perspective on life essay

Success Mindset

How to develop different perspectives on life.

A widespread picture represents two individuals standing on either side of the number 9 that has been drawn on the floor. For one person, it appears as the number 6 and for another, it’s the number 9.

Who is right and who is wrong? Obviously, they both are right yet they both are wrong in the eyes of another individual because of the viewing perspective. This is the simplest example showing perspective meaning.

Both of them consider themselves to be right; here, they must understand the other perspective by changing their sides.

If people simply understand that a life perspective can be changed, molded, and explained, the world can be a better place for all. It can put end to fights, wars, daily quarrels, and much more. The only requirement is to see things from another person’s perspective.

We can make a perfect society with responsible adults if we teach our children about the perspective and its importance.

To learn how to see things from another person’s perspective, you must first learn the fundamentals of perspective. You need to first know what a life perspective is. [1]

Table of Contents

Understanding the perspective meaning, importance of seeing things differently, 1. stop complaining, 2. find what makes you happy, 3. reduce the social media vitriol, 4. keep your head up, 5. change negative perspective from the inside-out, 6. stay away from negativity, 7. focus on what matters, 8. focus on the needs of others, final thoughts.

What does perspective mean in reality? The above-mentioned example of 6 and 9 is the best way to understand how you take your life perspective. It’s a way how you see life and approach it.

In this life, few things are absolutely right or wrong. Mainly, we have two different perspectives on one thing. For instance, for one person, something extremely bad is just something normal for another.

It’s easy to come across a lot of different debates online. There are a lot of polarizing debates around politics, relationships, and anything that has two sides to the story or binary thinking . Social media makes it easy to pick a side and find opinions that line up with what you believe.

As a neutral person who has not picked a side yet, you can see that both sides of this argument have concrete reasons to support their answers. They have different choices, and all of the choices are valid.

While one side sees life from the perspective of “anything goes as long as it makes you happy,” another side sees life as “there are boundaries you should not cross.”

You see now that there are two valid perspectives here. Both of them are right in their choices, and saying one is wrong is an unsupportable stance.

When we define perspective, it is always important to consider others as well. There are more than 7 billion people in the world and there are people who see things in a different light. This complicates life because instead of seeing the similarities we share, we often focus on what is different, which leads to disagreements and fights.

Simply making a switch and attempting to see things from a different perspective could help solve many of these problems.

Your perspective on life determines how you relate to people, how you handle relationships and troubles, and how you live day-to-day. You may not realize how important your perspective on life is because we often feel that as long as other people’s opinions and decisions do not affect us, ours should not affect other people.

However, the fact is that our perspective on life does affect the people around us.

Going back to the 6 and 9 analogy we began with, what we also have are two different scenarios that can play out here.

We can end up having two adults who refuse to agree to disagree and separate after a heated argument, destroying the chances of building a relationship.

We can also end up having two adults who swapped positions and perspectives and looked through each other’s eyes for a minute to see that this could either be a 6 or a 9, depending on where they stood. This could graduate into handshakes, drinks later, and the start of a friendship. All they had to do was view things from a different perspective.

Your perspective on life can either make or break a relationship.

If you have a bad or negative perspective on life, it affects everything and everyone around you negatively. You find yourself constantly being angry and not being able to accept other people’s perspectives.

Other times, you find yourself complaining and stressing over things that simply require a small shift in your perspective.

Having a good perspective on life gives you an advantage. First of all, you are a lot more open to seeing from other people’s perspectives, thus making it easy for you to create meaningful relationships.

It also gives you a lot more reasons to be grateful and happy. If you live a life where you are constantly showing gratitude and being happy, then you have lived a fulfilled life.

How to Change Your Perspective on Life

Changing your perspective is an active decision you have to make intentionally. First, you must come to terms with the fact that your current perspective on life is not absolute and can be changed. Then, you have to understand the importance of having a different perspective from the one you already have.

Once you have dealt with these, here are some active steps you can take to change your perspective on life.

Whatever the issue is, whenever you feel like complaining, fold your thumb, bite your tongue, do something and make sure it stops you from letting out that complaint. When you stay silent and listen, you can start seeing things from different perspectives.

A happy person is more understanding with a clear vision of things. Happiness adds positivity to life. Seek happiness if it is not coming your way naturally to clear the fog.

When you are constantly brooding and thinking negatively, your perspective will never change, and soon all that negativity will begin to spread around you like wildfire. Staying positive can be challenging at first but will ease with time.

One great way to train your mind to focus on what you love in life is to create a gratitude journal . The way it works is every time something good happens, you write it down in your journal.

Then when a negative situation occurs, you can flip open your journal to change perspective. Remind yourself how blessed and fortunate you are when you feel you have nothing to celebrate in life.

Read about your successes when you feel you can’t do anything right. Creating a gratitude journal will significantly change your perspective about yourself and your life. [2]

Often times on social media, people will post a thing and followers will take on a different perspective regarding its meaning.

When different phrases in a post hit social media, some people misunderstand them, which can increase online conflicts. Responding to critical or negative posts with a sense of maturity and lightheartedness will lessen any vitriol spills and keeps anyone from receiving blocks.

If you feel like you may need some time to unplug from social media, read: How to Unplug from Social Media For a Mental Energy Boost .

When you are on social media, always seek the other angle of the person disagreeing with you. Your opinion is not alpha, it is just an opinion and can change.

The beautiful thing about perspective is that it is subject to change. It is not static, and the decision to alter it rests on you.

Someone with a fixed mindset believes there are a lucky few who are blessed with the right genes to become successful.

Studies show someone with a fixed mindset is ill-equipped to tackle many of life’s challenges. [3] They see failure and difficulty as a sign that they are doing the wrong thing.

You may have heard someone explaining why something was not meant for them by talking about how it didn’t come naturally. This perspective cripples the ability of many from reaching their full potential.

Someone with a growth mindset has a different perspective on life. They believe everyone can learn and build the skills necessary to achieve their goals.

They see failure as a sign that their approach was wrong, not as a sign they were wrong. As a result, they will regularly try new things until they achieve their goal.

Inventors are a classic example of a growth mindset. Their perspective on negative situations is that it is nothing more than a problem they have yet to solve. They see each negative event as being one step closer to success.

For you to change your perspective about negative events in your life, you first need to change the way you talk to yourself . What you say to yourself regularly will have an impact on the actions you take.

Consider someone who unexpectedly had their employment terminated. If their mind is full of negative self-talk, then they are telling themselves how inadequate they are.

Negative self-talk has a domino effect; it’s triggers stress and anxiety, which also leads to self-criticism. That self-criticism then results in diminished goals. [4]

If you believe your boss has a negative opinion about you, then you think they are being fake when they are nice to you. You think they are nitpicking or complaining about small things when they offer constructive criticism. What does perspective mean to you here?

By continuing to interpret events negatively due to negative self-talk, you will continue to produce undesired results.

Now imagine if you told yourself your boss has your best interests at heart and is only trying to bring the best out of you. That simple change in your perspective better equips you to deal with the perceived negative events in your life.

When your boss offers you constructive criticism , you believe they are investing in your growth. When your boss is nice to you, you welcome the behavior because you see them as your friend and colleague.

When you change perspective, the same events that could have led to failure now work to your benefit.

Your brain can only focus on so many things each day. As a result, your mind will automatically filter out information it believes is unimportant to you. [5]

A common example of this is when you purchase a new vehicle, and you suddenly notice that vehicle everywhere. It is not that everyone purchased the vehicle the same day you did, it was that your mind was blocking the information.

To have a better life perspective, you must change your daily focus. Just like when you purchase a new vehicle, you can alter the events your mind recognizes.

Instead of focusing on negative events and how bad things are in life, focus on the things you are grateful for.

The final way to change life’s perspective is to help others. An amazing thing will happen when you spend more time focusing on the needs of others.

First, you will feel better about yourself because of how positively others view you. Next, you will realize that while everything is not perfect in life, it could always be worse.

Have you ever heard the phrase “first world problems”?

It is a funny way to help put negative situations into the proper perspective. While all negative events are unpleasant, there is most certainly a difference.

If you have an inconsiderate boss, while that can make work unpleasant on many occasions, it is still a blessing to have employment. Others feel that their spouse is irresponsible with money, but at least you have a spouse who loves you.

The moment your perspective on life comes to play, always remember that it is not the alpha perspective and that the other person’s perspective matters as well.

Practicing shifting your perspective can be an important skill to develop— understanding perspective meaning can improve your life.

Don't have time for the full article? Read this.

Your perspective on life determines how you relate to people, how you handle relationships and troubles, and how you live day-to-day.

Changing your perspective is an active decision you have to make intentionally. You have to come to terms with the fact that your current perspective on life is not absolute.

When you are constantly brooding and thinking negatively, your perspective will never change. Negative thinking tend to have a dominion effect  that leads to diminished goals.

When you are on social media, always seek the other angle of the person disagreeing with you. Your opinion is not alpha ; it is just an opinion that can change.

Practicing gratitude is a great way to help shift your perspective.

Featured photo credit: Elijah Hiett via unsplash.com

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The Power of Perspective Taking

How leaning in can expand our worldview and deepen our relationships..

Posted June 2, 2019 | Reviewed by Jessica Schrader

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What is one thing that each and every one of us has that is unique from all others? And how can we access this awareness to deepen our relationships and expand our worldview?

How we see our lives is how we live our lives. Our perspective is arguably the single greatest aspect of our uniqueness. It is also the foundation for one of the most powerful tools through which we can relate to and build relationships with others: perspective taking.

Do you know what a phoropter is? It’s the device used by an optometrist to gauge your eyeglass prescription. Through an alternating series of lenses, you are asked: “Which one is better, option 1 or option 2?” There is no “right” answer, as the answer depends on the eyes of the person behind the lens.

We each have a uniquely valuable perspective on life—a lens through which we interpret our lives. Through our perspective, we define what makes sense to us, which is differentiated from how others see and experience life. However, we don’t know what we don’t know, and perspective taking provides a powerful tool to expand our own perspective by learning from the way others see life.

A Center for Effective Organizations study by Richard J. Boland Jr. suggests that when designing electronic communication in companies in the knowledge economy (“communities of knowing”), “the process of perspective taking may be the most crucial communication process to an organization’s success.”

The study states that:

"Success depends on how effectively the diverse individuals are able to organize and develop their unique knowledge competencies, as well as how effectively they can integrate and synergistically utilize their distinctive knowledge through a process of perspective taking.”

Respecting the perspective or habits of others by offering them empathy is crucial for our development on both a personal and professional level. This occurs through perspective-taking , or “the act of perceiving a situation or understanding a concept from an alternative point of view, such as that of another individual.”

Perspective taking is a multidimensional ability that includes understanding not only someone’s visual assessment of reality (their viewpoint), but also their perceptual assessment (their understanding). The process is one of leaning in to see the world through someone’s lens, rather than fully stepping into their shoes. Psychology supports that the ability to remain in our own shoes is effective and desirable because of the lower amount of emotional stress involved in the empathetic process.

Michael Poulin, associate professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo and colleagues showed in their 2017 study that an “imagine others” perspective leads to less stress than an “imagine self” perspective (i.e., walking a mile in someone else’s shoes). “You can think about another person’s feelings without taking those feelings upon yourself,” Poulin said. The distinction is important: Stay in your own shoes while appreciating another’s visual and perceptual perspective.

The Benefits of Perspective Taking

Perspective taking allows for the growth and further application of our own knowledge by expanding our own perspective. It is the equivalent of seeing life as if through a tunnel and having someone break down the sides of the tunnel to create a more expansive perspective on life. Multiple perspectives are crucial to gain a full understanding of a concept, experience, or environment.

The benefits of perspective taking include:

1. Added Dimension

Our perspective is our version of reality. We each have our own unique reality, shaped by our experiences and the resulting lens through which we see the world. When we open ourselves to seeing life through the lens of another, it is like looking through a telescope, rather than a microscope ... and with that added dimension comes personal growth.

2. Building Empathy

Taking the time to respect the perspectives of others fosters understanding, empathy, and compassion. We don’t have to agree with the way others interpret life or the circumstances or concepts therein, though we do have to respect that each one of us has our own unique viewpoint, founded in the unique set of circumstances that has shaped our present perspective.

3. Learning and Growth

We are each others’ teachers. When we choose to learn from each other, we expand our awareness of what is possible for ourselves, on a personal and professional level, and for us as a global society. When you take a moment to “look through the lens” of another and momentarily embrace or attempt to understand their perspective, what you learn may very well be something that you may not have learned by continuing to solely look at life through your own lens.

The most important point is to recall that we each have a unique perspective on life and that each of these perspectives has value—like providing a multidimensional view on a single topic. When we take the time to understand and respect the perspectives of others, we are able to better serve them, and we accelerate our own personal and professional growth.

Three Choices That Deepen Your Worldview and Relationships Using Perspective Taking:

1. Appreciate your own perspective. While it may seem like a selfish starting point, it is integral that we appreciate our own view on life and how it was formed, in order to respect and appreciate the perspectives of others. If you can grasp the filter through which you assess and process life, then you begin to understand how others do the same, in a way that is distinct from you. When you can fully grasp the depths and heights to which you’ve traveled to reach your current viewpoint, you are less likely to judge another for how they see the world ... no matter how vastly different it is from what you see.

2. Allow the other person to lead. The late educator Stephen Covey said it best in The 7 Habit of Highly Effective People , “Seek first to understand, then to be understood.” Before seeking to have your perspective understood, seek first to understand that of the other person. Use your lens as a point of relatability to support another in their viewpoint, or to provide a unique perspective that may foster an expanded perspective for them.

3. Be 100 percent present. Truly grasping the perspective of another requires that you be fully present when you are with someone, whether personally or professionally. It means offering them your undivided attention . Make the moment about them and create space for them to share what they have to share with you. Listen. Respect. We connect at a much deeper level when we understand each other not only through the communication of our five senses, but also through the power of our intuition and awareness.

“I understand” are two of the most powerful words you can usher, personally and professionally. Whether we believe in the power of our daily rituals or hold a powerful world-shifting viewpoint, acknowledging and respecting the perspectives of others is the tool that fuels the depth, value, and meaning of our contribution to and relationships with them.

Joscelyn Duffy is a communication strategist.

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Essays About Life-changing Experiences: 5 Examples

Discover our guide for writing essays about life-changing experiences that combine three different elements: narrative, description, and self-reflection. 

Each of us has gone through life-changing experiences that shaped us into the individuals we are today. Because of how powerful they are, these events make for fascinating topics in writing. This subject doesn’t only let us tell our life stories, and it also pushes us to evaluate our behavior and reflect on why an incident happened.

Attract your readers by creating an excellent introduction and choosing a unique or exciting encounter. Paint a picture of the events that describe your experience vividly and finish with a strong conclusion.

5 Essay Examples

1. long essay on experience that changed my life by prasanna, 2. life-changing events: personal experience by anonymous on studycorgi.com, 3. my example of a life-changing experience by anonymous on gradesfixer.com, 4. life-changing experience: death essay by writer annie, 5. a life-changing experience during the holiday season by anonymous on studymoose.com, 1. life-changing experience: defined, 2. the experience that changed my life, 3. life-changing events and how they impact lives, 4. everyday events that change a person’s life, 5. the person who change my life, 6. books or movies that changed my life, 7. a life-changing quote.

“Experiences can be good and sometimes terrible that results in a positive or negative impact on one’s life. Life is full of many unexpected challenges and unknown turning points that will come along any time. People must learn and grow from every experience that they go through in life rather than losing yourself.”

