1/ We get to know ourselves through our work — by our work we create our self-portraits, that is how we define who we are in the eyes of the world — Marx 
2/ The manner in which we combine preferences to extrapolate personal values constitutes our personality - a search for meaning arises from our need to define who we are.
3/ Personality is from the Greek word persona - a mask that actors wore in drama to create an “appearance” that was visibly distinct from that of the other actors.
4/ And individuality represents what you are by yourself, even when you are not wearing a mask.
5/ Awareness is the consciousness of that difference between individuality & personality. A quest for meaning arises from a need to know who we are.
6/ Once we decide how we want to know ourselves, we go about conjuring an inner picture of the self projected on to the external world.
7/ The sort of meaning we seek determines the purpose we create for ourselves from life. A seed of desire is thus sown to fulfil that purpose.
8/ Pleasure is created upon the fulfillment of a desire. The desire is fulfilled when we give or take meanings — these exchange of meanings involves a relationship.
9/ The irony of all relationships is that we often do things that we don’t derive joy from for some time, sacrificing happiness, in a fond hope that we will eventually get what we want.
10/ We prepare ourselves to make compromises over our happiness to fulfill our responsibilities — an ability to endure pain or suffering in a quest for ‘meaning’ — prioritizing responsibilities over happiness.
11/ Choice is an arbitrator between meaning and happiness — sometimes the choice is of meaning over happiness, and at other times happiness over meaning is preferred.
12/ Choices are necessary when you have to choose between an easy thing which may not be the right thing — in adverse situations where we are forced to opt either for keeping ourselves happy or performing our responsibilities in a quest towards a ‘meaning’ .
13/ A choice between meaning and happiness is often forced by circumstances.
14/ A search for meaning creates a personality— how others know you. The search or happiness creates an individuality— what kinds of pleasures one derives joy from.
15/ Conflicts between meaning and happiness gets resolved by awareness — That awareness exists as choice.
16/ Meaning is an enduring feeling of having a purpose, coherence and worth. It connects the past to the present to the future. The more the meaning felt, the more is the experience of happiness — a sense of well-being, joy or contentment.
17/ Meaningfulness and happiness get misrepresented as binaries. A pursuit of happiness may not thwart happiness, but the pursuit of meaning can. The rewards from the pursuit of meaning, though big, are often uncertain.
18/ A meaningless but happy life, is easier to live. Incessant search for meaning, by any means other than via self-discovery, is nothing but an illusion of the grass being greener on the other side.
19/ Meaning is about seeking something bigger than the self.
20/ Meaning is required to thrive.
“The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.” — Carl Jung
“The least of things with a meaning is worth more in life than the greatest of things without it.” — Carl Jung
21/ For eons, traditional wisdom has been that simply seeking pleasure for its own sake doesn’t really make you happy in the long run.
22/ When aspiring to a well-lived life, it might make more sense to look for things you find meaningful than to look for pleasure alone — even if pleasure augments one’s sense of meaning
23/ You can draw meaning from a larger context, look beyond yourself to find purpose in what you’re doing. Chances are that you’ll also find happiness—along the way.
24/ Pursue a purpose so important that even if you fail, the world is better off with you having tried.
