When you wonder how to create a meaningful life, the first question you need to ask yourself, is: 

“Do I have the courage to bring forth the treasures that are hidden within me?”

Elizabeth Gilbert

According to Elizabeth Gilbert, in her book Big Magic, “The universe hides strange jewels inside of us and then waits to see if we can find them.

Finding and discovering these jewels will help you create a meaningful life that is involved in creative living.

That’s what she calls big magic.

Creating a meaningful life involves following your curiosity and interests despite of your fears.

According to research, creativity can give meaning to our past, present, and future. Creative activities can help us understand and give meaning to our experiences, provide enjoyment at the moment, and ensure some legacy that may resonate with younger generations.

This blog post was inspired by Elizabeth Gilbert’s book Big Magic.

Here are 6 steps so that you can build a meaningful life.

1 – How to Start Creating a Meaningful Life?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• When was the last time I felt excited, happy, and creative?
• What makes me feel alive and joyous?
• What am I curious about?
• Is there anything I am scared of?

Take a few days to journal about these questions.

If you are not sure how to journal you may find it helpful to read: How to Start a Journal: 8 Easy Tips for Beginners.

I feel joyous and excited when I read an interesting book and learn something new or when I see a new perspective of a problem that I was trying to solve.

I like to share these findings on my blog and YouTube Channel hoping that my discoveries may be helpful to someone else also.

There are many situations that can make you feel alive and joyous. Think about: 

• A cup of your favorite beverage
• Watching a good movie
• Reading a book
• Going for a walk in nature
• Exercising
• Talking to a friend
• Eating your favorite food

These are ways to feel alive and happy in the short term. 

It’s good to have a list of your favorite things to do so when you are feeling grumpy or in a bad mood you know what you can do to turn it around.

However, creating a meaningful life is related to a long term commitment of following your curiosity.

It is not necessarily related to an outcome.

Also, it’s not about making a lot of money or about success it is about exploring and getting to know more of yourself.

2 – What Keeps You Away from Creating a Meaningful Life?

“A creative life is an amplified life.

It’s a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life, and a hell of a lot more interesting life.

Living in this manner – continually and stubbornly bringing forth the jewels that are hidden within you – is a fine art, in and of itself.

Elizabeth gilbert

Many times we are so busy with requests and demands from others that we feel like ants working incessantly to complete one more task. And then, there is always one more.

If you want to connect with what is meaningful to you, limit the hustling and constant busyness.

Creating a meaningful life is feeling creative, alive, happy, and connected to ourselves and others.

You will discover a meaningful life by revealing  the jewels that are hidden in yourself.

3 – Overcome Your Fear

Make space for creativity and also fear in your life because it seems they are always together.

Elizabeth Gilbert

You have to be brave and have the courage to explore different possibilities if you want to create a meaningful life.

However you may be afraid of:

• Failing
• Being criticized
• Not being good enough
• Finding out that you don’t have any talent
• Not being happy with what you discover
• The unknown
• What could go wrong
• What others might think

We all share many fears.

However there is a point when the pain of not doing it is worse than the pain of failure.

After some time, fear becomes boring because we stay small without trying anything new just to stay safe.

Fear can be helpful to keep us safe but it can also stop us from creating a meaningful life.

Respect your fear in real life but not when exploring your creativity.

In addition, fear will always be in the back of your mind trying to keep you safe especially when you explore your curiosity which involves uncertain outcomes because uncertain outcomes can be scary.

We need to learn how to listen to our fear but not let it take over our life or make decisions based on fear.

Fear is like some of your family members who with the best intentions give the worst advise just for the sake of keeping you safe.

If you want to do interesting things in your life and create a meaningful life, you have to make decisions based on your curiosity and intuition.

However, fear will always remind you about the importance of staying within your comfort zone.

To discover the hidden gems inside yourself and to create a meaningful life you will have to act in spite of fear.

4 – The Magic of Inspiration – Ideas are magical

The creative process is both magical and magic.

Elizabeth Gilbert

When you are inspired, you feel intense emotional and physiological reactions that draw you toward an idea.

Ideas are energy that come to us for help.

When an idea wants to become reality it partners with a human.

Ideas will try to connect with you but sometimes you are busy with your everyday life and you don’t pay attention to the new ideas.

Once you pay attention, you may notice coincidences and signals pointing you toward the idea.

The idea will keep coming back until it has your full attention. Then it will ask you if you want to work with him or her.

Hopefully, you can happily work with inspiration.

Greeks called the highest degree of happiness  eudaimonia, this means that an external divine creative spirit is taking care of you. Nowadays we call it “flow.”

However, Greeks and Romans believed in an external daemon of creativity that helped you out.

That means that a gifted person has a genius.

Having an outside genius helps to handle success or failure because the outcomes are not totally the person’s responsibility.

The person and the genius share the praise and shame.

Your creative genius will come and go while you relentlessly work. Don’t expect that the genius will be there all the time.

We need to continue working with or without assistance. Be thankful for the process and for the assistance.

What do you think would make your life more meaningful?

• Travel
• Get a new job
• Draw
• Write
• Start a blog
• Create a YouTube channel
• Try a new recipe

Go and do it. Don’t wait for others to give your permission.

Enjoy making something interesting or new.

5 – Dedicate Yourself to what is Meaningful to You

“You can measure your worth by your dedication to your path, not by your successes or failures.”

Elizabeth Gilbert

Dedication is more important than success or failure. 

Start by creating a habit to make sure that your life is meaningful every day.

Inspiration may visit from time to time. However, the same way inspiration visits, it will also leave.

Don’t worry about perfectionism or what others may think about you.

It takes a long time for most people to realize that nobody is actually thinking about them.

People are mostly interested in themselves.

Do your best.

Finish what you have started even if it is not perfect.

Done is better than perfect.

Even if a result is never guaranteed, the best approach is to try your best consistently with seriousness and lightness.

You will feel peace of mind that you tried and enjoyed the process.

Even if you don’t become successful, you will have created a meaningful life by engaging in your creative interests.

Make sure you have a job that will pay the bills, because expecting that your creative endeavors will make money is very uncertain.

Gilbert discourages people from approaching creativity as a career as the financial outcomes can be quite unpredictable.

6 – Trust Your Creative Process

Trust that inspiration is always nearby trying to assist you in your creative process. It may talk to you in dreams, coincidences, overheard conversations, or stubborn ideas.

Don’t worry about your passion.

If you are obsessively interested in something to the point that you think about it all the time, that’s fine.

However, if you don’t know what your passion is, or you are interested in multiple things there is nothing to worry about.

If you are not sure what you are passionate about, ask yourself what you are curious about.

The first step to create a meaningful life is to pay attention to your curiosity.

• What sparks interest? 
• is there anything you would like to know more about?
• What captures your attention?

Explore that what you are curious about. Learn a little bit more.

Let curiosity lead you.

Follow your curiosity to wherever it will take you.

It may eventually lead you to your passion.

Keep going even when things are difficult.

Difficult experiences have the power of transformation.

Don’t quit too soon. Because interesting things could happen if you keep going.

In the process of creating a meaningful life you will fail. Things will not always work out as expected.

You may have an excellent idea that may not lead you in the direction that you expected.

Think of failure as part of the process and as a learning experience.

Don’t dwell too long on your failures.

Do the best you can with what you have.

To create a meaningful life you need to be brave to explore your curiosity and the hidden gems inside of you.

If you liked this post you may enjoy reading the book:

What tip was most helpful to create a meaningful life?

What creative activities are you working on?

Let me know in the comments below.

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