In this essay, Prasanna discusses her father’s death as her most challenging life-changing experience. She was cheerful, immature, and carefree when her father was still alive. However, when her father left, she became the decision-maker of their family because her mother was unable to.

Prasanna mentions that she lost not only a father but also a friend, motivator, and mentor. That sad and unexpected experience turned her into an introverted, mature, and responsible head of the family. Ultimately, she thanks her father for making her a better person, and because of the devastating incident, she realizes who she can trust and how she should handle the real world. You might also be interested in these essays about choice .

“In life, certain experiences present challenges that change the way people relate to themselves and their families. Certain life events mark life-changing moments that alter lives either positively or negatively. It matters how people handle their relationships at such critical moments.”

This essay contains two life events that helped the author become a better person. These events taught them to trust and appreciate people, be responsible, and value family. The first event is when their best friend passes away, leading to stress, loss of appetite, and depression. The second circumstance happened when the author postponed their studies because they were afraid to grow up and be accountable for their decisions and actions.

The writer’s family showed them love, support, and understanding through these events. These events changed their behavior, attitude, and perspective on life and guided them to strengthen family relationships.

For help picking your next essay topic, check out our 20 engaging essay topics about family .

“I thought it was awkward because he looked and acted very professional. In that moment I thought to myself, ‘this person is going to have a great impact in my life!’. I was very curious to meet him and get a chance to show him my personality.”

This essay proves that you should always believe in yourself and not be afraid to try something new. The author recalls when they had many problems and met an extraordinary person who changed their life. 

When they were in sixth grade, the writer had life issues that caused them to be anxious about any future endeavor. The author then says they don’t usually open up to teachers because they fear their reactions. Then they met Mr. Salazar, a mentor who respects and values them, and the writer considers him their best friend.

“When the funeral was over and he was laid to rest, I had a feeling I can’t even describe. It was almost an empty feeling. I knew I had lost someone that could never be replaced.”

Annie never thought that she’d go through a life-changing experience until the sudden death of her father. Her thoughts and feelings are all over the place, and she has many unanswered questions. She says that although she will never wish for anyone to experience the same. However, her father’s passing improved her life in some ways.

Her mother remarried and introduced a new father figure, who was very kind to her. Living with her stepdad allowed her to explore and do things she thought she couldn’t. Annie still mourns the loss of her birth father, but she is also grateful to have a stepdad she can lean on. She gradually accepts that she can’t bring her birth father back.

“This story as a whole has really changed me and made me an even better person in life, I’m so thankful that this happened to me because now I have a greater appreciation for the little things in life.”

The essay shows how a simple interaction on a cold day in December can completely change a person’s view on life. It starts with the writer being asked a small favor of an older man with Alzheimer’s disease to help him find his car. This experience teaches the writer to be more observant and appreciative of the things they have. The author was inspired to spend more time with loved ones, especially their grandfather, who also has Alzheimer’s disease, as they learned never to take anything for granted.

7 Prompts for Essays About Life-changing Experiences

Everyone has their definition of a life-changing experience. But in general, it is an event or series of events profoundly altering a person’s thinking, feelings, and behavior. Use this prompt to explain your understanding of the topic and discuss how a simple action, decision, or encounter can change someone’s life. You might also be interested in these essays about yourself .

For this prompt, choose a specific memory that made you re-evaluate your views, values, and morals. Then, discuss the impact of this event on your life. For example, you can discuss losing a loved one, moving to another country, or starting a new school. Your conclusion must contain the main lessons you learned from the experience and how it can help the readers.

Various positive and negative life-changing experiences happen anytime and anywhere. Sometimes, you don’t notice them until they substantially disturb your everyday life. 

To begin your essay, interview people and ask about a momentous event that happened to them and how it influenced their way of living. Then, pick the most potent life-changing experience shared. Talk about what you’d do if you were in the same situation.

Some life-changing events include common things such as marriage, parenthood, divorce, job loss, and death. Research and discuss the most common experiences that transform a person’s life. Include real-life situations and any personal encounters for an intriguing essay.

It’s normal to meet other people, but connecting with someone who will significantly impact your life is a blessing. Use this prompt to discuss that particular person, such as a parent, close friend, or romantic partner. Share who they are and how you met them, and discuss what they did or said that made a big difference in your life. 

Movies like “The Truman Show” help change your viewpoint in life. They open our minds and provide ideas for dealing with our struggles. Share how you reached an epiphany by reading a book or watching a movie. Include if it’s because of a particular dialogue, character action, or scenes you can relate to.

While others use inspirational quotes for comfort and to avoid negative thinking, some find a quote that gives them the courage to make drastic changes to better their lives. For this prompt, search for well-known personalities who discovered a quote that motivated them to turn their life around.  Essay Tip: When editing for grammar, we also recommend spending time and effort to improve the readability score of your essay before publishing or submitting it.

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The Meaning of Life

Many major historical figures in philosophy have provided an answer to the question of what, if anything, makes life meaningful, although they typically have not put it in these terms (with such talk having arisen only in the past 250 years or so, on which see Landau 1997). Consider, for instance, Aristotle on the human function, Aquinas on the beatific vision, and Kant on the highest good. Relatedly, think about Koheleth, the presumed author of the Biblical book Ecclesiastes, describing life as “futility” and akin to “the pursuit of wind,” Nietzsche on nihilism, as well as Schopenhauer when he remarks that whenever we reach a goal we have longed for we discover “how vain and empty it is.” While these concepts have some bearing on happiness and virtue (and their opposites), they are straightforwardly construed (roughly) as accounts of which highly ranked purposes a person ought to realize that would make her life significant (if any would).

Despite the venerable pedigree, it is only since the 1980s or so that a distinct field of the meaning of life has been established in Anglo-American-Australasian philosophy, on which this survey focuses, and it is only in the past 20 years that debate with real depth and intricacy has appeared. Two decades ago analytic reflection on life’s meaning was described as a “backwater” compared to that on well-being or good character, and it was possible to cite nearly all the literature in a given critical discussion of the field (Metz 2002). Neither is true any longer. Anglo-American-Australasian philosophy of life’s meaning has become vibrant, such that there is now way too much literature to be able to cite comprehensively in this survey. To obtain focus, it tends to discuss books, influential essays, and more recent works, and it leaves aside contributions from other philosophical traditions (such as the Continental or African) and from non-philosophical fields (e.g., psychology or literature). This survey’s central aim is to acquaint the reader with current analytic approaches to life’s meaning, sketching major debates and pointing out neglected topics that merit further consideration.

When the topic of the meaning of life comes up, people tend to pose one of three questions: “What are you talking about?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, and “Is life in fact meaningful?”. The literature on life's meaning composed by those working in the analytic tradition (on which this entry focuses) can be usefully organized according to which question it seeks to answer. This survey starts off with recent work that addresses the first, abstract (or “meta”) question regarding the sense of talk of “life’s meaning,” i.e., that aims to clarify what we have in mind when inquiring into the meaning of life (section 1). Afterward, it considers texts that provide answers to the more substantive question about the nature of meaningfulness (sections 2–3). There is in the making a sub-field of applied meaning that parallels applied ethics, in which meaningfulness is considered in the context of particular cases or specific themes. Examples include downshifting (Levy 2005), implementing genetic enhancements (Agar 2013), making achievements (Bradford 2015), getting an education (Schinkel et al. 2015), interacting with research participants (Olson 2016), automating labor (Danaher 2017), and creating children (Ferracioli 2018). In contrast, this survey focuses nearly exclusively on contemporary normative-theoretical approaches to life’s meanining, that is, attempts to capture in a single, general principle all the variegated conditions that could confer meaning on life. Finally, this survey examines fresh arguments for the nihilist view that the conditions necessary for a meaningful life do not obtain for any of us, i.e., that all our lives are meaningless (section 4).

1. The Meaning of “Meaning”

2.1. god-centered views, 2.2. soul-centered views, 3.1. subjectivism, 3.2. objectivism, 3.3. rejecting god and a soul, 4. nihilism, works cited, classic works, collections, books for the general reader, other internet resources, related entries.

One of the field's aims consists of the systematic attempt to identify what people (essentially or characteristically) have in mind when they think about the topic of life’s meaning. For many in the field, terms such as “importance” and “significance” are synonyms of “meaningfulness” and so are insufficiently revealing, but there are those who draw a distinction between meaningfulness and significance (Singer 1996, 112–18; Belliotti 2019, 145–50, 186). There is also debate about how the concept of a meaningless life relates to the ideas of a life that is absurd (Nagel 1970, 1986, 214–23; Feinberg 1980; Belliotti 2019), futile (Trisel 2002), and not worth living (Landau 2017, 12–15; Matheson 2017).

A useful way to begin to get clear about what thinking about life’s meaning involves is to specify the bearer. Which life does the inquirer have in mind? A standard distinction to draw is between the meaning “in” life, where a human person is what can exhibit meaning, and the meaning “of” life in a narrow sense, where the human species as a whole is what can be meaningful or not. There has also been a bit of recent consideration of whether animals or human infants can have meaning in their lives, with most rejecting that possibility (e.g., Wong 2008, 131, 147; Fischer 2019, 1–24), but a handful of others beginning to make a case for it (Purves and Delon 2018; Thomas 2018). Also under-explored is the issue of whether groups, such as a people or an organization, can be bearers of meaning, and, if so, under what conditions.

Most analytic philosophers have been interested in meaning in life, that is, in the meaningfulness that a person’s life could exhibit, with comparatively few these days addressing the meaning of life in the narrow sense. Even those who believe that God is or would be central to life’s meaning have lately addressed how an individual’s life might be meaningful in virtue of God more often than how the human race might be. Although some have argued that the meaningfulness of human life as such merits inquiry to no less a degree (if not more) than the meaning in a life (Seachris 2013; Tartaglia 2015; cf. Trisel 2016), a large majority of the field has instead been interested in whether their lives as individual persons (and the lives of those they care about) are meaningful and how they could become more so.

Focusing on meaning in life, it is quite common to maintain that it is conceptually something good for its own sake or, relatedly, something that provides a basic reason for action (on which see Visak 2017). There are a few who have recently suggested otherwise, maintaining that there can be neutral or even undesirable kinds of meaning in a person’s life (e.g., Mawson 2016, 90, 193; Thomas 2018, 291, 294). However, these are outliers, with most analytic philosophers, and presumably laypeople, instead wanting to know when an individual’s life exhibits a certain kind of final value (or non-instrumental reason for action).

Another claim about which there is substantial consensus is that meaningfulness is not all or nothing and instead comes in degrees, such that some periods of life are more meaningful than others and that some lives as a whole are more meaningful than others. Note that one can coherently hold the view that some people’s lives are less meaningful (or even in a certain sense less “important”) than others, or are even meaningless (unimportant), and still maintain that people have an equal standing from a moral point of view. Consider a consequentialist moral principle according to which each individual counts for one in virtue of having a capacity for a meaningful life, or a Kantian approach according to which all people have a dignity in virtue of their capacity for autonomous decision-making, where meaning is a function of the exercise of this capacity. For both moral outlooks, we could be required to help people with relatively meaningless lives.

Yet another relatively uncontroversial element of the concept of meaningfulness in respect of individual persons is that it is logically distinct from happiness or rightness (emphasized in Wolf 2010, 2016). First, to ask whether someone’s life is meaningful is not one and the same as asking whether her life is pleasant or she is subjectively well off. A life in an experience machine or virtual reality device would surely be a happy one, but very few take it to be a prima facie candidate for meaningfulness (Nozick 1974: 42–45). Indeed, a number would say that one’s life logically could become meaningful precisely by sacrificing one’s well-being, e.g., by helping others at the expense of one’s self-interest. Second, asking whether a person’s existence over time is meaningful is not identical to considering whether she has been morally upright; there are intuitively ways to enhance meaning that have nothing to do with right action or moral virtue, such as making a scientific discovery or becoming an excellent dancer. Now, one might argue that a life would be meaningless if, or even because, it were unhappy or immoral, but that would be to posit a synthetic, substantive relationship between the concepts, far from indicating that speaking of “meaningfulness” is analytically a matter of connoting ideas regarding happiness or rightness. The question of what (if anything) makes a person’s life meaningful is conceptually distinct from the questions of what makes a life happy or moral, although it could turn out that the best answer to the former question appeals to an answer to one of the latter questions.

Supposing, then, that talk of “meaning in life” connotes something good for its own sake that can come in degrees and that is not analytically equivalent to happiness or rightness, what else does it involve? What more can we say about this final value, by definition? Most contemporary analytic philosophers would say that the relevant value is absent from spending time in an experience machine (but see Goetz 2012 for a different view) or living akin to Sisyphus, the mythic figure doomed by the Greek gods to roll a stone up a hill for eternity (famously discussed by Albert Camus and Taylor 1970). In addition, many would say that the relevant value is typified by the classic triad of “the good, the true, and the beautiful” (or would be under certain conditions). These terms are not to be taken literally, but instead are rough catchwords for beneficent relationships (love, collegiality, morality), intellectual reflection (wisdom, education, discoveries), and creativity (particularly the arts, but also potentially things like humor or gardening).

Pressing further, is there something that the values of the good, the true, the beautiful, and any other logically possible sources of meaning involve? There is as yet no consensus in the field. One salient view is that the concept of meaning in life is a cluster or amalgam of overlapping ideas, such as fulfilling higher-order purposes, meriting substantial esteem or admiration, having a noteworthy impact, transcending one’s animal nature, making sense, or exhibiting a compelling life-story (Markus 2003; Thomson 2003; Metz 2013, 24–35; Seachris 2013, 3–4; Mawson 2016). However, there are philosophers who maintain that something much more monistic is true of the concept, so that (nearly) all thought about meaningfulness in a person’s life is essentially about a single property. Suggestions include being devoted to or in awe of qualitatively superior goods (Taylor 1989, 3–24), transcending one’s limits (Levy 2005), or making a contribution (Martela 2016).

Recently there has been something of an “interpretive turn” in the field, one instance of which is the strong view that meaning-talk is logically about whether and how a life is intelligible within a wider frame of reference (Goldman 2018, 116–29; Seachris 2019; Thomas 2019; cf. Repp 2018). According to this approach, inquiring into life’s meaning is nothing other than seeking out sense-making information, perhaps a narrative about life or an explanation of its source and destiny. This analysis has the advantage of promising to unify a wide array of uses of the term “meaning.” However, it has the disadvantages of being unable to capture the intuitions that meaning in life is essentially good for its own sake (Landau 2017, 12–15), that it is not logically contradictory to maintain that an ineffable condition is what confers meaning on life (as per Cooper 2003, 126–42; Bennett-Hunter 2014; Waghorn 2014), and that often human actions themselves (as distinct from an interpretation of them), such as rescuing a child from a burning building, are what bear meaning.

Some thinkers have suggested that a complete analysis of the concept of life’s meaning should include what has been called “anti-matter” (Metz 2002, 805–07, 2013, 63–65, 71–73) or “anti-meaning” (Campbell and Nyholm 2015; Egerstrom 2015), conditions that reduce the meaningfulness of a life. The thought is that meaning is well represented by a bipolar scale, where there is a dimension of not merely positive conditions, but also negative ones. Gratuitous cruelty or destructiveness are prima facie candidates for actions that not merely fail to add meaning, but also subtract from any meaning one’s life might have had.

Despite the ongoing debates about how to analyze the concept of life’s meaning (or articulate the definition of the phrase “meaning in life”), the field remains in a good position to make progress on the other key questions posed above, viz., of what would make a life meaningful and whether any lives are in fact meaningful. A certain amount of common ground is provided by the point that meaningfulness at least involves a gradient final value in a person’s life that is conceptually distinct from happiness and rightness, with exemplars of it potentially being the good, the true, and the beautiful. The rest of this discussion addresses philosophical attempts to capture the nature of this value theoretically and to ascertain whether it exists in at least some of our lives.

