on a map lead to your desired location. However, just like when reading a map, paying attention to large landmarks, even if they are not connected to your route, will allow you to know the terrain better and orient yourself while walking it.

Let’s use the main topic of my articles—health—as an example: why would anyone want to be healthy? Why would anyone want to put in work in the gym and step out of the amazing comfort zone that is modern life if they don’t have to?

We can start answering the question by looking at why most people aren’t healthy—because it’s not important or meaningful to them to make time, invest money, or put in the work.

Out of the people who do try to maintain their health, many see it as a means to a rather shallow end, often a story with very materialistic and simple elements to it:

  • “I must look good so women will date me.”

  • “I have to fit into this dress by the wedding so I can look good in the photo album.”

  • “I want to lose X lbs.”

  • “I want to gain Y lbs.”

  • “I want to be stronger.”

What if, instead of seeking external goals, we sought the things that truly mean something to us in ways that make our souls vibrate? What if we go several layers deeper than the arbitrary, technical, often status-oriented goal and slowly peel off the layers of the initial story until we hit the center of the mandala? What if we asked better questions?

When a client gives me a superficial goal, I would always ask them to go deeper. If you follow such a goal, ask yourself:

  • “I must look good so women will date me.” — Why?

  • “I have to fit into this dress by the ”summer”—Why?

  • “I want to lose X lbs.” - Why?

  • “I want to gain Y lbs.” - Why?

  • “I want to be stronger.”- Why?

Again, my point is not that our aspirations are invalid, but that we don’t take the time to go deep enough and understand why they are so.

Ok, but going deep into what, exactly? Let’s take a step back:

“Operating from the inside out” involves first understanding what the inside even is. If we want to seek meaning, we have to pave the way into the center of the mandala, into our soul.

Let’s unpack what we’re actually trying to figure out here—because the words “finding your authentic self” have been chewed up so much in the past 20 years, I half expect to find them printed on a throw pillow at IKEA.

In fact… Good god.

About the “soul”

The word “soul” could be considered a cliché these days.

So allow me to pinpoint what I mean by it and philosophize with you for a moment with a thought-provoking exercise by William James:

Imagine an ant walking on a patch of sand. As the ant is walking around, it is leaving a trail of tracks on the sand behind it. After a few minutes, by an incredible random turn of events, the trail the ant left behind turns out to be a surprisingly accurate portrait of Winston Churchill.

Now, obviously, the ant had no intention of making any portraits, and clearly, it had no idea who Winston Churchill was, but the rather accurate portrait was formulated nonetheless.

Consider the following: if no human being is there to see the portrait and recognize it as resembling Churchill, is the portrait in fact a portrait of Churchill or just random tracks in the sand?

And even if theoretically someone stumbled upon the tracks and recognized Churchill in them—does this change the very essence of what the tracks are, considering that the creature who created the so-called “portrait” had zero knowledge of who Churchill is or what a portrait is and had absolutely no intention to create a portrait in the first place?

Does the naming of the tracks “Winston Churchill” by a bystander change what the tracks are, or is it only a description of what the tracks might look like?

The answer doesn’t matter as much as the subject of the question: the tracks. Rather, the objective “essence” of the tracks—the very “soul” of the tracks.

When I speak about the embodied sensation of meaning—the chills, the “eureka!” moment, the excitement, the desire to act—I speak of something that probably hit your essence, your soul.

In these very rare moments, it seems as though whatever is happening has penetrated through the layers of story you have about yourself and simply rings true. You can literally feel it.

That’s why moments of meaning resonate most and have such an impact, no matter when they are happening.

The part that vibrates, the part that’s hit in those moments—the soul—is somewhat of an objective truth of who you are regardless of the story you tell yourself about who you are.And that truth reverberates within you always.

The reason most people are unaware of it or don’t remember it in their daily lives is because we only get extremely short glimpses at it, and on rare occasions.

In the Hebrew Bible, it is said that God placed an ever-spinning “Cherev Pipiot” (Hebrew for "double-edged sword") at the entrance to the gates of heaven, spinning so fast that no one can see past it.

Tradition says God allows only the ones who pay very close attention—and on very rare occasions at that—to have a short peek between the spinning blades and see what the inside of heaven looks like.

That short peek, however, is never long enough for them to truly grasp and understand what heaven truly is, but it can give them a general idea, feeling, or sensation of what to aim for on their journey. And so they must always remember what they glanced at while remaining vigilant for more signs.

