Meaning is Created, Not Found

Meaning is Created, Not Found

Let’s get one thing straight: the universe doesn’t give a damn about you. It doesn’t have a grand plan for your life, a hidden purpose for you to uncover, or a special destiny waiting to be fulfilled. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling you a comforting lie. The search for inherent meaning is a wild goose chase, a cosmic joke played on a species desperate for significance. And you know what? That’s the best news you’ll hear all day.

The Problem with Purpose

From the moment we’re old enough to ask "why?", we’re conditioned to look for meaning out there. We search for it in religion, in careers, in relationships, in the bottom of a bottle or the top of a mountain. We treat life like a cosmic scavenger hunt, believing there’s a treasure chest of purpose with our name on it. This is a fundamentally backward-looking-person (BLP) approach. It assumes the past has laid out a fixed path for you, and your job is to simply find it and walk it. Bullshit.

This mindset is a trap. It makes you a passive recipient of your own life, waiting for a sign, a calling, a divine tap on the shoulder. You become paralyzed by indecision, terrified of taking the "wrong" path and missing your one true purpose. You outsource your sense of self-worth to external validation—a job title, a bank account, the approval of others. When those things inevitably change or disappear, your entire sense of meaning collapses. You’re left feeling empty, lost, and cheated by the universe.

The belief that meaning is something to be found, rather than created, is the most disempowering idea we’ve ever been sold. It turns us into cosmic beggars, pleading for scraps of significance from an indifferent universe.

This isn’t nihilism. This is freedom. The absence of inherent meaning isn’t a void; it’s a canvas. It’s an invitation to pick up the damn brush and paint your own masterpiece. You don’t find your purpose. You build it.

From Cosmic Law to Your Daily Life

Over years of exploration and experience, I have come to understand deeply what it means to build purpose rather than search for it. This journey has involved confronting fears and pursuing dreams, not as fixed destinations but as evolving parts of a larger process. The insights I share here are drawn from that ongoing path, offered in the hope that recognizing meaning as something created can empower others to approach their own journeys with courage and clarity.

Creating meaning is an active, messy, and ongoing process. It’s about what you do, not what you are. You don’t decide one day, "My purpose is to be a great artist." That’s meaningless. You create the meaning of "artist" for yourself by picking up the brush every single day, especially when you don’t feel like it. You create it in the frustration of a failed brushstroke, the joy of a perfect color blend, and the vulnerability of showing your work to the world. The meaning isn’t in the finished painting; it’s in the act of painting.

This applies to everything. You don’t find a meaningful relationship; you build one, day by day, through communication, vulnerability, and shared experience. You don’t find a meaningful career; you forge one by constantly learning, adapting, and taking on new challenges. You are the architect of your own significance.

The Takeaway: How to Build Your Meaning Machine

So, how do you start? How do you shift from being a meaning-seeker to a meaning-creator? It’s not about some grand, life-altering revelation. It’s about small, consistent, forward-looking actions.

1. Embrace the Arrow of Time: The past is gone. It exists only as a memory in your mind. You can learn from it, but you can’t live there. Stop defining yourself by past failures or successes. Every moment is a new starting point. The arrow of time only moves forward, and so should you.
2. Feed Your System: A far-from-equilibrium system needs a constant flow of energy and information to survive. What are you feeding your mind? Are you consuming the same old ideas, or are you actively seeking out new perspectives that challenge your worldview? Read books, travel, talk to people you disagree with. Be an information omnivore.
3. Act, Don’t Ponder: You can’t think your way into a meaningful life. Meaning is a byproduct of action. Pick a direction and start moving. It doesn’t have to be the "right" direction. There is no right direction. Just move. The feedback you get from the world will help you adjust your course. This is the essence of being an FLP—you act, you adapt, you evolve.
4. Optimize Your Endocannabinoid System: This isn’t just about cannabis. It’s about everything that promotes homeostasis and adaptability in your body: diet, exercise, sleep, stress management. Your body’s ability to self-organize and adapt is directly tied to the health of your endocannabinoid system. A healthy body creates a resilient mind, one capable of building robust meaning structures.

The Choice is Yours

You can spend your life waiting for the universe to hand you a purpose on a silver platter. You can be a BLP, forever looking to the past and the external world for validation. Or you can accept the terrifying, exhilarating freedom that comes with a meaningless universe. You can embrace the chaos, the uncertainty, and the constant flux. You can become a self-organizing system of meaning.

Stop searching. Start building.