Building a Meaningful Life

What Makes a Life Meaningful?

A meaningful life is one where you feel satisfied with your choices. It’s a life where you wake up excited about your day ahead. When you have this kind of life, you can look at yourself in the mirror and say, “This is exactly what I want to be doing.”

Research suggests that while external circumstances play a role in happiness, intentional activities and skills that build meaning often have a greater impact on overall well-being for most people.

The Growing Problem Among Young Adults

More young adults report lower levels of happiness today compared to previous generations. This trend is complex, with contributing factors such as socio-economic challenges, mental health issues, societal changes, and digital media. Research indicates that, among these, a lack of knowledge about building meaningful lives is one significant contributor. Neuroscientists and psychologists have found that, once individuals learn these skills, their satisfaction levels often improve.

The Science Behind Happiness

Martin Seligman, a psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania, changed how we think about happiness. He noticed that psychology focused too much on treating mental illness. Instead, he wanted to help healthy people become even happier.

His research led to the field of positive psychology, which studies what helps people thrive rather than just survive. Seligman discovered that curing depression doesn’t automatically create happiness. Different tools are required to build a truly satisfying life.

The PERMA Model: Your Blueprint for Success

Seligman created a simple system called PERMA—introduced in his book Flourish (2011)—to help people remember the building blocks of happiness. Each letter stands for one important element that contributes to a meaningful life. These five components work together like ingredients in a recipe.

When you focus on all five areas, you create a strong foundation for lasting satisfaction. Let’s explore each component and learn how to apply it in your daily life.

Positive Emotion: Training Your Mind

The “P” in PERMA represents positive emotion. This doesn’t mean forcing yourself to be cheerful all the time. Instead, it involves developing the ability to recognize opportunities—even during challenging moments.

One way to build this habit is by writing down three things you feel grateful for each day. With regular practice, your brain becomes more attuned to noticing positive experiences.

Developing positive emotions may offer helpful benefits:

• It can reduce stress that affects both the body and mind.
• It may support creative thinking and effective problem-solving.
• It often builds confidence that can influence other areas of your life.

Engagement: Getting Lost in What You Love

You experience engagement when you become so absorbed in an activity that time seems to pass quickly. This often occurs while working on a meaningful project or having a thoughtful conversation with someone important to you.

Psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi introduced the concept of “flow,” describing how deep involvement in meaningful activities can enhance long-term happiness. When you feel truly engaged, you often notice increased energy and a sense of alignment with your goals.

Consider which activities naturally hold your interest. These patterns can reveal the types of work or hobbies that bring greater fulfillment.

Relationships: Building Your Support Network

The “R” in PERMA highlights how relationships support overall well-being. These connections include romantic partners, friends, family members, and even everyday acquaintances.

Supportive relationships provide encouragement during difficult times and opportunities for shared joy during positive moments. Maintaining a mix of connections can add depth and meaning to your daily experience.

You don’t need to know everyone—just having a few trusted people around you can positively impact how you feel about your life.

Meaning and Purpose: Your Reason for Getting Up

Having a sense of meaning and purpose can give you the motivation to start each day with intention. When your actions align with something that matters to you, even routine tasks can take on greater value.

Purpose doesn’t have to be grand or public—it might involve nurturing your family, supporting your community, or expressing creativity. What’s important is that it resonates with your personal values.

People often discover meaning through their work, relationships, or efforts that support causes they care about. For some, purpose centers on one area of life; for others, it emerges from a combination of roles and experiences.

Accomplishment: Celebrating Your Wins

The final letter in PERMA stands for accomplishment. It emphasizes acknowledging your progress—no matter how small it may seem. Noticing what you’ve achieved builds confidence and reinforces your ability to shape your life.

Accomplishments come in many forms. Completing a challenging task, learning something new, or supporting someone through a tough moment all count. The important part is taking the time to recognize these efforts instead of overlooking them.

When you acknowledge your achievements, you strengthen your sense of agency—the belief that your choices and actions can positively influence your circumstances.

Arthur Brooks’ Four Pillars

Arthur Brooks, a Harvard professor and columnist, highlights four core elements that contribute to a meaningful life: faith, family, friendship, and meaningful work. These pillars reflect themes commonly supported in psychological research, though they are presented as a practical framework rather than a formal academic model. Together, they offer a balanced foundation that can strengthen personal fulfillment when intentionally developed.

• Faith

This doesn’t necessarily mean religion, though it can include religious beliefs. Faith refers to core beliefs that guide your actions and provide hope during difficult times. It provides a foundation of values that help you make choices even when life gets complicated.

• Family

Family includes the people who know you deeply and love you anyway, regardless of your mistakes or flaws. These relationships provide unconditional support and a sense of belonging that you can count on throughout your life. Family can include blood relatives, but also chosen family members who play this important role.

• Friendship

Friendship provides companionship and shared experiences that enrich your daily life. Good friends celebrate your successes with you and offer comfort during challenging times. These relationships give you people to laugh with, learn from, and create memories alongside.

• Meaningful Work

This pillar gives you a way to contribute your talents and skills to the world around you. Meaningful work doesn’t have to be your paid job, though it can be. It includes any activity where you use your abilities to make a positive difference, whether through volunteering, creative projects, or professional responsibilities.

Why This Approach Works

Positive psychology researchers have studied the PERMA model and related practices across a wide range of populations, with consistently positive results in happiness, resilience, and overall life satisfaction. Research indicates that focusing on PERMA elements is linked with improved well-being for many people who consistently apply these practices over time, though individual results can vary. Numerous studies in positive psychology support the effectiveness of these elements, though outcomes depend on personal effort and context.

The approach works because it gives you specific actions you can take. Instead of just hoping things will get better, you have tools to actively improve your situation. This sense of control makes a huge difference in how satisfied you feel.

The methods also work because they focus on multiple areas of your life at once. When you strengthen your relationships, develop positive emotions, and find more meaning in your work, all these improvements support each other.