2. Supernaturalism

Most analytic philosophers writing on meaning in life have been trying to develop and evaluate theories, i.e., fundamental and general principles, that are meant to capture all the particular ways that a life could obtain meaning. As in moral philosophy, there are recognizable “anti-theorists,” i.e., those who maintain that there is too much pluralism among meaning conditions to be able to unify them in the form of a principle (e.g., Kekes 2000; Hosseini 2015). Arguably, though, the systematic search for unity is too nascent to be able to draw a firm conclusion about whether it is available.

The theories are standardly divided on a metaphysical basis, that is, in terms of which kinds of properties are held to constitute the meaning. Supernaturalist theories are views according to which a spiritual realm is central to meaning in life. Most Western philosophers have conceived of the spiritual in terms of God or a soul as commonly understood in the Abrahamic faiths (but see Mulgan 2015 for discussion of meaning in the context of a God uninterested in us). In contrast, naturalist theories are views that the physical world as known particularly well by the scientific method is central to life’s meaning.

There is logical space for a non-naturalist theory, according to which central to meaning is an abstract property that is neither spiritual nor physical. However, only scant attention has been paid to this possibility in the recent Anglo-American-Australasian literature (Audi 2005).

It is important to note that supernaturalism, a claim that God (or a soul) would confer meaning on a life, is logically distinct from theism, the claim that God (or a soul) exists. Although most who hold supernaturalism also hold theism, one could accept the former without the latter (as Camus more or less did), committing one to the view that life is meaningless or at least lacks substantial meaning. Similarly, while most naturalists are atheists, it is not contradictory to maintain that God exists but has nothing to do with meaning in life or perhaps even detracts from it. Although these combinations of positions are logically possible, some of them might be substantively implausible. The field could benefit from discussion of the comparative attractiveness of various combinations of evaluative claims about what would make life meaningful and metaphysical claims about whether spiritual conditions exist.

Over the past 15 years or so, two different types of supernaturalism have become distinguished on a regular basis (Metz 2019). That is true not only in the literature on life’s meaning, but also in that on the related pro-theism/anti-theism debate, about whether it would be desirable for God or a soul to exist (e.g., Kahane 2011; Kraay 2018; Lougheed 2020). On the one hand, there is extreme supernaturalism, according to which spiritual conditions are necessary for any meaning in life. If neither God nor a soul exists, then, by this view, everyone’s life is meaningless. On the other hand, there is moderate supernaturalism, according to which spiritual conditions are necessary for a great or ultimate meaning in life, although not meaning in life as such. If neither God nor a soul exists, then, by this view, everyone’s life could have some meaning, or even be meaningful, but no one’s life could exhibit the most desirable meaning. For a moderate supernaturalist, God or a soul would substantially enhance meaningfulness or be a major contributory condition for it.

There are a variety of ways that great or ultimate meaning has been described, sometimes quantitatively as “infinite” (Mawson 2016), qualitatively as “deeper” (Swinburne 2016), relationally as “unlimited” (Nozick 1981, 618–19; cf. Waghorn 2014), temporally as “eternal” (Cottingham 2016), and perspectivally as “from the point of view of the universe” (Benatar 2017). There has been no reflection as yet on the crucial question of how these distinctions might bear on each another, for instance, on whether some are more basic than others or some are more valuable than others.

Cross-cutting the extreme/moderate distinction is one between God-centered theories and soul-centered ones. According to the former, some kind of connection with God (understood to be a spiritual person who is all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful and who is the ground of the physical universe) constitutes meaning in life, even if one lacks a soul (construed as an immortal, spiritual substance that contains one’s identity). In contrast, by the latter, having a soul and putting it into a certain state is what makes life meaningful, even if God does not exist. Many supernaturalists of course believe that God and a soul are jointly necessary for a (greatly) meaningful existence. However, the simpler view, that only one of them is necessary, is common, and sometimes arguments proffered for the complex view fail to support it any more than the simpler one.

The most influential God-based account of meaning in life has been the extreme view that one’s existence is significant if and only if one fulfills a purpose God has assigned. The familiar idea is that God has a plan for the universe and that one’s life is meaningful just to the degree that one helps God realize this plan, perhaps in a particular way that God wants one to do so. If a person failed to do what God intends her to do with her life (or if God does not even exist), then, on the current view, her life would be meaningless.

Thinkers differ over what it is about God’s purpose that might make it uniquely able to confer meaning on human lives, but the most influential argument has been that only God’s purpose could be the source of invariant moral rules (Davis 1987, 296, 304–05; Moreland 1987, 124–29; Craig 1994/2013, 161–67) or of objective values more generally (Cottingham 2005, 37–57), where a lack of such would render our lives nonsensical. According to this argument, lower goods such as animal pleasure or desire satisfaction could exist without God, but higher ones pertaining to meaning in life, particularly moral virtue, could not. However, critics point to many non-moral sources of meaning in life (e.g., Kekes 2000; Wolf 2010), with one arguing that a universal moral code is not necessary for meaning in life, even if, say, beneficent actions are (Ellin 1995, 327). In addition, there are a variety of naturalist and non-naturalist accounts of objective morality––and of value more generally––on offer these days, so that it is not clear that it must have a supernatural source in God’s will.

One recurrent objection to the idea that God’s purpose could make life meaningful is that if God had created us with a purpose in mind, then God would have degraded us and thereby undercut the possibility of us obtaining meaning from fulfilling the purpose. The objection harks back to Jean-Paul Sartre, but in the analytic literature it appears that Kurt Baier was the first to articulate it (1957/2000, 118–20; see also Murphy 1982, 14–15; Singer 1996, 29; Kahane 2011; Lougheed 2020, 121–41). Sometimes the concern is the threat of punishment God would make so that we do God’s bidding, while other times it is that the source of meaning would be constrictive and not up to us, and still other times it is that our dignity would be maligned simply by having been created with a certain end in mind (for some replies to such concerns, see Hanfling 1987, 45–46; Cottingham 2005, 37–57; Lougheed 2020, 111–21).

There is a different argument for an extreme God-based view that focuses less on God as purposive and more on God as infinite, unlimited, or ineffable, which Robert Nozick first articulated with care (Nozick 1981, 594–618; see also Bennett-Hunter 2014; Waghorn 2014). The core idea is that for a finite condition to be meaningful, it must obtain its meaning from another condition that has meaning. So, if one’s life is meaningful, it might be so in virtue of being married to a person, who is important. Being finite, the spouse must obtain his or her importance from elsewhere, perhaps from the sort of work he or she does. This work also must obtain its meaning by being related to something else that is meaningful, and so on. A regress on meaningful conditions is present, and the suggestion is that the regress can terminate only in something so all-encompassing that it need not (indeed, cannot) go beyond itself to obtain meaning from anything else. And that is God. The standard objection to this relational rationale is that a finite condition could be meaningful without obtaining its meaning from another meaningful condition. Perhaps it could be meaningful in itself, without being connected to something beyond it, or maybe it could obtain its meaning by being related to something else that is beautiful or otherwise valuable for its own sake but not meaningful (Nozick 1989, 167–68; Thomson 2003, 25–26, 48).

A serious concern for any extreme God-based view is the existence of apparent counterexamples. If we think of the stereotypical lives of Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, and Pablo Picasso, they seem meaningful even if we suppose there is no all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good spiritual person who is the ground of the physical world (e.g., Wielenberg 2005, 31–37, 49–50; Landau 2017). Even religiously inclined philosophers have found this hard to deny these days (Quinn 2000, 58; Audi 2005; Mawson 2016, 5; Williams 2020, 132–34).

Largely for that reason, contemporary supernaturalists have tended to opt for moderation, that is, to maintain that God would greatly enhance the meaning in our lives, even if some meaning would be possible in a world without God. One approach is to invoke the relational argument to show that God is necessary, not for any meaning whatsoever, but rather for an ultimate meaning. “Limited transcendence, the transcending of our limits so as to connect with a wider context of value which itself is limited, does give our lives meaning––but a limited one. We may thirst for more” (Nozick 1981, 618). Another angle is to appeal to playing a role in God’s plan, again to claim, not that it is essential for meaning as such, but rather for “a cosmic significance....intead of a significance very limited in time and space” (Swinburne 2016, 154; see also Quinn 2000; Cottingham 2016, 131). Another rationale is that by fulfilling God’s purpose, we would meaningfully please God, a perfect person, as well as be remembered favorably by God forever (Cottingham 2016, 135; Williams 2020, 21–22, 29, 101, 108). Still another argument is that only with God could the deepest desires of human nature be satisfied (e.g., Goetz 2012; Seachris 2013, 20; Cottingham 2016, 127, 136), even if more surface desires could be satisfied without God.

In reply to such rationales for a moderate supernaturalism, there has been the suggestion that it is precisely by virtue of being alone in the universe that our lives would be particularly significant; otherwise, God’s greatness would overshadow us (Kahane 2014). There has also been the response that, with the opportunity for greater meaning from God would also come that for greater anti-meaning, so that it is not clear that a world with God would offer a net gain in respect of meaning (Metz 2019, 34–35). For example, if pleasing God would greatly enhance meaning in our lives, then presumably displeasing God would greatly reduce it and to a comparable degree. In addition, there are arguments for extreme naturalism (or its “anti-theist” cousin) mentioned below (sub-section 3.3).

Notice that none of the above arguments for supernaturalism appeals to the prospect of eternal life (at least not explicitly). Arguments that do make such an appeal are soul-centered, holding that meaning in life mainly comes from having an immortal, spiritual substance that is contiguous with one’s body when it is alive and that will forever outlive its death. Some think of the afterlife in terms of one’s soul entering a transcendent, spiritual realm (Heaven), while others conceive of one’s soul getting reincarnated into another body on Earth. According to the extreme version, if one has a soul but fails to put it in the right state (or if one lacks a soul altogether), then one’s life is meaningless.

There are three prominent arguments for an extreme soul-based perspective. One argument, made famous by Leo Tolstoy, is the suggestion that for life to be meaningful something must be worth doing, that something is worth doing only if it will make a permanent difference to the world, and that making a permanent difference requires being immortal (see also Hanfling 1987, 22–24; Morris 1992, 26; Craig 1994). Critics most often appeal to counterexamples, suggesting for instance that it is surely worth your time and effort to help prevent people from suffering, even if you and they are mortal. Indeed, some have gone on the offensive and argued that helping people is worth the sacrifice only if and because they are mortal, for otherwise they could invariably be compensated in an afterlife (e.g., Wielenberg 2005, 91–94). Another recent and interesting criticism is that the major motivations for the claim that nothing matters now if one day it will end are incoherent (Greene 2021).

A second argument for the view that life would be meaningless without a soul is that it is necessary for justice to be done, which, in turn, is necessary for a meaningful life. Life seems nonsensical when the wicked flourish and the righteous suffer, at least supposing there is no other world in which these injustices will be rectified, whether by God or a Karmic force. Something like this argument can be found in Ecclesiastes, and it continues to be defended (e.g., Davis 1987; Craig 1994). However, even granting that an afterlife is required for perfectly just outcomes, it is far from obvious that an eternal afterlife is necessary for them, and, then, there is the suggestion that some lives, such as Mandela’s, have been meaningful precisely in virtue of encountering injustice and fighting it.

A third argument for thinking that having a soul is essential for any meaning is that it is required to have the sort of free will without which our lives would be meaningless. Immanuel Kant is known for having maintained that if we were merely physical beings, subjected to the laws of nature like everything else in the material world, then we could not act for moral reasons and hence would be unimportant. More recently, one theologian has eloquently put the point in religious terms: “The moral spirit finds the meaning of life in choice. It finds it in that which proceeds from man and remains with him as his inner essence rather than in the accidents of circumstances turns of external fortune....(W)henever a human being rubs the lamp of his moral conscience, a Spirit does appear. This Spirit is God....It is in the ‘Thou must’ of God and man’s ‘I can’ that the divine image of God in human life is contained” (Swenson 1949/2000, 27–28). Notice that, even if moral norms did not spring from God’s commands, the logic of the argument entails that one’s life could be meaningful, so long as one had the inherent ability to make the morally correct choice in any situation. That, in turn, arguably requires something non-physical about one’s self, so as to be able to overcome whichever physical laws and forces one might confront. The standard objection to this reasoning is to advance a compatibilism about having a determined physical nature and being able to act for moral reasons (e.g., Arpaly 2006; Fischer 2009, 145–77). It is also worth wondering whether, if one had to have a spiritual essence in order to make free choices, it would have to be one that never perished.

Like God-centered theorists, many soul-centered theorists these days advance a moderate view, accepting that some meaning in life would be possible without immortality, but arguing that a much greater meaning would be possible with it. Granting that Einstein, Mandela, and Picasso had somewhat meaningful lives despite not having survived the deaths of their bodies (as per, e.g., Trisel 2004; Wolf 2015, 89–140; Landau 2017), there remains a powerful thought: more is better. If a finite life with the good, the true, and the beautiful has meaning in it to some degree, then surely it would have all the more meaning if it exhibited such higher values––including a relationship with God––for an eternity (Cottingham 2016, 132–35; Mawson 2016, 2019, 52–53; Williams 2020, 112–34; cf. Benatar 2017, 35–63). One objection to this reasoning is that the infinity of meaning that would be possible with a soul would be “too big,” rendering it difficult for the moderate supernaturalist to make sense of the intution that a finite life such as Einstein’s can indeed count as meaningful by comparison (Metz 2019, 30–31; cf. Mawson 2019, 53–54). More common, though, is the objection that an eternal life would include anti-meaning of various kinds, such as boredom and repetition, discussed below in the context of extreme naturalism (sub-section 3.3).

3. Naturalism

Recall that naturalism is the view that a physical life is central to life’s meaning, that even if there is no spiritual realm, a substantially meaningful life is possible. Like supernaturalism, contemporary naturalism admits of two distinguishable variants, moderate and extreme (Metz 2019). The moderate version is that, while a genuinely meaningful life could be had in a purely physical universe as known well by science, a somewhat more meaningful life would be possible if a spiritual realm also existed. God or a soul could enhance meaning in life, although they would not be major contributors. The extreme version of naturalism is the view that it would be better in respect of life’s meaning if there were no spiritual realm. From this perspective, God or a soul would be anti-matter, i.e., would detract from the meaning available to us, making a purely physical world (even if not this particular one) preferable.

Cross-cutting the moderate/extreme distinction is that between subjectivism and objectivism, which are theoretical accounts of the nature of meaningfulness insofar as it is physical. They differ in terms of the extent to which the human mind constitutes meaning and whether there are conditions of meaning that are invariant among human beings. Subjectivists believe that there are no invariant standards of meaning because meaning is relative to the subject, i.e., depends on an individual’s pro-attitudes such as her particular desires or ends, which are not shared by everyone. Roughly, something is meaningful for a person if she strongly wants it or intends to seek it out and she gets it. Objectivists maintain, in contrast, that there are some invariant standards for meaning because meaning is at least partly mind-independent, i.e., obtains not merely in virtue of being the object of anyone’s mental states. Here, something is meaningful (partially) because of its intrinsic nature, in the sense of being independent of whether it is wanted or intended; meaning is instead (to some extent) the sort of thing that merits these reactions.

There is logical space for an orthogonal view, according to which there are invariant standards of meaningfulness constituted by what all human beings would converge on from a certain standpoint. However, it has not been much of a player in the field (Darwall 1983, 164–66).

