We are told:
Find your why.
Set meaningful goals for yourself.
Know your direction.
Have you tried it?
And above all: did it work?
If the metric is performance, focus, and achievement – often yes. But if the metric is the experience of meaningfulness — the feeling that life is valuable in this very moment — did it work then? The problem with goals is that life is always pushed slightly forward.
Once this project is finished.
Once everyday life settles down.
Once…
When-then.
This kind of thinking unknowingly steers us away from this unique moment we are living right now. The present becomes a tool whose only purpose is to carry us toward the future. However, true meaningfulness is an experience in the present moment. It is complete concentration and presence in what is happening right now. When I am present in what I do, life feels meaningful. For me, this has by no means been self-evident. During the early stages of my career, I set many kinds of goals – some genuinely meaningful, some, frankly, anything but. I achieved a lot, but the goals still didn’t bring the satisfaction I expected from life.
Gradually you realize that the key might not be in the goals after all, but in how I live this moment.
But how to be genuinely present when work is busy, family matters are occasionally a mess, and it constantly feels like there isn’t enough time and energy for everything? Around the threshold of middle age, I began practicing meditation. It wasn’t easy, but at its best, it brought glimpses of true presence. Moments where nothing was missing. Those moments didn’t last long, however.
Then I went to Denmark for training in Gestalt therapy and organizational consulting. That was the start of a real turning point. I have always been a heavy thinker and have solved problems primarily through thought, but Fritz Perls’ provocative phrase stopped me in my tracks:
Lose your mind and come to your senses.
I noticed that the experience of meaningfulness began to arise spontaneously – not by chasing goals, but by being in contact with this moment. The next earth-shattering realization came through psychedelic experiences in the Netherlands. For the first time, I concretely experienced what it feels like when thinking falls silent and what remains is a deep experience of being alive.
It felt as if I had returned home. To the source of life. I still clearly remember that distinct experience: “This is what I’ve been looking for my whole life.” As if I had woken up from a dream. I understood better what meditation gurus mean when they talk about “awakening.”
Everyday life returned and the experience gradually faded. Such experiences do not in themselves create permanent change. But they can open a window: life can feel like this. And once the window has opened, it can remain ajar.
Then you can start looking for that feeling of presence and meaningfulness – surprise, surprise – in this very moment. Thoughts still get in the way, of course. Busyness, worries, and plans do not disappear. But somewhere in the background, it’s easier to recognize that quiet, always-available feeling of aliveness. The consciousness in which life happens. And to act from that experience.
Meaning doesn’t arise from finding perfect goals. It arises from being truly present in our lives – here and now. Then every moment is full of meaning.
Where does your sense of meaning come from? How does your life taste right now?