I believe that “heaven” and “soul” in this case are synonyms. And that one of the few means by which one can “peek inside” and have a look are the moments where deep meaning is revealed, sensed, and felt—and that this revelation leaves us clues as to where and how to go by things.

So what is the meaning of this?

Ok, so let’s bring this one home with some practicalities.

As I mentioned before, if you want to achieve any goal but are waiting for a burst of motivation or inspiration, then you’re using the wrong strategy.

Before deciding to embark on any journey, whether it regards weight loss, strength gains, muscle gain, health reconfiguration, a new business, or even spiritual growth (especially spiritual growth), you have to understand why you are even doing it in the first place, because when you do, you will be able to persist out of a much larger emotional drive.

In other words, what would success in this journey mean to you, and why is it meaningful?

When I coach my clients around their goals, as well as when I look at myself (being absolutely no different than any of my clients in that matter), I am very aware that a goal has to mean something more than the superficial layers of it so we will actually put in the work needed to achieve it.

As mentioned before, we have to do two things in order to hit meaning: find the deepest layer of the story and check in with our bodily sensation in light of it.

That way, you can fully grasp and utilize the power the story has, as well as experience its effect both physically and emotionally, substantiating its importance.

And so, a great way to begin, when looking at your goals, is to ask yourself what it is you want to feel by accomplishing them and what that feeling would give you.

For instance, if a client told me they want to “look good naked,” I’d challenge the simplicity of that statement.

I’d ask, “Why do you want to feel that way?” and repeat the question until we’re either stuck or hitting something deeper and more meaningful.

Here’s how that might look:

Q: “Why do you want to look good naked?” A: “So I can be more desirable to the other sex.”

Q: “And why do you want to be more desirable?” A: “So I can find a partner.”

Q: “And why do you want to find a partner?” A: “So I can share my life with someone close to me and start a family.”

Q: “And why do you want to start a family?” A: “Because I believe being a parent is the highest calling for a human being to have.”

Now, clearly this isn’t how this sort of questioning would go with everyone, but I hope that by now you get my point:

Being a parent and starting a family is a much more powerful why than the initial “wanting to look good naked.” It packs so much more emotional punch and will serve as a much more potent fuel for the person in question than another, more superficial reason—because it means something to them.

Furthermore, this involved a personal meaning, completely unhinged from the expectations society has of them. They want to be a parent because they believe it’s the right thing to do, not because someone told them they should.

Then I would usually steer the person in question to their body and ask, “When you hear yourself saying that you want to find a partner and start a family because you believe this is the highest calling a human being can have, how does that feel in your body?”

They would usually reply with something like, “I have chills right now, honestly. It feels light and empowering at the same time; I feel so energetic and inspired. I want to go do stuff now!”

In other words, they have also gained the momentary feeling of motivation—the side effect of embodied, experienced meaning—and are ready to walk the extra mile for it.

All in all, they found something that means so much to them that they feel exhilarated just by thinking about it and realized it’s also connected to the supposedly superficial goal they had in the first place.

Every time they go to the gym, go out for a jog, tie their shoes, pack their meal prep containers, or go to sleep early instead of partying, they wouldn’t be thinking about something banal as “looking good naked,” but rather think about the deeply personal, more meaningful reason for their actions.

In this lies satisfaction, joy, and feeling content about the sacrifices you make. This also provides a reason to take action regardless of a good feeling of motivation.

Waiting for motivation so you can start acting will probably leave you hanging dry for a while before you can act in any consistent manner. This is why waiting for motivation is never the answer.

A person who remembers that they are on a journey towards what they believe is a meaningful calling, a destiny, a spiritual quest—something that coincides with their value system, originates from their soul—their center, and gives them meaning and purpose—is willing to sacrifice more, invest more, and give more of themselves regardless of difficulties that may arise, because they are connected to something greater and much higher than themselves.

They got a glimpse of heaven, and they now remember.

This is the effect meaning has on one’s life. This is why meaning will trump motivation any day. Chasing external benchmarks or following narratives dictated to us by society—rather than interrogating the inner stories and bodily sensations that signal genuine importance—is the reason why so many people feel they are living a life deprived of meaning and purpose.

Find meaning, follow the cookie trail it leaves for you, and you’ll never need to get motivated again.