According to this version of naturalism, meaning in life varies from person to person, depending on each one’s variable pro-attitudes. Common instances are views that one’s life is more meaningful, the more one gets what one happens to want strongly, achieves one’s highly ranked goals, or does what one believes to be really important (Trisel 2002; Hooker 2008). One influential subjectivist has recently maintained that the relevant mental state is caring or loving, so that life is meaningful just to the extent that one cares about or loves something (Frankfurt 1988, 80–94, 2004). Another recent proposal is that meaningfulness consists of “an active engagement and affirmation that vivifies the person who has freely created or accepted and now promotes and nurtures the projects of her highest concern” (Belliotti 2019, 183).

Subjectivism was dominant in the middle of the twentieth century, when positivism, noncognitivism, existentialism, and Humeanism were influential (Ayer 1947; Hare 1957; Barnes 1967; Taylor 1970; Williams 1976). However, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, inference to the best explanation and reflective equilibrium became accepted forms of normative argumentation and were frequently used to defend claims about the existence and nature of objective value (or of “external reasons,” ones obtaining independently of one’s extant attitudes). As a result, subjectivism about meaning lost its dominance. Those who continue to hold subjectivism often remain suspicious of attempts to justify beliefs about objective value (e.g., Trisel 2002, 73, 79, 2004, 378–79; Frankfurt 2004, 47–48, 55–57; Wong 2008, 138–39; Evers 2017, 32, 36; Svensson 2017, 54). Theorists are moved to accept subjectivism typically because the alternatives are unpalatable; they are reasonably sure that meaning in life obtains for some people, but do not see how it could be grounded on something independent of the mind, whether it be the natural or the supernatural (or the non-natural). In contrast to these possibilities, it appears straightforward to account for what is meaningful in terms of what people find meaningful or what people want out of their lives. Wide-ranging meta-ethical debates in epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language are necessary to address this rationale for subjectivism.

There is a cluster of other, more circumscribed arguments for subjectivism, according to which this theory best explains certain intuitive features of meaning in life. For one, subjectivism seems plausible since it is reasonable to think that a meaningful life is an authentic one (Frankfurt 1988, 80–94). If a person’s life is significant insofar as she is true to herself or her deepest nature, then we have some reason to believe that meaning simply is a function of those matters for which the person cares. For another, it is uncontroversial that often meaning comes from losing oneself, i.e., in becoming absorbed in an activity or experience, as opposed to being bored by it or finding it frustrating (Frankfurt 1988, 80–94; Belliotti 2019, 162–70). Work that concentrates the mind and relationships that are engrossing seem central to meaning and to be so because of the subjective elements involved. For a third, meaning is often taken to be something that makes life worth continuing for a specific person, i.e., that gives her a reason to get out of bed in the morning, which subjectivism is thought to account for best (Williams 1976; Svensson 2017; Calhoun 2018).

Critics maintain that these arguments are vulnerable to a common objection: they neglect the role of objective value (or an external reason) in realizing oneself, losing oneself, and having a reason to live (Taylor 1989, 1992; Wolf 2010, 2015, 89–140). One is not really being true to oneself, losing oneself in a meaningful way, or having a genuine reason to live insofar as one, say, successfully maintains 3,732 hairs on one’s head (Taylor 1992, 36), cultivates one’s prowess at long-distance spitting (Wolf 2010, 104), collects a big ball of string (Wolf 2010, 104), or, well, eats one’s own excrement (Wielenberg 2005, 22). The counterexamples suggest that subjective conditions are insufficient to ground meaning in life; there seem to be certain actions, relationships, and states that are objectively valuable (but see Evers 2017, 30–32) and toward which one’s pro-attitudes ought to be oriented, if meaning is to accrue.

So say objectivists, but subjectivists feel the pull of the point and usually seek to avoid the counterexamples, lest they have to bite the bullet by accepting the meaningfulness of maintaining 3,732 hairs on one’s head and all the rest (for some who do, see Svensson 2017, 54–55; Belliotti 2019, 181–83). One important strategy is to suggest that subjectivists can avoid the counterexamples by appealing to the right sort of pro-attitude. Instead of whatever an individual happens to want, perhaps the relevant mental state is an emotional-perceptual one of seeing-as (Alexis 2011; cf. Hosseini 2015, 47–66), a “categorical” desire, that is, an intrinsic desire constitutive of one’s identity that one takes to make life worth continuing (Svensson 2017), or a judgment that one has a good reason to value something highly for its own sake (Calhoun 2018). Even here, though, objectivists will argue that it might “appear that whatever the will chooses to treat as a good reason to engage itself is, for the will, a good reason. But the will itself....craves objective reasons; and often it could not go forward unless it thought it had them” (Wiggins 1988, 136). And without any appeal to objectivity, it is perhaps likely that counterexamples would resurface.

Another subjectivist strategy by which to deal with the counterexamples is the attempt to ground meaningfulness, not on the pro-attitudes of an individual valuer, but on those of a group (Darwall 1983, 164–66; Brogaard and Smith 2005; Wong 2008). Does such an intersubjective move avoid (more of) the counterexamples? If so, does it do so more plausibly than an objective theory?

Objective naturalists believe that meaning in life is constituted at least in part by something physical beyond merely the fact that it is the object of a pro-attitude. Obtaining the object of some emotion, desire, or judgment is not sufficient for meaningfulness, on this view. Instead, there are certain conditions of the material world that could confer meaning on anyone’s life, not merely because they are viewed as meaningful, wanted for their own sake, or believed to be choiceworthy, but instead (at least partially) because they are inherently worthwhile or valuable in themselves.

Morality (the good), enquiry (the true), and creativity (the beautiful) are widely held instances of activities that confer meaning on life, while trimming toenails and eating snow––along with the counterexamples to subjectivism above––are not. Objectivism is widely thought to be a powerful general explanation of these particular judgments: the former are meaningful not merely because some agent (whether it is an individual, her society, or even God) cares about them or judges them to be worth doing, while the latter simply lack significance and cannot obtain it even if some agent does care about them or judge them to be worth doing. From an objective perspective, it is possible for an individual to care about the wrong thing or to be mistaken that something is worthwhile, and not merely because of something she cares about all the more or judges to be still more choiceworthy. Of course, meta-ethical debates about the existence and nature of value are again relevant to appraising this rationale.

Some objectivists think that being the object of a person’s mental states plays no constitutive role in making that person’s life meaningful, although they of course contend that it often plays an instrumental role––liking a certain activity, after all, is likely to motivate one to do it. Relatively few objectivists are “pure” in that way, although consequentialists do stand out as clear instances (e.g., Singer 1995; Smuts 2018, 75–99). Most objectivists instead try to account for the above intuitions driving subjectivism by holding that a life is more meaningful, not merely because of objective factors, but also in part because of propositional attitudes such as cognition, conation, and emotion. Particularly influential has been Susan Wolf’s hybrid view, captured by this pithy slogan: “Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness” (Wolf 2015, 112; see also Kekes 1986, 2000; Wiggins 1988; Raz 2001, 10–40; Mintoff 2008; Wolf 2010, 2016; Fischer 2019, 9–23; Belshaw 2021, 160–81). This theory implies that no meaning accrues to one’s life if one believes in, is satisfied by, or cares about a project that is not truly worthwhile, or if one takes up a truly worthwhile project but fails to judge it important, be satisfied by it, or care about it. A related approach is that, while subjective attraction is not necessary for meaning, it could enhance it (e.g., Audi 2005, 344; Metz 2013, 183–84, 196–98, 220–25). For instance, a stereotypical Mother Teresa who is bored by and alienated from her substantial charity work might have a somewhat significant existence because of it, even if she would have an even more significant existence if she felt pride in it or identified with it.

There have been several attempts to capture theoretically what all objectively attractive, inherently worthwhile, or finally valuable conditions have in common insofar as they bear on meaning in a person’s life. Over the past few decades, one encounters the proposals that objectively meaningful conditions are just those that involve: positively connecting with organic unity beyond oneself (Nozick 1981, 594–619); being creative (Taylor 1987; Matheson 2018); living an emotional life (Solomon 1993; cf. Williams 2020, 56–78); promoting good consequences, such as improving the quality of life of oneself and others (Singer 1995; Audi 2005; Smuts 2018, 75–99); exercising or fostering rational nature in exceptional ways (Smith 1997, 179–221; Gewirth 1998, 177–82; Metz 2013, 222–36); progressing toward ends that can never be fully realized because one’s knowledge of them changes as one approaches them (Levy 2005); realizing goals that are transcendent for being long-lasting in duration and broad in scope (Mintoff 2008); living virtuously (May 2015, 61–138; McPherson 2020); and loving what is worth loving (Wolf 2016). There is as yet no convergence in the field on one, or even a small cluster, of these accounts.

One feature of a large majority of the above naturalist theories is that they are aggregative or additive, objectionably treating a life as a mere “container” of bits of life that are meaningful considered in isolation from other bits (Brännmark 2003, 330). It has become increasingly common for philosophers of life’s meaning, especially objectivists, to hold that life as a whole, or at least long stretches of it, can substantially affect its meaningfulness beyond the amount of meaning (if any) in its parts.

For instance, a life that has lots of beneficence and otherwise intuitively meaning-conferring conditions but that is also extremely repetitive (à la the movie Groundhog Day ) is less than maximally meaningful (Taylor 1987; Blumenfeld 2009). Furthermore, a life that not only avoids repetition but also ends with a substantial amount of meaningful (or otherwise desirable) parts seems to have more meaning overall than one that has the same amount of meaningful (desirable) parts but ends with few or none of them (Kamm 2013, 18–22; Dorsey 2015). Still more, a life in which its meaningless (or otherwise undesirable parts) cause its meaningful (desirable) parts to come about through a process of personal growth seems meaningful in virtue of this redemptive pattern, “good life-story,” or narrative self-expression (Taylor 1989, 48–51; Wong 2008; Fischer 2009, 145–77; Kauppinen 2012; May 2015, 61–138; Velleman 2015, 141–73). These three cases suggest that meaning can inhere in life as a whole, that is, in the relationships between its parts, and not merely in the parts considered in isolation. However, some would maintain that it is, strictly speaking, the story that is or could be told of a life that matters, not so much the life-story qua relations between events themselves (de Bres 2018).

There are pure or extreme versions of holism present in the literature, according to which the only possible bearer of meaning in life is a person’s life as a whole, and not any isolated activities, relationships, or states (Taylor 1989, 48–51; Tabensky 2003; Levinson 2004). A salient argument for this position is that judgments of the meaningfulness of a part of someone’s life are merely provisional, open to revision upon considering how they fit into a wider perspective. So, for example, it would initially appear that taking an ax away from a madman and thereby protecting innocent parties confers some meaning on one’s life, but one might well revise that judgment upon learning that the intention behind it was merely to steal an ax, not to save lives, or that the madman then took out a machine gun, causing much more harm than his ax would have. It is worth considering how far this sort of case is generalizable, and, if it can be to a substantial extent, whether that provides strong evidence that only life as a whole can exhibit meaningfulness.

Perhaps most objectivists would, at least upon reflection, accept that both the parts of a life and the whole-life relationships among the parts can exhibit meaning. Supposing there are two bearers of meaning in a life, important questions arise. One is whether a certain narrative can be meaningful even if its parts are not, while a second is whether the meaningfulness of a part increases if it is an aspect of a meaningful whole (on which see Brännmark 2003), and a third is whether there is anything revealing to say about how to make tradeoffs between the parts and whole in cases where one must choose between them (Blumenfeld 2009 appears to assign lexical priority to the whole).

Naturalists until recently had been largely concerned to show that meaning in life is possible without God or a soul; they have not spent much time considering how such spiritual conditions might enhance meaning, but have, in moderate fashion, tended to leave that possibility open (an exception is Hooker 2008). Lately, however, an extreme form of naturalism has arisen, according to which our lives would probably, if not unavoidably, have less meaning in a world with God or a soul than in one without. Although such an approach was voiced early on by Baier (1957), it is really in the past decade or so that this “anti-theist” position has become widely and intricately discussed.

One rationale, mentioned above as an objection to the view that God’s purpose constitutes meaning in life, has also been deployed to argue that the existence of God as such would necessarily reduce meaning, that is, would consist of anti-matter. It is the idea that master/servant and parent/child analogies so prominent in the monotheist religious traditions reveal something about our status in a world where there is a qualitatively higher being who has created us with certain ends in mind: our independence or dignity as adult persons would be violated (e.g., Baier 1957/2000, 118–20; Kahane 2011, 681–85; Lougheed 2020, 121–41). One interesting objection to this reasoning has been to accept that God’s existence is necessarily incompatible with the sort of meaning that would come (roughly stated) from being one’s own boss, but to argue that God would also make greater sorts of meaning available, offering a net gain to us (Mawson 2016, 110–58).

Another salient argument for thinking that God would detract from meaning in life appeals to the value of privacy (Kahane 2011, 681–85; Lougheed 2020, 55–110). God’s omniscience would unavoidably make it impossible for us to control another person’s access to the most intimate details about ourselves, which, for some, amounts to a less meaningful life than one with such control. Beyond questioning the value of our privacy in relation to God, one thought-provoking criticism has been to suggest that, if a lack of privacy really would substantially reduce meaning in our lives, then God, qua morally perfect person, would simply avoid knowing everything about us (Tooley 2018). Lacking complete knowledge of our mental states would be compatible with describing God as “omniscient,” so the criticism goes, insofar as that is plausibly understood as having as much knowledge as is morally permissible.

Turn, now, to major arguments for thinking that having a soul would reduce life’s meaning, so that if one wants a maximally meaningful life, one should prefer a purely physical world, or at least one in which people are mortal. First and foremost, there has been the argument that an immortal life could not avoid becoming boring (Williams 1973), rendering life pointless according to many subjective and objective theories. The literature on this topic has become enormous, with the central reply being that immortality need not get boring (for more recent discussions, see Fischer 2009, 79–101, 2019, 117–42; Mawson 2019, 51–52; Williams 2020, 30–41, 123–29; Belshaw 2021, 182–97). However, it might also be worth questioning whether boredom is sufficient for meaninglessness. Suppose, for instance, that one volunteers to be bored so that many others will not be bored; perhaps this would be a meaningful sacrifice to make. Being bored for an eternity would not be blissful or even satisfying, to be sure, but if it served the function of preventing others from being bored for an eternity, would it be meaningful (at least to some degree)? If, as is commonly held, sacrificing one’s life could be meaningful, why not also sacrificing one’s liveliness?

Another reason given to reject eternal life is that it would become repetitive, which would substantially drain it of meaning (Scarre 2007, 54–55; May 2009, 46–47, 64–65, 71; Smuts 2011, 142–44; cf. Blumenfeld 2009). If, as it appears, there are only a finite number of actions one could perform, relationships one could have, and states one could be in during an eternity, one would have to end up doing the same things again. Even though one’s activities might be more valuable than rolling a stone up a hill forever à la Sisyphus, the prospect of doing them over and over again forever is disheartening for many. To be sure, one might not remember having done them before and hence could avoid boredom, but for some philosophers that would make it all the worse, akin to having dementia and forgetting that one has told the same stories. Others, however, still find meaning in such a life (e.g., Belshaw 2021, 197, 205n41).

A third meaning-based argument against immortality invokes considerations of narrative. If the pattern of one’s life as a whole substantially matters, and if a proper pattern would include a beginning, a middle, and an end, it appears that a life that never ends would lack the relevant narrative structure. “Because it would drag on endlessly, it would, sooner or later, just be a string of events lacking all form....With immortality, the novel never ends....How meaningful can such a novel be?” (May 2009, 68, 72; see also Scarre 2007, 58–60). Notice that this objection is distinct from considerations of boredom and repetition (which concern novelty ); even if one were stimulated and active, and even if one found a way not to repeat one’s life in the course of eternity, an immortal life would appear to lack shape. In reply, some reject the idea that a meaningful life must be akin to a novel, and intead opt for narrativity in the form of something like a string of short stories that build on each other (Fischer 2009, 145–77, 2019, 101–16). Others, though, have sought to show that eternity could still be novel-like, deeming the sort of ending that matters to be a function of what the content is and how it relates to the content that came before (e.g., Seachris 2011; Williams 2020, 112–19).

