What is the meaning of life?

I recently watched a TEDx Video of a friend of mine. Growing up in Madagascar, she went to Morocco for her undergraduate program and she’s now studying in Saudi Arabia. We can feel how grateful she is for this opportunity. The kids who grew up with her didn’t have this chance, most of them stayed in their small village. At 22 years old, Itsikiantsoa’s neighbor was for example left by her husband with her 2 kids. The video relates on her mission to develop education in this small village, for the kids to have another chance.

At some point in our life, we wonder if life has meaning. For people involved in a personal development journey and growth, finding answers to this question is important. Many people would find different answer to this question. But here are the answers that really helped me.

Life itself doesn’t have a meaning

It’s not as if we wait here and suddenly the meaning of life appears out of nowhere. We don’t find this meaning, we create it. We can create a meaning to our life. We decide what we want to do, what kind of person we want to become and we work on that every day. And that can be the best decisions we can make. Every morning, at least, we will have the answer of the eternal question: why do you wake up in the morning? As soon as we find an answer to this question, our life will never be the same again.

Why not inspire people in Madagascar to take action and start their self development journey?

Life isn’t about finding yourself, life is about creating yourself (George Bernard Shaw).

Contribution: Education in Madagascar

Realize that we’re all going to die, when exactly we don’t know. Maybe it’s a quarter-life crisis too, but at some point, you’ll feel that you want to work on something that is bigger than you.  Work on something that has a meaning, a meaning to others. We can first apply some personal development principles in our life, and then expand to serve others. Why do Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg continue working although they are already billionaire? Have you already asked this question? It’s because they are working on their mission, their higher purpose. Their work serves others. That’s also why so many people volunteer because we find happiness in serving others. What would be your legacy and your contribution? For Tsiky, presented earlier as the TED speaker, her contribution is to develop young children’s education and change their life.

For Mark, it’s connecting the world, bring the world closer together.