Research Paper (What is the meaning of life?)

Edwin Mok

March 6, 2020

College Writing

Meaning of Life Research Paper

“My hero is always me in ten years. That’s who I chase every day.” This quote by Matthew McConaughey perfectly sums up what life should be about. The meaning of life is for us to reach new heights. For life to receive purpose, we must always have something to chase after that is out of our reach. It is our ambition that drives us to success. As humans, we aren’t built to be content with the present. The present is merely a stepping stone for us to soldier on and extend our limits.

“We have a basic drive for growth and mastery that is expressed in a variety of specific ambitions.”(Ambition: How We Manage Success and Failure Throughout Our Lives by Gilbert Brim). Ambition, defined as “the strong will to achieve something” (Cambridge Dictionary), is an integral part of our pursuit for greater limits and goals. It is our main source of motivation to keep pushing for new heights. In the book Chasing Success by Alek Trivedi, Frank (the author’s boss) explains to Trivedi that his key to reaching the top of the corporate ladder is his constant desire for more. Even with a net worth sitting at 15 million USD, he strives to double his worth within three years. Like Frank, we should live our lives with an ambition that never ceases to stop. According to academic research on Career success: The Role of Teenage Career Aspirations, Ambition Value and Gender in Predicting Adult Social Status and Earnings, ambition value is directly linked to monetary and social status attainment. Young people who have a greater ambition value are shown to be more likely to have a greater salary and living standards when compared to their less ambitious peers. This study shows that having greater ambitions and out-of-reach aspirations tend to lead to higher levels of monetary and social success. Therefore, to be successful – which is what mankind strives to be – there must be an inherent desire for wanting more and an ambition level that exceeds our current achievements.  We are after all incapable of experiencing prolonged happiness if we stay in the present.

Hedonic treadmill is a term used by emotion researchers to describe the tendency for humans to return to a base state of happiness after a major event or achievement. According to an article by The Guardian, these trends explain why we believe that chasing our next target will eventually and finally bring us happiness. Based on the same article by The Guardian, our brains are built with an optimistic bias, the tendency for us to perceive our future as better than the present. The phenomenons of both the hedonic treadmill and optimistic bias explicitly explain why living in the moment would never make us happy. Achieving a goal or purpose would only reap temporary joy until our emotions return to base state and leave us craving more. For example, Frank T. McAndrew, the author of the article mentioned above, claims that after publishing his first book, he realized how quickly his perspective shifted from “I’m a guy who wrote a book!” to “I’m a guy who’s only written one book”.“Results will never bring you happiness, but will only leave you craving more.” (Chasing Success by Alek Trivedi).  

Results from the present are merely opportunities for us to learn and adapt to the future. Shah, the mentor of Dr. Alek Trivedi in the book Chasing Success, emphasizes the significance of viewing our present-day tasks and accomplishments as an aid to our growth. Since what we do now won’t provide us prolonged happiness, we should instead make use of our current tasks and responsibilities to further support our growth and development. As Trivedi mentions, we should “focus on the process, rather than the result of my effort. Results are merely a stepping stone for us to continue pushing our limits. 

The meaning of life is to constantly grow and to extend our limits. It is to have ambition and a drive for continued success that exceeds our current status. It is impossible for us to be content with where we are now because results would only leave us yearning for more. Our present-day triumphs may produce temporary joy, but more importantly, it gives us encouragement to conquer greater victories and success. “There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. A man must constantly exceed his level” (Bruce Lee). 

Word Count: 752

Sources

Ashby, Julie S., and Ingrid Schoon. “Career Success: The Role of Teenage Career Aspirations, Ambition Value and Gender in Predicting Adult Social Status and Earnings.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, vol. 77, no. 3, 2010, pp. 350–360., doi:10.1016/j.jvb.2010.06.006.

Brim, Gilbert. AMBITION: How We Manage Success and Failure throughout Our Lives. IUniverse COM, 2018.

McAndrew, Frank T. “Don’t Try to Be Happy. We’re Programmed to Be Dissatisfied.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 17 Aug. 2016, http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/aug/17/psychology-happiness-contentment-humans-aspire-goals-accomplish-evolution.

Trivedi, Alek. Chasing Success: Lessons in Aligned Performance. Dash Enterprises, 2017.

Reflection:

Compared to creative writing, I have always considered research papers easier to write. Thus I was quite thrilled to have the opportunity to write a research paper. However, as excited as I was, being able to decide on a quality thesis statement regarding the meaning of life was difficult. Nonetheless, after coming up with a thesis, the research portion of the assignment remained straightforward. I even found it entertaining searching for sources and quotes regarding my topic.