There have been additional objections to immortality as undercutting meaningfulness, but they are prima facie less powerful than the previous three in that, if sound, they arguably show that an eternal life would have a cost, but probably not one that would utterly occlude the prospect of meaning in it. For example, there have been the suggestions that eternal lives would lack a sense of preciousness and urgency (Nussbaum 1989, 339; Kass 2002, 266–67), could not exemplify virtues such as courageously risking one’s life for others (Kass 2002, 267–68; Wielenberg 2005, 91–94), and could not obtain meaning from sustaining or saving others’ lives (Nussbaum 1989, 338; Wielenberg 2005, 91–94). Note that at least the first two rationales turn substantially on the belief in immortality, not quite immortality itself: if one were immortal but forgot that one is or did not know that at all, then one could appreciate life and obtain much of the virtue of courage (and, conversely, if one were not immortal, but thought that one is, then, by the logic of these arguments, one would fail to appreciate limits and be unable to exemplify courage).

The previous two sections addressed theoretical accounts of what would confer meaning on a human person’s life. Although these theories do not imply that some people’s lives are in fact meaningful, that has been the presumption of a very large majority of those who have advanced them. Much of the procedure has been to suppose that many lives have had meaning in them and then to consider in virtue of what they have or otherwise could. However, there are nihilist (or pessimist) perspectives that question this supposition. According to nihilism (pessimism), what would make a life meaningful in principle cannot obtain for any of us.

One straightforward rationale for nihilism is the combination of extreme supernaturalism about what makes life meaningful and atheism about whether a spiritual realm exists. If you believe that God or a soul is necessary for meaning in life, and if you believe that neither is real, then you are committed to nihilism, to the denial that life can have any meaning. Athough this rationale for nihilism was prominent in the modern era (and was more or less Camus’ position), it has been on the wane in analytic philosophical circles, as extreme supernaturalism has been eclipsed by the moderate variety.

The most common rationales for nihilism these days do not appeal to supernaturalism, or at least not explicitly. One cluster of ideas appeals to what meta-ethicists call “error theory,” the view that evaluative claims (in this case about meaning in life, or about morality qua necessary for meaning) characteristically posit objectively real or universally justified values, but that such values do not exist. According to one version, value judgments often analytically include a claim to objectivity but there is no reason to think that objective values exist, as they “would be entities or qualities or relations of a very strange sort, utterly different from anything else in the universe” (Mackie 1977/1990, 38). According to a second version, life would be meaningless if there were no set of moral standards that could be fully justified to all rational enquirers, but it so happens that such standards cannot exist for persons who can always reasonably question a given claim (Murphy 1982, 12–17). According to a third, we hold certain beliefs about the objectivity and universality of morality and related values such as meaning because they were evolutionarily advantageous to our ancestors, not because they are true. Humans have been “deceived by their genes into thinking that there is a distinterested, objective morality binding upon them, which all should obey” (Ruse and Wilson 1986, 179; cf. Street 2015). One must draw on the intricate work in meta-ethics that has been underway for the past several decades in order to appraise these arguments.

In contrast to error-theoretic arguments for nihilism, there are rationales for it accepting that objective values exist but denying that our lives can ever exhibit or promote them so as to obtain meaning. One version of this approach maintains that, for our lives to matter, we must be in a position to add objective value to the world, which we are not since the objective value of the world is already infinite (Smith 2003). The key premises for this view are that every bit of space-time (or at least the stars in the physical universe) have some positive value, that these values can be added up, and that space is infinite. If the physical world at present contains an infinite degree of value, nothing we do can make a difference in terms of meaning, for infinity plus any amount of value remains infinity. One way to question this argument, beyond doubting the value of space-time or stars, is to suggest that, even if one cannot add to the value of the universe, meaning plausibly comes from being the source of certain values.

A second rationale for nihilism that accepts the existence of objective value is David Benatar’s (2006, 18–59) intriguing “asymmetry argument” for anti-natalism, the view that it is immoral to bring new people into existence because doing so would always be on balance bad for them. For Benatar, the bads of existing (e.g., pains) are real disadvantages relative to not existing, while the goods of existing (pleasures) are not real advantages relative to not existing, since there is in the latter state no one to be deprived of them. If indeed the state of not existing is no worse than that of experiencing the benefits of existence, then, since existing invariably brings harm in its wake, it follows that existing is always worse compared to not existing. Although this argument is illustrated with experiential goods and bads, it seems generalizable to non-experiential ones, including meaning in life and anti-matter. The literature on this argument has become large (for a recent collection, see Hauskeller and Hallich 2022).

Benatar (2006, 60–92, 2017, 35–63) has advanced an additional argument for nihilism, one that appeals to Thomas Nagel’s (1986, 208–32) widely discussed analysis of the extremely external standpoint that human persons can take on their lives. There exists, to use Henry Sidgwick’s influential phrase, the “point of view of the universe,” that is, the standpoint that considers a human being’s life in relation to all times and all places. When one takes up this most external standpoint and views one’s puny impact on the world, little of one’s life appears to matter. What one does in a certain society on Earth over 75 years or so just does not amount to much, when considering the billions of temporal years and billions of light-years that make up space-time. Although this reasoning grants limited kinds of meaning to human beings, from a personal, social, or human perspective, Benatar both denies that the greatest sort of meaning––a cosmic one––is available to them and contends that this makes their lives bad, hence the “nihilist” tag. Some have objected that our lives could in fact have a cosmic significance, say, if they played a role in God’s plan (Quinn 2000, 65–66; Swinburne 2016, 154), were the sole ones with a dignity in the universe (Kahane 2014), or engaged in valuable activities that could be appreciated by anyone anywhere anytime (Wolf 2016, 261–62). Others naturally maintain that cosmic significance is irrelevant to appraising a human life, with some denying that it would be a genuine source of meaning (Landau 2017, 93–99), and others accepting that it would be but maintaining that the absence of this good would not count as a bad or merit regret (discussed in Benatar 2017, 56–62; Williams 2020, 108–11).

Finally, a distinguishable source of nihilism concerns the ontological, as distinct from axiological, preconditions for meaning in life. Perhaps most radically, there are those who deny that we have selves. Do we indeed lack selves, and, if we do, is a meaningful life impossible for us (see essays in Caruso and Flanagan 2018; Le Bihan 2019)? Somewhat less radically, there are those who grant that we have selves, but deny that they are in charge in the relevant way. That is, some have argued that we lack self-governance or free will of the sort that is essential for meaning in life, at least if determinism is true (Pisciotta 2013; essays in Caruso and Flanagan 2018). Non-quantum events, including human decisions, appear to be necessited by a prior state of the world, such that none could have been otherwise, and many of our decisions are a product of unconscious neurological mechanisms (while quantum events are of course utterly beyond our control). If none of our conscious choices could have been avoided and all were ultimately necessited by something external to them, perhaps they are insufficient to merit pride or admiration or to constitute narrative authorship of a life. In reply, some maintain that a compatibilism between determinism and moral responsibility applies with comparable force to meaning in life (e.g., Arpaly 2006; Fischer 2009, 145–77), while others contend that incompatibilism is true of moral responsibility but not of meaning (Pereboom 2014).

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How to cite this entry . Preview the PDF version of this entry at the Friends of the SEP Society . Look up topics and thinkers related to this entry at the Internet Philosophy Ontology Project (InPhO). Enhanced bibliography for this entry at PhilPapers , with links to its database.

• Delon, N., 2021, “ The Meaning of Life ”, a bibliography on PhilPapers.
• Metz, T., 2021, “ Life, Meaning of ”, in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , E. Mason (ed.).
• O’Brien, W., 2021, “ The Meaning of Life: Early Continental and Analytic Perspectives ”, in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , J. Fieser and B. Dowden (eds.).
• Seachris, J., 2021, “ Meaning of Life: The Analytic Perspective ”, in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , J. Fieser and B. Dowden (eds.).

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Life is a Matter of Perspective: An Essay by Peter Bennett

Picasso went outside the boundaries to forge a new perspective.

A few years back, I worked in Laguna Hills, a city that rims Interstate 5 and is best known for being the address of Leisure World and home to lots of nondescript mortgage and auto design firms. There wasn’t one thing remarkable about the town or my job.

Then one day, I wandered and wound my way through the canyon on an extended lunch (don’t tell the boss) and discovered the other Laguna, a.k.a. Laguna Beach. Bronze people there were sunning in the sand, playing basketball or beach volleyball, painting on easels, sipping cocktails at Las Brisas, shopping with wide-brimmed hats and cruising that little crescent of sky-high real estate in expensive automobiles. Returning to work, I wondered how worlds just a few miles apart could be so different.

Why would anybody choose to live or work in a cesspool, Laguna Hills, when you can live in the cool pool, Laguna Beach? I mean, if you’re going to be a bum, why would you bed down in the bone-chilling streets of Fargo, North Dakota, instead of the balmy avenues of Santa Monica, Calif.?

These questions are important because your view of life is shaped and conditioned by where you sit. Keep looking through the same dusty lens, and pretty soon, you think that’s the way the whole world looks. You begin to see the world, not as it is, but as you are. What’s the saying? “It’s hard to see the real picture of life when you live inside the frame.”

Here’s what’s really maddening. All you have to do to change perception – to see the world anew — is to step outside the frame in which you live. In my case it was driving through the canyon and coming out the other side.

I’m fascinated, even obsessed with this business of perceptions because they so rule our lives, usually for the worse, not the better. Here are some common innocuous misperceptions.

·       The Canary Islands were not named after birds but wild dogs (canis).

·       Panama hats were woven first in Peru, Colombia and Ecuador from jijapa leaves. Only later did they become Panama hats because some American from the United States saw the new-style hat in Panama, and the name stuck.

·       The Pennsylvania Dutch supposedly living in Pennsylvania were really Germans from the Deutschland. It’s an easy mistake, Dutch/Deutsch, right?

·       The gates to St. Peters, the ones that you must pass through to enter heaven, are actually a dozen gates (Revelation 21:12-21).Who knew?

·       The battle of Bunker Hill was actually fought on Breed’s Hill … the list goes on.

The abovementioned misconceptions are harmless, but sometimes not having the right or correct perspective can take can take us down a more perilous road. Demonize someone or some cause, and it’s much easier to behead that person or prosecute a war. It was said that Anne Bolelyn had three breasts and an extra finger. These deformities were probably nothing more than an oversized mole and a double fingernail, but if you’re Henry VIII, and you need to conveniently dispose of your wife, so you can marry again, you turn her into a freak show. It worked.

Changing your view or changing your perspective can change your life for the better. That’s why it’s always important to seek fresh perspectives. Looking through a new lens –or just a clean one  — can put you in a whole new place and put you on a better life path.

Without perspective, you might not understand that even if you win the rat race, you’re still a rat. Instead of asking “Who Moved My Cheese? Ask, “How can I move myself out of here to get a better view of things?”

Put another way, what if you’ve been trying all your life to keep up with the Joneses, and the Joneses turn out to be schmucks? The only way you’ll know for sure is if you see life from another perspective. Do what you have to do, but get out of Dodge or Laguna Hills, if only for a day or a weekend.

If you can’t move yourself right away (It’s not easy. I stayed in Laguna Hills for three years), at least, know where you sit. That way, you’ll better know where you stand (starting to sound like Yogi).

If there’s no money to put gas in the tank, simply close your eyes and let your imagination drive you to your new destination. Fly to the moon like Neil Armstrong. Look back at Earth. How then would you see your role on this planet? Differently, of course, because you’ve literally changed your point of view.

Neil Armstrong

Another technique when you’re stuck too long in the same place is to try to envision life through the eyes of a child. Do you know the story of the little girl who stood in church in awe of the stained glass windows, her face bathed in a rainbow of warm color? “Who are those people in the window,” she asked. “Those are the saints,” the guide replied. That night the little girl told her mom about the amazing windows. “Who are the saints, the mother asked. “They are the people who let the light shine through.”

Once the light starts shining through, prepare yourself for some wonderful new experiences and revelations. Your creativity will blossom, your humor will increase, you’ll be a better “You” in every way. You’ll become more inventive, spiritual, flexible, thoughtful, considerate and interesting. You’ll have a new perspective on things. By flipping just a couple things around or standing old conventions on their head, a new world will open up. Here are some old topics and issues seen with fresh eyes:

Spiritualism: We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.

Humor: I’m well balanced. I have a chip on both shoulders.

Recruiting Talent: A baseball scout told the team manager, “I found the greatest pitcher of all time. He struck out 27 guys, only one guy had a foul tip.” The manager said, “Sign the guy who hit the foul ball.”

Compassion: To an orphan: “You have a striking resemblance to your father, God.”

Yourself: Are you in the way or on the way?

Politics: In 1912, Emmaline Panhurst went to prison 12 times in her fight to gain universal suffrage for women. “We are not here because we are lawbreakers; we are here in our efforts to become lawmakers,” she said.”

Sex: “Being with a woman all night never hurt no professional ballplayer. It’s staying up all night looking for a woman that does him in.”

Art: “Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth.” – Picasso

Prison: “I felt that I could go and have a vacation,” said Martha Stewart describing her attitude on serving five months in prison, an incarceration that forced her to slow down and smell the roses, even if they were behind barbed wire.

Jail: Ralph Waldo Emerson went to visit his fellow transcendentalist, Henry Thoreau in jail. Thoreau was protesting slavery by refusing to pay a poll tax. “Why are you in there?” Emerson asked. “Why are you out there?” Thoreau replied.

Raising Money: Be a professional fun – raiser.

Pessimism: A man asked his rabbi why is it that a slice of bread with butter on it always lands with the buttered side down. The rabbi had never heard this before, so they tried it. The rabbi buttered the bread, dropped it and it landed with the buttered side up. The rabbi pointed to it, and said, “Well?” The man protested, “But rabbi, you buttered the wrong side.” Understand that some sour pusses will never change, so there’s never a need to be angry at them. See what perspective can do.

Negativism: An optimist and a pessimist went goose hunting. The optimist shot down a big goose overhead. His dog leaped out of the boat, ran on top of the water, picked up the goose and ran back all the way on top of the water. The positive farmer said, “What do you think of that? The negative farmer shook his head in disgust. “Just what I thought,” he said, your dog can’t even swim.”

Sales: Instead of saying, “If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.” Try, “I will follow up with you in two weeks, but in the meantime, feel free to call with any questions.”

Tom Friedman

Economy/Education:   “Girls, when I was growing up, parents used to say to me, ‘Tom, finish your dinner; people in China and India are starving.’ My advice to you is: ‘Girls, finish your homework; people in China and India are starving for your jobs.” From Tom Friedman,  author of “The World is Flat.”

History: Resisters in France were called Freedom Fighters. When Sioux warriors defeated U.S. warriors at Little Big Horn, the press called them butchers. When U.S. Cavalry gunned down unarmed men and women and children at Wounded Knee in South Dakota in 1890, the soldiers were called heroes and were honored with more Congressional Medals of Honor than in any previous battle.

Business: Don’t focus on profits; focus on the factors that produce the profits.

I’m not saying you have to be a contrarian, but you do need to ask the contrarian question or see the contrarian view. It will help round out your perspective and help guide you to the truth.

