Aspiration & the meaning of life

I decided to take a month off before starting a new job at a new company.

(If you have the opportunity and the means, taking time off between jobs is something I highly, highly recommend. It’s about the best thing you can do for your soul: there are no professional responsibilities hanging over your head, and this does wonders for self-reflection, revelation, creativity, and the like.)

So what have I been doing with my time? Well, thinking about the meaning of life, of course! Leave it to me to go down an existential rabbit hole when I should be binging on bad TV (which I’ve also been doing…).

Well, I’m happy to report that this has been a fruitful meandering!

While I certainly haven’t discovered the meaning of life, I have come up with a clue: that ASPIRATION is a major source of fuel for life, and without it, we become stale.

What started this line of inquiry?

The other day, I was reflecting on my time off so far. In addition to pondering the meaning of life, I’ve predominantly spent my time aspiring to:

Create music. My husband gave me the most wonderful gift of repairing my childhood guitar (it’s a real beauty). I’ve been practicing daily to get my chops back, and it’s been a joy to plunk out some tunes.
A state of gratitude and, in particular, appreciation for my surroundings. We’re lucky to live near pristine New England beaches, share space with a variety of cool birds, enjoy the shade of ancient trees, and more—so all I have to do is notice the landscape.
Artistic creativity. It’s been a long time since I’ve felt inspired to draw or paint. During this break, I managed to let go of the idea that my art had to be ‘good’ and the images started to flow.
Better health by exercising more regularly and challenging myself with difficult goals, like hiking Mt. Washington (we made it to the top!).
Learn about ethical challenges in tech innovation by reading books like Hello World, listening to podcasts like Technically Human; and about working effectively with people in organizations by reading books like The Culture Map and The Change Monster.

Throughout these pursuits, I’ve felt more alive than I have in a long while! Why is that?!

Well, I’m sure some of it has to do with a decline in stress from not working. But I couldn’t help wondering if something more fundamental was fueling my newfound vivacity and pep—hence the rabbit hole. Below is what I discovered in my meandering.

Etymology

First, I looked up the dictionary definition of ‘aspiration’ to see what that might tell me. Here’s a representative sample of entries: “a hope or ambition of achieving something” (Oxford Languages); “a strong desire to achieve something high or great” (Merriam-Webster); “a strong hope or wish for achievement or success” (Cambridge Dictionary).

I also learned that ‘aspiration’ comes from the Latin word, spirare, which means, “to breathe.” In fact, an alternate definition of ‘aspiration’ means “the action or process of drawing breath”. Spirare also happens to be the origin of the word, ‘spirit.’

So the etymology of ‘aspiration’ links the act of breathing (something our bodies do to stay alive) and the spirit (the soul or essence of a person) to the act of striving for something.

Perhaps the idea is that aspiring is as essential to our lives and souls as breathing…

History

Second, it occurred to me that aspiration is ingrained into the story of humanity. Humans have aspired to all sorts of things throughout history: innovation, enlightenment, security, beauty, freedom, civility (well, sometimes), and more. In fact, I’m hard pressed to think of any time past or present when aspiration in some form hasn’t been a core driving force for individuals and societies.

Here is a handful of cool examples:

Yoga: an ancient discipline (notably, not an end-state) that is very much alive today, through which one aspires to self-awareness and higher consciousness.
Leonardo da Vinci: a person with lifelong aspirations to learn and create, resulting in legendary feats of art and engineering.
Democracy: a system of government that aspires to empower and effectuate the will of the people being governed.
Marie Curie: a person with relentless aspirations as a scientist, yielding pivotal discoveries in nuclear chemistry and physics, as well as paving the way for women in the sciences.

Undoubtedly, by now some of you have noted to yourselves that I’m hardly the first person to link ‘aspiration’ and ‘meaning of life’; this link has been long-established by philosophers and scientists much smarter than me. While searching for resources and references (though I mostly have my Harvard historian husband to thank), I even came across this super on-point Scientific American article from 2012 titled, Aspiration Makes Us Human.

In any case, in light of the overwhelming evidence, it doesn’t seem like much of a stretch to conclude that, through aspiration, we find meaning and purpose…

Philosophy

Finally, it occurred to me that none of the aspirational endeavors I’ve taken on during my break have a true endpoint. I’m never going to be the most grateful or be the fittest or learn all the things. As a result, I’ve been compelled to enjoy the journey, not the destination. (Yes, that ol’ cliché we get from Emerson, though my favorite delivery of this line is actually by Aerosmith, timestamp 2:04.)

This journey vs destination framing seems to carry a lot of weight in the ‘meaning of life’ inquiry.

Let’s take the German philosopher, Arthur Schopenhauer: He wrote in the 19th Century that disappointment is inherent in human life. But in Midlife: A Philosophical Guide, MIT Professor of Linguistics & Philosophy, Kieran Setiya, offers an antidote to Schopenhauer’s pessimistic view.

Setiya starts by pointing out that in his analysis, Schopenhauer was taking into consideration mainly telic activities, that is, activities that have an end or goal (more here). From that perspective, Schopenhauer is probably right. Disappointment is built into activities with a concrete objective: either you fail to achieve the objective (disappointing) or you achieve the objective and no longer have something to strive toward until you set up the next objective (also disappointing in a different sense).

To get away from this state of perpetual disappointment and instead move toward a state of fulfillment, Setiya suggests focusing on experiential activities that are satisfying in and of themselves.

These are called atelic activities—and they are all about the journey, not the destination. I find Setiya’s example contrasting walking home (telic) and going for a stroll (atelic) particularly useful.

The upshot seems to be that contentment and fulfillment stem not from achievement, but from aspiration itself…

Putting it all together

Here is a summary of my three takeaways in a nice, neat list:

Aspiration is as essential to our lives and souls as breathing.
We find purpose and meaning through aspiration.
Contentment and fulfillment stem from aspiring, not from achieving.

Collectively, these seem to support that Aspiration is a critical ingredient in our lives. They suggest that striving is our friend and complacency is our foe—but that in our striving, we should take care to be present and to free ourselves from expectations (whether external or self-imposed) around outcomes.

This is a far cry from discovering the meaning of life, but it is a clue for how to live a fulfilling life.

What are your aspirations? How do you stay focused on the journey, not the destination?