The Language You Use Is Important
Why the Language You Use Matters
An Excerpt from Life Purpose Boot Camp by Eric Maisel
Many folks also have given little or no thought to the language they use to discuss meaning with themselves. People typically get stymied trying to answer the question, “What would it be meaningful to do next?” because it is the wrong question to ask. Embedded in that question is the idea that the experience of meaning can be guaranteed. The logic of such a sentence is, “Certain things are meaningful, so let me choose one and get me some meaning.”
But nothing is necessarily meaningful. Playing with your infant child might feel tremendously meaningful one day and more like a chore the next day. Working on your novel might feel poignantly meaningful today and completely pointless tomorrow. Your teaching job might feel meaningful during your first five years of teaching and empty and burdensome in your twentieth. “What would it be meaningful to do?” has an implicit guarantee built into it that life can’t possibly meet.
That’s why in natural psychology we use two phrases, meaning opportunities ...
http://kajama.com/language-use-important/
An Excerpt from Life Purpose Boot Camp by Eric Maisel
Many folks also have given little or no thought to the language they use to discuss meaning with themselves. People typically get stymied trying to answer the question, “What would it be meaningful to do next?” because it is the wrong question to ask. Embedded in that question is the idea that the experience of meaning can be guaranteed. The logic of such a sentence is, “Certain things are meaningful, so let me choose one and get me some meaning.”
But nothing is necessarily meaningful. Playing with your infant child might feel tremendously meaningful one day and more like a chore the next day. Working on your novel might feel poignantly meaningful today and completely pointless tomorrow. Your teaching job might feel meaningful during your first five years of teaching and empty and burdensome in your twentieth. “What would it be meaningful to do?” has an implicit guarantee built into it that life can’t possibly meet.
That’s why in natural psychology we use two phrases, meaning opportunities ...
http://kajama.com/language-use-important/