Nor can you always take things at face value. Lucy wasn’t always a loveable redhead. Before she hit it big, she was a blond and chestnut brunette. People and things aren’t always what they seem. The sun may appear to move across the sky each day, but it’s actually the earth that’s moving.

If we don’t continue to seek fresh perspectives, pretty soon we won’t know what’s real. You’ll be like the old man with the limburger cheese attached to his mustache. Everywhere he went he thought the world stunk, when it was he who was the malodorous one.

So brush away the cheese crumbs. Recall the wisdom of Alexander Pope, “All seems infected that the infected spy, all looks yellow the jaundiced eye.”

Griffith J. Griffith

The world doesn’t have to be yellow, it can be clear and bright and beautiful. It just depends on your perspective. Take a new way home tomorrow, walk through a section of campus you’ve never seen before. There’s a whole universe of knowledge and wisdom that needs your attention. See the world with fresh your eyes. I know one who did.

In 1896 Col. Griffith J. Griffith donated most of the 4,100 acres that make up L.A.’s Griffith Park, and later funded the public observatory that was constructed after his death and bears his name today. He had been moved to make his bequest after peering through the telescope at Mt. Wilson, then the most important research observatory in the world. An observatory, after all, is a tool for helping one observe and gain new perspectives.

He said, “If all mankind could look through that telescope, it would change the world.”

One Response to “Life is a Matter of Perspective: An Essay by Peter Bennett”

This essay on “Perspective” is wonderful. If only our teen agers of today could all read and discuss something like this….do you think it would make a difference? So many of them seem so doomed…and how does one help them to understand that a lot of that doomed attitude has to do with their perspective on what life is all about? Perspective, attitude, determination…you name it…

Thanks, Peter. As usual, you’ve hit the nail on the head again.

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How to Write a Perspective Essay?

Understanding the Importance of Perspective Essays

A perspective essay is a powerful tool that allows individuals to express their thoughts and opinions on a particular topic from their unique standpoint. Unlike other types of essays, a perspective essay requires a deep understanding of the subject matter and the ability to convey personal experiences, observations, and beliefs effectively. By sharing different perspectives, individuals contribute to a diverse and inclusive society where ideas are valued and respected.

Choosing a Compelling Topic

When selecting a topic for your perspective essay, it's important to choose something that you are passionate about and have a strong opinion on. Whether it's a social issue, political ideology, or personal experience, your topic should resonate with your audience and make them eager to read your insights. Research the chosen topic thoroughly to ensure you have a solid foundation of knowledge to build upon.

Gathering Evidence and Conducting Research

Before diving into writing your perspective essay, it's crucial to gather relevant evidence to support your claims and arguments. Conduct thorough research using credible sources such as books, scholarly articles, and reputable websites. Take notes, highlight important information, and carefully analyze different viewpoints to strengthen your own perspective.

Structuring Your Perspective Essay

The structure of a perspective essay is similar to other types of essays. It consists of an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. The introduction should grab the reader's attention and provide a brief overview of the topic and your stance. The body paragraphs, which are the core of your essay, should present your arguments, supporting evidence, and counterarguments. Finally, the conclusion should summarize your main points and leave the reader with a thought-provoking closing statement.

Writing with Clarity and Coherence

When writing your perspective essay, aim for clarity and coherence. Use clear, concise, and precise language to articulate your ideas. Structure your paragraphs logically, ensuring a smooth flow of thoughts. Support your arguments with relevant examples, anecdotes, or statistics to engage your audience and strengthen your position. Remember to acknowledge and address opposing viewpoints respectfully, demonstrating open-mindedness and critical thinking.

Formatting and Stylistic Considerations

While the content of your perspective essay is crucial, don't overlook the importance of formatting and style. Use appropriate heading tags, such as H2 or H3, for each section and subsection to improve readability and assist search engines in understanding the structure of your content. Enhance the visual appeal of your essay by using bullet points or numbered lists to break down complex information into digestible chunks. Incorporate relevant keywords naturally throughout the text to optimize your chances of ranking higher in search engine results.

Editing and Proofreading

Once you've completed your perspective essay, take the time to review, edit, and proofread it carefully. Pay attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure. Ensure your ideas flow smoothly and coherently. Remove any unnecessary repetition or tangential information. Consider seeking feedback from peers, teachers, or online communities to gain valuable insights and improve the overall quality of your essay.

Example Perspective Essay: The Power of Empathy

The following is an example of a perspective essay on the power of empathy:

Empathy, the ability to understand and share the feelings of others, is a remarkable human trait that holds immense power. In a world filled with turmoil and division, empathy acts as a bridge, fostering understanding, compassion, and connection. It enables us to step into someone else's shoes, see the world through their eyes, and recognize their struggles and challenges.

When we embrace empathy, we break down barriers and cultivate a sense of unity. It allows us to transcend our personal biases and preconceptions, opening our minds to a multitude of perspectives. Empathy promotes inclusivity and acceptance, nurturing a society where diversity is celebrated and everyone feels valued.

One powerful aspect of empathy is its ability to spark positive change. By understanding the experiences of others, we become motivated to take action and address social injustices. Through empathy, we recognize the need for equality, justice, and human rights. It fuels our determination to create a better world for ourselves and future generations.

In conclusion, writing a perspective essay is an opportunity to express your thoughts, opinions, and experiences in a unique and compelling way. By following the steps outlined in this guide, you can confidently tackle the task of writing a perspective essay. Remember to choose a captivating topic, conduct thorough research, structure your essay effectively, and write with clarity and coherence. By sharing your perspectives, you contribute to the rich tapestry of ideas that shape our society.

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Perspective on Life: The Types

Home Self Improvement Self-help & Growth Perspective on Life: The Types

Successful people have a certain perspective on life . It is this perspective or point of view that helps them reach the pinnacle of success. There are various moments to learn in your daily life. Everything that happens around you is an opportunity. Your perspective on life will only teach you how to maximize the return from this opportunity.

These days, unfortunately, most of us are obsessed with the idea of criticizing. We love to point fingers at anyone including our family members.

This often clouds our ability to make sound decisions and develop an idyllic perspective in life. The result is that we are under constant stress. It is like chasing a goal that you can never achieve. You will keep trying but the end result will always be disappointing.

The ability to live a successful life is directly dependent on the points of view that you have. Interestingly, the perspective on life is not cast in stone. With time, you can shift your perspective.

What is The Perspective on Life?

SUMMARY Perspective on life defines your attitude towards it. It is the way you choose to live your life. 

Perspective on life is the way people see life. Some see the brighter side while others will only find a reason to complain. Each one of us just needs to find a perspective to stay happy.

This is the first and most important step towards leading a satisfied and purpose-filled life. From the minute a child steps out of his or her house, they develop a perspective on life. This perspective is shaped by their interactions with the people around them.

The day to day experiences from digital marketing or social media and other platforms also impact this perspective. Over the years, these personal experiences are refined and give us our key perspectives in life. An important thing to understand is that any perspective can be changed/modified. It is not set in stone, it is extremely malleable.

How To Develop Different Perspectives in Life?

The key to a successful life is to understand that each one of us always has a choice. You can choose to be happy or sad, it all depends on your perspective. So, how does one develop different perspectives?

We have already told you that it is interlinked to your day to day experiences. But there is more. Here is a look at ten ways that can help you develop your existing perspectives in life.

1. Be clear about what you want

Like we said earlier, life is all about choices. You need to identify your purpose in life. This is the foundation on which you can develop your perspectives in life. Once your purpose is clear, you will stop complaining and look for ways to achieve your goal .

2. Develop a plan

No goal can be achieved without a concrete plan to support it. Similarly, when you want to develop your perspectives in life, you need to have a plan in place. How will you achieve your goals, what will be your milestones?

3. Open your mind to opinions

You can have an opinion and so can others around you. Respect this fact. When you are in an argument, your role does not end at voicing your opinion. Listening to the other person is also your responsibility. Understand their perspective because it will help you develop yours.

4. It is okay to fail

Your perspectives are all about your experiences. Some of these are successful while others can be failures. Even the failures are an opportunity to learn.  

Different Types of Perspective in Life

Here is a list of different types of perspectives categorized in the domain of psychology.

1. Psychodynamic perspective

This perspective focuses on the role of the unconscious mind in human behavior. Your early childhood experiences, relationships with people, and experiences as a child define this perspective.

2. Behavioral perspective

Another interesting perspective in psychology focuses on the observable behavioral traits of the human being. It is developed on the basis of how an individual learns different types of behaviors and adapts them in his or her daily life.

3. Cognitive perspective

This perspective is a recent entrant in the domain of psychology. However, in recent years, it has gained a lot of popularity. The Cognitive perspective is applicable to the modern-day youth. It is based on their ability to solve problems, decision making, ability to overcome challenges, etc.

4. Biological perspective

Interestingly, this perspective depends on human physiology. Our immune system, endocrine system, the nervous system, all tend to impact the biological perspective. For instance, if some of the systems are not functioning correctly, it impacts certain centers of the brain which in turn affect our perspective.

5. Cross-cultural perspective

This one talks about your perspective being influenced by the culture in which you are raised. Your upbringing, your traditions play a pivotal role in helping you develop perspectives in life. In simple terms, culture influences our ability to think.

6. Evolutionary perspective

As we said, perspectives in life are not constant. They change and evolve with time. Perspectives that the stone age man had are very different from what the modern-day man has. These differences are what led to the development of an evolutionary perspective.

7. Humanistic perspective

This perspective in life is linked to the human ability to adapt and stay motivated. There is something that motivates us to develop a certain perspective. This motivation could stem from love, hate, fear, care, or any other emotion. However, it has a profound impact on our perspectives on life.

How To Change Perspectives in Life?

The key to living a happy life is to change your perspective and tilt it to the positive side. As we said, perspectives in life keep changing with our experience and exposure. Here are a few simple tips on how to shift to a positive perspective in life:

1. Live in the present

A lot of us spend so much time wondering about how things should be. This leads to unnecessary concerns and a lot of negativity seeps into our lives. Instead, if we spend time appreciating the moment that you have , you will learn to enjoy life. This will automatically help you develop positive perspectives in life.

2. Think of the overarching picture

Life is about the larger picture. So, this moment may seem like a big burden. But you need to learn to look beyond the troubles. Teach yourself to look at the larger picture and you will surely notice some positive viewpoints as well. Regularly doing this helps in adapting to positive perspectives.

3. Smile more often

Smiling is known to be a great stress reliever. Don’t be disheartened by your failures because when you do so, the perspective shifts towards the negative side. Instead, smile at your failures and chase your dreams with greater determination. In the process, you will realize the importance of positive perspectives as you race towards success.

4. Look at the other point of view

Every story has two sides and so does a perspective. Your perspective in life will evolve when you step into the other person’s shoes and understand their point of view.

5. Start working out

There is nothing like a workout session when it comes to boosting the positive hormones in the body. When you are feeling a little too low on the positive perspectives in life, try to build a workout routine for yourself. This will motivate you to live a healthy life and gradually shift your perspectives to the positive side.

6. Help people around you

Positive perspectives are linked to an overall positive attitude in life. When you help others achieve their goals, you experience a sense of satisfaction. This goes a long way in fueling positive in your perspectives as well. Additionally, it empowers you to broaden your horizons and think beyond your personal benefits.

7. Sleep well

In today’s fast-paced life, we often underestimate the importance of a good night’s sleep. Experts have often talked about the benefits of good sleep . It helps release stress, increases your happiness quotient , and even boosts your immunity. All this and much more, each time you take a relaxing nap. Interestingly, good sleep can work wonder to shift your perspective as well.

8. Pen down your thoughts

Writing thoughts or maintaining a journal is an excellent way to cleanse the mind. By writing the thoughts, you get a chance to analyze the negative ones. You can consciously focus on staying away from them. Simply put, writing is a therapeutic way of letting out the negative thoughts.

9. Meditate and share your thoughts

Don’t keep your thoughts to yourself. You need to evaluate them because of the impact that they have on your perspectives in life. Connect with friends and family to share your thoughts. Hear their opinions and pick up whatever good that you can. Also, meditate daily. During meditation , the mind gets a chance to organize the thoughts, this gives you clarity in your perspective.

10. Indulge in self care

Prioritize yourself. The world is not your priority. You need to spare some time to listen to your thoughts instead of just bottling them in your mind. If you don’t let them out, they will only add negativity. Make a self-care routine , spend some time with yourself, appreciating the positivity in your life.

Examples of Perspective in Life

Everyone is entitled to his or her perspective. The beauty of the matter lies in the fact that this perspective can be modified, it matures with time. Here are some interesting examples of different perspectives on life.

1. A farmer complains about the lack of rain. But a construction worker is happy due to the lack of rain. Now, here is the twist. The farmer is worried that the crop/produce will not be up to the mark. But the construction worker is happy because he can now work more and complete his project.

2.   A child is happy that his parents are not going to work. He / She gets to spend more time with them. But the parents could be unhappy because they may have lost their jobs. In such times, it is a good idea to coax the mind to see the brighter side of the story and not get depressed.

3 .  One of the most common examples in this category is that of a glass that is half full. Now for one person, the glass has at least some water. But another perspective could focus only on the emptiness of the glass. Clearly, one always has the choice of looking at the positive perspective and moving on in life.

4.  A society converts its parking space into a garden. From the perspective of the residents, they have lost parking space and they are complaining. But the children in society will have a different perspective – they will be very happy because they have playing space.

5.  A mother cooks the favorite food of her children. From their perspective, they will be very happy and look forward to their favorite meal. But the others in the house who do not like the food will have a different perspective. 

A difference in perspective is very normal. All you need to do is open your mind to the perspectives around you. Adapting and evolving is a process and you should be a part of it.

Perspective in Life Quotes

There is nothing like a bunch of good lines to motivate you through the day. These are thoughts that can inspire you to develop a positive perspective in life. When you feel down and worn out, these words can help you lift your spirits. So, here is a look at some good quotes:

1. “Yesterday is not ours to recover, but tomorrow is ours to win or lose” – Lyndon B. Johnson

You can’t change what has already happened. But you can still focus on improving what is yet to happen – your future.

2. “Keep your face to the sunshine and you can not see a shadow” – Helen Keller

Sunshine and shadows are known to co-exist. You need to learn to look at the sunshine and move ahead.

3. “Find a place inside where there is joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.” – Joseph Campbell

Use happy thoughts inside you to motivate yourself to look for this positive side.

4. “Positive anything is better than negative nothing.” – Elbert Hubbard

There is always a positive side to every situation.

5. “Nothing happens to you, it happens for you. See the positive in the negative events.” – Joel Osteen

You need to broaden your horizons and look beyond the obvious facts to identify the positives in the situations that you are battling.

6. “Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact.” – William James

Your belief is one of the biggest motivations to take you ahead in life. If you believe that you can find positivity in yourself, you will find it easy to develop positive perspectives.

7. “Don’t be afraid to stand for what you believe in, even if it means standing alone.” – Andy Biersack

The masses may not support your perspective. But that does not mean you should give up on them. If you have a certain point of view that is backed by firm logic, stick to it.

8. “Your smile will give you a positive countenance that will make people feel comfortable around you.” – Les Brown

A smile is one of the best motivators not just for you but for the person on the other side as well. So smile away your stress and worries.

9. “I always like to look on the optimistic side of life but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter.” – Walt Disney

Life is not easy. But with a little bit of effort and calm thoughts, you can overcome difficulties and see the benefits of positive perspectives in life.

10. “Every day brings new choices.” – Martha Beck

Remember, it is your choice whether to develop a happy perspective and live a happy life or continue to be depressed with the negativities around you.

