160: Emily Esfahani Smith

• The One You Feed parable
• Her new book: The Power of Meaning: Crafting a Life That Matters
• The difference between happiness and meaning
• That the defining feature of a meaningful life is connecting and contributing to something that lies beyond the self
• The three criteria of a meaningful life: feeling that one’s life is significant in some way, feeling that one’s life is driven by a sense of purpose and feeling that one’s life is coherent
• That human beings are meaning-seeking creatures
• That there’s more to life than feeling happy
• That our current culture doesn’t emphasize meaning and purpose
• Victor Frankel’s important work related to the role of meaning in our lives
• The role of meaning when facing adversity
• That responsibility and duty are wellsprings of meaning
• That the wellsprings of meaning are all around us
• The four pillars of a meaningful life: Belonging, Purpose, Storytelling, and Transcendence
• The wisdom in what George Eliot has to say about the people that keep the world going in small yet indispensable ways: that the goodness of the world is dependent on their unhistoric acts
• What kind of relationships lead to a sense of belonging
• That purpose can come in all shapes and sizes
• That reflecting on the story of your life can lead to a greater sense of meaning in your life
• The two different types of storytelling
• That transcendent experiences are crucial to having a greater sense of meaning in life
• The good news about what’s happening to us as a species

Emily Esfahani Smith Links