The most commonly belief in the society is that we must stay happy whatever journey we decide to take. Many articles, books, seminars, and coaching have been cooked to address one single issue apparently related to ’In Pursuit of Happiness’. Searching for happiness used to be my guiding light to go about my life until recently I realised that it is self-centred and I found that there is an underlying basis on which the happiness is eventually built on. If you set your sail towards this destination, your happiness is a sure thing to come. That beautiful foundation is to have a meaningful life towards others.

I am not an expert in psychology and human behaviour, so it is beyond me to support this opinion theoretically and statistically. But what I can offer you is to have your own life experiment by being meaningful day by day and see what good feel it will bring you. At the end of the day, make some notes of what you have done to make your day meaningful.

You can start with yourself and your loved ones or family. Being meaningful to yourself is essentially any things you do that bring positive energy to your soul and body. In the soul, it can be beliefs and trusts in the Almighty, daily prayer, meditation, positive thinking, staying away from hatred, envy, greed and other deadly sins. In the physical store, you need to be mindful of what you eat, have enough physical exercises and movement, and have sufficient slumber time.

What values or benefits you extend to your family and society are equally important. Some people say this should go up to even your highest priority, living for others is more important than living for yourself. I don’t buy it. For you to be meaningful to others, you need to be fit and mentally sound yourself. You can’t be the promoter to a meaningful life without taking care of your mental and physical wellness first which is basically being meaningful to yourself.

After yourself, your family, and the closest community, start to look at the horizon for your bigger society. It can be the team that you lead, the students that you teach, the company you work for, the business or organization you run, the customers you serve, your direct reports, your employees, your shareholders, your Facebook or twitter followers, so on and so forth. It doesn’t need to be big bang and spectacular. You don’t have to be Thomas Alva Edison or Alexander G. Bell to be meaningful. Each of us has a role to play. Each of us has been assigned some tasks and responsibilities to fulfil. Each of us is unique and so is our role.

Small or big endeavours don’t matter as long as you do it consistently and to your best. Things like saying something nice and giving sincere praises to other people go a long way. For all you know, with your passing comments, you might have inadvertently encouraged a future scientist to find a cure for cancer, and that’s not a small feat. The least you can do to be meaningful is to restrain yourself for saying, or, in this social media era, writing bad comments. If you don’t have any good things to say, keep quiet. Be impeccable with your words!

As your day wraps up, take notes of how you have been meaningful today. Evaluate yourself on how things you have done today possibly bring positive values to other people. Keep the notes to yourself and go over it before you sleep. How do you feel?

Writing this is my small thing toward being meaningful today