The way you see things in life lays the foundation of your success as an individual. Developing a positive perspective is not easy. You will take time so be patient and continue to work towards it.

Coax your mind into looking for the positive things in your day to day life. This will motivate you to pursue the path with greater determination.

A freelancer by profession, Kavita writes on a variety of topics, mental health being one of her favorites. Fond of traveling, socializing and meeting new people, most of her inspiration for writing comes from real-life scenarios as well as experiences. Her motto in life has always been to look for a reason to smile.

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Example of My Personal Perspective

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5 Key Moments that Changed My Whole Perspective On Life

Throughout your life, there are certain moments that fundamentally change you and your perspective.

For me, most of these life-changing moments have come in the past 10 years or so, the time since I graduated high-school and “set out” on my own. Maybe it’s the same for you.

These moments have been, for me, life-changing. You can’t plan such moments and you have no idea when they’ll hit you. However, they make you who you are and, if you let them, they can have a hugely positive impact on your life– assuming you look at them constructively.

Here are five moments that changed my whole perspective on life and have helped make me who I am. They might be able to help you see things in a different light or spark an idea that leads to something amazing.

Perspective is everything when you are experiencing the challenges of life. – Joni Eareckson Tada

1. Selling insurance - Hard work, intense focus, and a burning desire

For several years after I turned 20, I sold insurance and basic securities. I know, exciting. But what I learned really came from the culture of the office and not the business itself.

Up until then, no one had taught me the value of hard work. I had people in my life who worked hard, but I didn’t like what I saw– they worked hard to make money and be miserable. So, I felt a bit lost and without guidance.

There were no conversations about following my passion or listening to my heart  either, so combined with typical teenage apathy, I kind of ended up somewhere between confused and discouraged before even getting started.

That’s why being in that office, in that culture, was such a significant shift in my perspective. Hard work and dedication were demanded . Intense focus and clarity about your goals and where you were going was encouraged heavily. You did whatever you needed to do to realize your goals and didn’t quit until you got to the finish line.

I realized after a while that, surprise , I didn’t want to sell insurance for the rest of my life. However, those moments completely changed how I behaved as a person and my perspective on life. I was now driven, focused, and knew how to get things done. For that reason, I look back on those moments with gratitude and appreciation.

2. Sitting Zen - Happiness is found in each moment of wakefulness

Shortly after leaving the insurance business, my obsession with Bruce Lee and the martial arts would lead me to discover Zen, Buddhism, and far Eastern wisdom .

The practice of meditation – and the accompanying wisdom within the Zen tradition in particular– literally turned my life on its head. Zen wisdom told me of the importance of cutting through to the truth, and nothing about making money or becoming "financially independent", which is all I ever heard selling insurance. It was so different from what I was used to hearing over the several years beforehand that it actually made me feel uncomfortable. But I knew I was onto something and needed more.

Meditation was really where my life changed, though. It made me look at the life in a whole different light. My ideas of success were now being challenged regularly and I felt a growing sense of contentment that, I feared, would threaten my drive to succeed.

I had been told for so long that happiness was found at the end of the "rainbow" after years of hard work. And yet, here I was now finding happiness in the little moments of each day and feeling perfectly happy just as I was. The shift in my perspective was nothing short of groundbreaking. It was a beautiful and confusing time of self-discovery.

3. Driving Uber - We’re more alike than we think

At one point, while in a transition period in my writing career, I drove Uber to make ends meet. It’s not something I’m particularly fond of talking about, however, the experience itself had a significant impact on me as a person that I’ll always cherish and it offered an invaluable lesson that people really need right now.

I can’t speak for anyone else, and where I drove (the mixing pot of Los Angeles, California) was partly responsible for this, but Uber taught me some pretty big lessons about people .

I drove people from all across the U.S., wealthy and not, Canada, South America, Africa, Australia, the U.K., Spain, France, China, Japan, South Korea, Philippines, and elsewhere. The conversations were often in-depth and involved both of us opening up quickly because we were both strangers who would never see one another ever again. It was the expected Uber “experience.”

I learned just how alike we all are; that who we are on a fundamental level goes far beyond accent, skin color, sex, culture, or profession. It was extraordinary just how alike all the people I met were. We all want to meet nice people, be happy, and enjoy our life. Conflict and disagreement happen at the intersection between expectation and discontent and, if we can see beyond that, we could all be a lot happier and more at peace.

4. Meeting my lost family - Love, dedication, and the power of sticking together

Much of my childhood lacked deep personal connections. I wasn’t raised to be open and transparent with immediate family and, from an early age, my extended family had been slowly falling apart. It happened as soon as my grandma passed away when I was 10.

Aunts and cousins were dropping out of family gatherings, arguments were more common that led to family members never showing up again for Christmas, and pretty soon I could count the number of people that showed up to our house for the holidays on just two hands. And then one.

I never met my dad and didn’t have communication with that side of the family until I was in my mid-20s. But that’s actually where things get good .

Just two short years ago, I planned a big trip with my own family to meet everyone in Florida. Long story short, they were incredibly warm and welcoming in a way that was completely foreign to me. They loved and stuck with one another no matter what, something that completely baffled both my wife and me, who came from families who had all but fallen apart.

They taught me what it meant to love and stick together with those who matter, lessons I’ll always keep with me and hope to pass on to my kids.

5. My lifelong passion - Overcoming fear and societal expectations

I’ll always appreciate the hard work ethic and drive I cultivated selling insurance, as well as what I learned about desire, associations, and goals, but it led me to feel lost about myself because all the business ever preached as far as profession was making a ton of money.

Even after starting my meditation practice, I still found myself searching for a way to realize monetary success and even, at times, pushed so hard toward that end that I threatened my own success due to a lack of authenticity and consideration.

My old self from high-school– the artist, writer, and poet who imagined his own stories and dreamed of becoming a manga writer in Japan as a kid– had become lost and needed to begin the long journey back to finding what it was that I really wanted to do with my life .

One day, I got an email from a writer I followed on social media about getting over the fear to follow your passion. It was a pretty common topic but something that hadn’t resonated with me until then, probably because I had convinced myself I was already following it. I was in a moment of my life where I was questioning everything– once again– and trying to figure it all out and the message hit me like a 10-ton truck at full speed.

I was still making decisions based on what would make me happy and monetarily successful. I was making decisions based partly on what society and my own fear of failure dictated. The problem with that is you etch things out of your mind which might be your true passion just because society– and therefore your mind– has deemed them hopeless pursuits. If they don’t check off both boxes, they’re not considered.

It was in that moment that I found myself again. That high \[school boy, the artist, who while acquiring several incredible lessons along the way had largely lost his heart all those years and forgotten what filled him with passion and purpose .

Fear and the pressure of societal expectations had driven my life on a subconscious level for years– but no longer. I realized that a life lived not following one’s passion is a life wasted– filled with regret and “what ifs?".

Life is short and never perfectly safe, no matter how hard you try to surround yourself in a perfectly protected bubble of self-comfort, so you either take the risks or life will take them for you. You live with risk, knowing you gave your all to realize your dream or die with regret not knowing what could have been.

Looking to broaden your perspective even further today? Check out our article on Bob Marley quotes .

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Kate Winslet has not always been sure of herself. "I was always comparing myself to others. You see I've been bullied at school, they call me blubber, they teased me for wanting to act."

While it's nearly impossible to think of the gorgeous and talented Winslet as anything other than a force to be reckoned with, years of being teased and the media's love for taking shots at her weight did their damage.

"I was sort of made to feel ashamed of myself, my appearance."

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Rude Customer Has a Disagreement Over $6 - Teen Employees Have the Perfect Response

Teens Applauded For the Way They Handled This Angry Customer

Working in customer service can be challenging, especially when you’re dealing with rude and demanding clients. That’s particularly true for some teens, who work these jobs for part-time money and are often bullied by adults. Perhaps that’s why people are applauding these teen girls for the way they expertly handled an over-the-top customer.

An Angry Customer

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It was a tough day for employees at Keke’s Snow Balls in Texas when an angry woman approached the window. She had placed a pickup order for a snow cone and because of a shift change, the snow cone wasn’t ready. Two days later, the customer came back and demanded a refund of $6.

A girl named Victoria was working the counter and listened to the woman’s complaints. According to Inside Edition , it was immediately clear this woman didn’t want to resolve things in the right way, and was trying to pick a fight. Another employee named Kaeley overheard it all.

“I was just listening in the back and, eventually, I could just hear she’s angry the whole time. So I was like, clearly she just wants to have a problem,” Kaeley recalled to the publication. “And I’m not about that, so I was like, ‘Okay let me just go give her $6 and we can move on, move past this.’ It was $6.”

An Unexpected Turn

At that point, the situation should have been resolved. However, Kaeley noticed the sign outside the window had fallen over during the dispute. So, she opened the window to fix it. That’s when the woman came by, slapped the sign out of the 17-year-old girl’s hand, and called her a derogatory name.

“M’am, please don’t act like that. You’re a grown woman,” Kaeley responded in a video that the restaurant then posted to TikTok . “You’re a grown woman. I’m 17. Get out of here. Don’t come back. Don’t come back. We don’t need your business.”

“I was scared and very confused,” Victoria added. “I wasn’t understanding what was going on.”

A Brilliant Online Reaction

After the owner posted the video online, it went viral and many people reached out to support the girls for their perfect reaction to the customer.

“People were traveling to come and see us from hours away,” the owner, Kyle, told Inside Edition . “We had people reaching out to us on TikTok asking how to tip the girls. We even had people going and leaving Google reviews that haven’t even been to the shop, saying they’re so proud of the girls and how they dealt with it,” he continued.

Kyle explained that he posted the video to remind everyone that the employees behind the counter are people, too. Adults, in particular, should try to remember that oftentimes, these are kids working to save up for cars, school, and other big life steps.

“Mistakes happen, but for you to go up and act like that as an adult, my whole point in uploading that video is to simply remind us all that we need to treat people better,” Kyle added.

"I am proud of the way our supervisor handled the situation," he added in the initial post . "We must strive for better behavior and respect in all interactions. It’s all about just being a kind person and approaching every situation with willingness to come to a good resolution."

We Are All the Same

As Kyle himself said, mistakes happen and no one is perfect. But demanding perfection of others can be a very lonely way to live. Rather than getting upset over an honest mistake and making someone feel bad or yelling at them, lead with grace and understanding. Not only will you help someone else feel respected, but you’ll probably get a better result from the situation, too.

When life doesn’t go our way, it can be easy to overreact or blame someone else. But by remembering that mistakes happen and this too shall pass, we can all live a little more peacefully.

Many of us are in these jobs because we’re trying to provide for our families or ourselves and our futures. Going to work can be hard enough, so remember to thank those who help you in the customer service industry and to tip well when appropriate. After all, we all want to feel appreciated at work.

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Miss Kansas Publicly Calls Out Her Abuser In The Audience

25-year-old Alexis Smith was officially crowned Miss Kansas earlier this month. She beat out 25 contestants to become the third Black woman to ever win the title.

And while these accomplishments are to be admired, it's her empowering message to her abusive ex who had the gall to sit in the audience that makes her the real winner.

Beauty Pageant Participant Takes Down Her Abuser In Epic On-Stage Declaration

As a victim of domestic abuse, Alexis knows first-hand the devastating impact it can have on someone's life. Too often shrouded in secrecy and shame, the pageant contestant decided to use her platform to bring awareness to domestic violence.

Dubbing it her "Reclaimed Respect Initiative," she spoke about it during the interview phase of the competition.

It didn't go down as she expected.

Because as it turns out, the literal face of her trauma was sitting in the audience, obviously trying to intimidate her and cow her into silence.

But instead of letting her abusive ex silence her, she spoke out. And in doing so, reclaimed her voice and power in an incredible display of courage that has the world applauding.

"My vision as the next Miss Kansas is to eliminate unhealthy and abusive relationships," Smith boldly declared.

"Matter of fact, some of you out in this audience saw me very emotional because my abuser is here today, but that's not going to stop me from being on this Miss Kansas stage and from representing as the next Miss Kansas because I and my community deserve healthy relationships."

Not only did the cardiothoracic ICU nurse NOT let it stop her, but she WON! And she will be representing the sunflower state at next year's Miss America pageant.

Literal QUEEN.

Her Empowering Message Goes Viral

@lexlex_smith Respect Reclaimed is about reclaiming your power and standing firmly in it. On the night of Miss Kansas, my journey took an unexpected turn when someone I have been healing from tried to disrupt my peace. Instead of falling into silence, I chose to live out my vision for a better world. I took back my power—not just for myself, but for my dreams and everyone watching and listening. This isn't about shunning others; it's about turning our pain into purpose and channeling it in a way that unifies and uplifts. I'm ready to use my story, tools, and resources to end unhealthy relationships in all forms. My voice and advocacy will empower everyone to reclaim their own power in their own unique way. I might be small in stature, but I stand tall in strength, purpose, and power with hopes of inspiring others to do the same. #fyp #abuse #miss #misskansas #missamerica #pageant #awareness #me #relationship #respect #tiktok

Smith shared a video clip of her message across her social media channels where it has gone viral, gaining widespread support.

"On the night of Miss Kansas, my journey took an unexpected turn when someone I have been healing from tried to disrupt my peace," Smith wrote in the caption.

"Instead of falling into silence, I chose to live out my vision for a better world. I took back my power — not just for myself, but for my dreams and everyone watching and listening."

And while she didn't directly name her abuser, she did provide some insight into who it is in an interview with CBS affiliate, KSNW .

“My family, every single woman in my family, was impacted by domestic violence,” she said. “At the age of 14, I got in my first relationship, but it was also an abusive relationship that I was in until about 2018, 2019."

"It’s something that I’m still experiencing and dealing with today.”

Her journey with domestic violence has run the full gamut; from being a bystander, a victim, a survivor, and now an advocate who is "ready to use my story, tools, and resources to end unhealthy relationships in all forms."

"This isn't about shunning others; it's about turning our pain into purpose and channeling it in a way that unifies and uplifts," Smith continued. "I might be small in stature, but I stand tall in strength, purpose, and power with hopes of inspiring others to do the same."

She already is.

" As a survivor, this moved me. thank you for using your voice. you just gave strength to many you'll never meet 💜 ," wrote one commenter.

"YAS GIRL! As a fellow survivor, you are an inspiration and I’m so proud of you for using your voice and showing your strength," wrote another.

A third shared, "As a victim of domestic violence I applaud you for speaking out!! I watched this 10 times!! I'm still getting bullied by his parents even with a no contact order. I plan on helping women like us as well."

The Importance of Speaking Out Against Abuse

Domestic violence is shockingly prevalent. According to a report by the CDC , "about 41% of women and 26% of men experienced contact sexual violence, physical violence, or stalking by an intimate partner during their lifetime and reported a related impact."

Additionally, "over 61 million women and 53 million men have experienced psychological aggression by an intimate partner in their lifetime."

Speaking out against domestic abuse is a critical step in breaking the cycle of violence. By giving voice to their experiences, survivors not only reclaim their own power but also pave the way for other victims to stand up and do the same.

If you need help or need help supporting someone else, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788 or chat online at TheHotline.org.

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Your chance of acceptance, your chancing factors, extracurriculars, what is a perspective essay.

Hi everyone, I just came across a term 'perspective essay.' I haven't heard of this before, so can anyone give me a quick overview of what it is and how to write one? Thanks!

Hi there! A "perspective essay" refers to a type of paper that presents the writer's viewpoint or opinion on a specific topic as a form of personal reflection. The primary goal of a perspective essay is to show your unique perspective and establish a clear argument or position on the subject matter.

To write a perspective essay, follow these steps:

1. Choose a topic: Pick something you're passionate or knowledgeable about, as it makes for a more compelling read. Make sure the topic is not too broad, and it should be something that has room for debate or discussion.

2. Develop a thesis statement: This is the central point of your essay and should clearly state your perspective on the topic. Your thesis statement should be concise, well-defined, and easy to understand.

3. Organize your thoughts: Outline the structure of your essay before you start writing. This can help you ensure that your thoughts flow seamlessly from one point to the next and prevent you from drifting off-topic.

4. Write the introduction: Engage your readers by providing some context or background information about the topic. Then, present your thesis statement, which will act as the guideline for the rest of your paper.

5. Present your arguments: Use the body paragraphs to discuss your main points or arguments that support your thesis statement. Be sure to provide evidence by citing relevant sources, examples, or personal experiences to solidify your claims.

6. Address counterarguments: It's essential to offer a balanced perspective by considering opposing viewpoints. You can either dedicate a separate paragraph for counterarguments or address them throughout your body paragraphs. This allows you to demonstrate critical thinking and shows that your opinion is well-informed and well-reasoned.

7. Write the conclusion: Sum up your main points and restate your thesis in a different way. Leave your reader with a thought-provoking statement or question that encourages further discussion and reflection.

8. Revise and edit: Carefully review your essay for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and clarity. It's always helpful to have someone else proofread your work to identify any errors or areas that could be improved.

Remember that in a perspective essay, it's not about being right or wrong — it's about presenting your viewpoint effectively and persuasively. Good luck and happy writing!

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Essay on Life for Students and Children

500+ words essay on life.

First of all, Life refers to an aspect of existence. This aspect processes acts, evaluates, and evolves through growth. Life is what distinguishes humans from inorganic matter. Some individuals certainly enjoy free will in Life. Others like slaves and prisoners don’t have that privilege. However, Life isn’t just about living independently in society. It is certainly much more than that. Hence, quality of Life carries huge importance. Above all, the ultimate purpose should be to live a meaningful life. A meaningful life is one which allows us to connect with our deeper self.

Why is Life Important?

One important aspect of Life is that it keeps going forward. This means nothing is permanent. Hence, there should be a reason to stay in dejection. A happy occasion will come to pass, just like a sad one. Above all, one must be optimistic no matter how bad things get. This is because nothing will stay forever. Every situation, occasion, and event shall pass. This is certainly a beauty of Life.

Many people become very sad because of failures . However, these people certainly fail to see the bright side. The bright side is that there is a reason for every failure. Therefore, every failure teaches us a valuable lesson. This means every failure builds experience. This experience is what improves the skills and efficiency of humans.

Probably a huge number of individuals complain that Life is a pain. Many people believe that the word pain is a synonym for Life. However, it is pain that makes us stronger. Pain is certainly an excellent way of increasing mental resilience. Above all, pain enriches the mind.

The uncertainty of death is what makes life so precious. No one knows the hour of one’s death. This probably is the most important reason to live life to the fullest. Staying in depression or being a workaholic is an utter wastage of Life. One must certainly enjoy the beautiful blessings of Life before death overtakes.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

How to Improve Quality of Life?

Most noteworthy, optimism is the ultimate way of enriching life. Optimism increases job performance, self-confidence, creativity, and skills. An optimistic person certainly can overcome huge hurdles.

Meditation is another useful way of improving Life quality. Meditation probably allows a person to dwell upon his past. This way one can avoid past mistakes. It also gives peace of mind to an individual. Furthermore, meditation reduces stress and tension.

Pursuing a hobby is a perfect way to bring meaning to life. Without a passion or interest, an individual’s life would probably be dull. Following a hobby certainly brings new energy to life. It provides new hope to live and experience Life.

In conclusion, Life is not something that one should take for granted. It’s certainly a shame to see individuals waste away their lives. We should be very thankful for experiencing our lives. Above all, everyone should try to make their life more meaningful.

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How to Write a Perspective Essay That Will Impress Your Professor

By: Henrique Bertulino

Personal experiences make for great essays. When you use a personal experience to fuel your creativity, the writing process becomes much simpler. A perspective essay is an example of these types of essays. You're drawing on yourself, so the need to research is less. It saves you a lot of time, which a writing service, like essay or thesis help , can even help you further with.

Perspective Essay Example

Pro: concise and interesting, pro: well-structured, con: errors with sentence construction, some tips and tricks.

Everyone has different perspectives - it is just how the world works. Your subject matter will always be unique. In this article, instead of taking you step-by-step through the process of writing one, we will instead use a sample essay to show you what works and what doesn't.

Everyone has different perspectives, and sometimes it is difficult to understand another person's point of view. Many people do the things they do mainly because they feel that their point of view is the right one. Personally, sometimes people usually do not want to think about others' personal perspectives since they know that they are just wrong with their own. Put simply, some people really know what they are doing is incorrect and do not wish to fix it. In my perspective of being upset with my good friend, I was angered that my good friend, who had been staying with me for the week throughout the summer, has not been picking up after himself.

I had to clean up all of his messes to make sure that our living quarters were not in complete disorder. It angered me mainly because I had to clean up following him along with myself. I feel that he needs to have contributed at least slightly to our scenario. We were away from our homes and in the same condition, and he just depended on me to be his personal "maid." My response to this situation that I was dealing with was that I was very short-tempered, and I also did not desire to speak with my friend all the. He got the feeling that something was wrong, but he did not give any thought to what was wrong.

My spouse and I tried to merely blow off the situation and see if he was going to eventually start helping out, but nothing improved. Finally, I told him that he needed to start helping around the place. He got extremely offensive, and he mentioned, "I thought that room services was washing our space." Some people expect points in life, and my friend was one of these people. My perspective changed once I looked at just how he had grown up.

He had his father and mother and his granny do almost everything for him. From performing the dishes to taking out the trash, this kid never performed a task in his entire life. Sometimes you just have to look at the different person's personal background and look at how they had been raised.

Obviously, it was not the right way to raise a child, but I couldn't control what he was accustomed to. Problems occur in perspective-taking all the time because not everyone is brought up the same. A large number of people originate from different backgrounds and different societies.

Most of us view issues differently and based on just how we were brought up. Sometimes your own perspective may not be the agreeable one, and that is the hardest thing to change, especially if you grew up with it.

Dissecting the Essay Sample: What Works and What Doesn't

Now that you are done with the essay, let us jump right into what we can learn from it. First, the pros:

The essay is on the short side, and this isn't difficult to read. Because it is written from the first-person point of view, it drops the reader right into the middle of things. In other words, by starting the perspective essay with their own perspective, the writer brings the readers into his mind space and challenges them to understand where he is coming from.

Another thing worth noting is the anecdote. The story is relatable and simple. Most of us know at least one person like that. By being recognizable and interesting, the essay holds the reader's attention, which is the most important thing.

You may need an expert service to produce a custom paper so that they can show you the basics. Essay structure is one of the most basic and most important things you need to get right if you want to come in first place for your academic writing. And this essay gets it right.

It starts out with an introduction, setting up the premise and expectations for the whole thing. The body paragraphs deal with the story and serve to keep the readers hooked while expanding on the thesis statement. Finally, the conclusion brings it all together - the initial argument, the story - and ties it all together by contextualizing the thesis statement with implications from real life.

That about settles it as far as pros are concerned. Let us now look at what the essay was not able to achieve:

The essay was clearly written by someone not wholly proficient in English. There are a lot of oddly placed words in this essay. There is nothing wrong with writing in a language you're not wholly proficient in, but a research paper has certain standards it needs to live up to. A few rounds of proofreading would be enough to get rid of the inaccuracies, so keep an eye on that.

Drawing upon your own well of experiences will make for unique term papers, this is true, but you need to be mindful of the following:

• Your memories are the basis for who you are today. They have significance to you, but the stories by themselves will not be able to affect change in others. You have to provide context and give explanations.
• Tied in with the previous point, you need to realize that your experiences are your own. Many people will not be able to relate to specific cultural things that you went through that they did not. Keeping the reader's attention becomes a priority in this case.

Writing a perspective essay and writing a creative essay is a challenging and rewarding experience. If you can get it right, your paper will be a show stealer! As long as you contextualize your subjective experiences with proper evidence and explanation, you will be well on your way to success. Make sure to format it right, proofread it at least thrice, and present it with confidence. That is all it takes to come first.

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This article is great and all, but I will most likely keep outsourcing any paper on perspective writing. I write most of my papers, but I usually need a rewrite all around a great right-up.

I think this article really helps out with a lot of information about perspective essays. As a college student, I know that writing from your memory or opinions can be quite easy since opinions will always vary. However, proficiency and good grammar are still major requirements in this form of writing.

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An Experience That Changed My Life Essay | Life Changing Experiences, Long and Short Essays on Life Changing Experiences

October 1, 2021 by Prasanna

Experience That Changed My Life Essay: It is rightly said that ‘Experience is the best teacher.’ Experience teaches a lot more things. Life gives you many experiences and certain experiences in your life can impact you a lot. In life we all have faced some or the other experience that has changed the way we perceive things. Through these life lessons we can learn a lot about ourselves and how strong we can be in difficult situations and circumstances.

You can also find more  Essay Writing  articles on events, persons, sports, technology and many more.

Long Essay on Experience that Changed My Life 500 Words in English

Sometimes things are out of our control and we can’t do anything about it. Experiences can be good and sometimes terrible that results in a positive or negative impact on one’s life. Life is full of many unexpected challenges and unknown turning points that will come along any time. People must learn and grow from every experience that they go through in life rather than losing yourself. Change is a part of life. Life gives many experiences almost every day.

An experience that changed my life was on 21st August 2004. One of my biggest life changing experiences was the time when I lost my father suddenly. Till that very day I was a very immature and jolly person. I don’t know what the worries were. I was the eldest one in my family. But as we lost the head of our family life took a new turning point in my life I had to take charge of all the decisions made which I had never done before. My mother was not in a state to understand anything. I started making big decisions even about finances, about our house and many more.

When my father died, my life had changed completely. I lost him in my own lap. He took his last breath and it was very heartbreaking. Accepting his loss was one of the hardest things that I’ve ever had to do. It was very hard because it was unpredictable. I let all my emotions out, because I had to remember to take care of myself and my family too. Now it was the time for me to be more responsible.

His death made me an introvert, more responsible, think for myself and my family, and see things differently. Now that he is gone, I have to take charge of many things. My father was my counselor, my friend, my guidance, and most of all my motivator. I feel completely lonely without him.

I also experienced how people were falsely claiming that he is a family member of theirs and they will take care of me and my family, but two weeks after the cremation they were the same as before with no sympathy. I finally got a glimpse of the real world who are my real well wishers and who are not. Looking back at all of this I realized how important my father was to me. Now I am a more focused and responsible person. I still feel my father lives through me. Even though my father is gone he still guides me at each and every point of life. His death made me an introvert, think for myself and my family, and live life practically. I wish I could thank him for making me a better person. It was his inspirations which made me handle things in a proper way.

Short Essay on Experience that Changed My Life

According to me, experiences are very important to forge our personality over time. From very childhood I grew up in a nurturing and loving environment where I always felt safe and loved. My parents always made me feel important. I was a stubborn child. I used to throw tantrums if things didn’t go my way. I was a very demanding child as well, though my mother loved me unconditionally. My mother was very patient and compassionate and used to explain things so well to make me understand why things couldn’t always be how I wanted them to be. But as a child I never wanted to understand her preachings. But then once on a school trip to an orphanage totally changed my view towards life.

Orphanage is the place where the orphans (children who are homeless having no parents) are taken care of.

Once when I was in Grade 4 our school planned an educational trip to an orphanage institute.We were asked to bring whatever we wanted to donate. My mother gave me some of my old toys, clothes and some sweets. We collected a good amount of material to distribute.

As we entered the orphanage all the kids gathered in a hall. There were children of all ages. They strayed at us with eyes full of hope. We were asked to distribute the things and spent some time with them. They were so excited to receive these old things. In conversation with them we came to know that they have only two to three dresses to wear. One plate and a bowl for their food. Even the food served to them was always the same and limited. They don’t have many varieties of food to eat. They have toys in common to play with. These children don’t know the meaning of love, care and affection. They cannot demand for anything. The plight of every child was so miserable.I realised all my mistakes. I realised fortunate I am to receive all the luxury.

I never liked it when my parents reprimanded me for not studying properly, when I made blunders, when I didn’t listen to them but there was a concern behind every word that they said. They took care of me at every juncture of my lives no matter what their condition.

But I felt so sorry for these children because they are lacking all those words of care, anger, and love.

Visiting the orphanage is a life changing experience for me. From that day I started appreciating the little things in life. I never demanded for unexpected things. I feel like helping every needy person.

I also started understanding my mother’s preachings and with her help, over time, I learned how to deal with my emotions and situations and these experiences shaped my behavior and personality.

I feel extremely fortunate that I have parents with me and they provide me all the luxury. I am thankful to them.

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Essay on An Incident That Changed My Life

Students are often asked to write an essay on An Incident That Changed My Life in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on An Incident That Changed My Life

Introduction.

Life is a series of events. Some leave a deep impact on us. For me, it was my first camping trip that changed my life.

The Incident

I was ten when I joined the Scouts. Our first camping trip was a challenging experience. We were lost in the woods at night.

That incident made me brave. I learned to face challenges head-on. It also ignited a love for nature in me.

That camping trip was a turning point in my life. It taught me resilience and made me a better person.

250 Words Essay on An Incident That Changed My Life

A day at the shelter.

One cold winter’s day, I found myself in a bustling homeless shelter, surrounded by faces marked with hardship and resilience. The shelter, a beacon of hope for many, was a place where the less fortunate could find warmth, food, and a sense of community. My task was simple: serve meals and engage in conversation.

The Encounter

Among the many people I met, one man’s story struck a chord. A former engineer, he had fallen victim to circumstances beyond his control and lost everything. Despite his dire situation, he radiated positivity and hope. Our conversation was a stark reminder of life’s unpredictability, and it shattered my preconceived notions about homelessness.

Life-altering Realizations

The encounter made me reflect on my privileges and the transient nature of success. I realized that compassion and understanding were more valuable than material wealth. It also unveiled my passion for social work and ignited a desire to contribute to society more actively.

The day at the shelter was an incident that profoundly changed my life. It taught me to value humanity over materialism, and it guided me towards a path of social service. Life is indeed unpredictable, but it’s these unexpected moments that hold the power to redefine our purpose and transform our lives.

500 Words Essay on An Incident That Changed My Life

Life is a series of events, some ordinary and others extraordinary. Often, it is the extraordinary incidents that have the power to transform our lives completely. This essay delves into one such incident that not only changed my perspective but also my life’s trajectory.

The Unexpected Encounter

A lesson in resilience.

John was a retired teacher who had lost everything due to a series of unfortunate events. Despite his circumstances, he never lost his spirit or his love for teaching. He would gather the children in the shelter every evening and teach them with an enthusiasm that was truly inspiring. His resilience in the face of adversity was a lesson in itself.

The Life-Changing Conversation

One day, I mustered the courage to ask John how he managed to remain positive. His reply was simple yet profound, “Life is not about what happens to you, but how you respond to it.” He explained that he chose to focus on the things within his control, like his attitude and actions, rather than dwelling on his misfortunes.

This incident was a turning point in my life. It taught me that our perspective shapes our reality. I learned to embrace life with all its ups and downs, understanding that the power to overcome challenges lies within me. John, the homeless man with an indomitable spirit, changed my life in ways I could never have imagined. His resilience and positivity continue to inspire me, reminding me that life is less about the circumstances we find ourselves in, and more about how we choose to respond to them.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

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