TODAY’S QUOTE IS FROM a man named Leo Rosten, “The purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived.” That’s a quote that I’ve long enjoyed. I like to give a lot of thought to the purpose of my life and the meaning in my life, and this really makes it all succinct. While I’m a big believer in being happy, and I think everyone should pursue happiness, ultimately, it is not about happiness. Happiness is a byproduct of a life of meaning and purpose.

I think the book that drove this home for me more than any other book or anything else in my life is a book by Viktor Frankl called, “Man’s Search for Meaning.” He was a very famous psychiatrist before World War II. He lived in Austria, but he was Jewish, so during World War II, he was rounded up and put in Auschwitz like all the other Jews. He was slated for termination, and so during his time in Auschwitz, he endured various camps. He started in Auschwitz, and he was a slave laborer, but because he was a doctor, he had more value than most Jews did, and so he managed to stay alive through it.

“The purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived.”

— Leo Rosten

During his time in Auschwitz and in the various concentration camps of World War II, he came to see in the people around him that those who lived the best and the longest were those who had meaning in their lives. So he formulated a psychological theory that he’s become very famous for called logotherapy, and the concept is that what man needs above everything else is purpose and meaning. Man’s primary drive is to find meaning in life.

I think that most of us can relate to that. Few of us will have ever gone through anything like a concentration camp, but I think most of us can relate to the concept of needing a purpose and meaning in life. I went through a big midlife crisis when I was forty years old, precipitated by my divorce. Then, when I moved into a van, I was stuck finding out that I was happy for the first time in my life. My life had meaning and purpose by living in a van, and that just made no sense. It changed the course of my life.

I think the great wisdom traditions of Western civilization have pointed out that meaning and purpose are the single most important things in life. And if you have that, you have what’s important. Viktor Frankl proved that I think, in World War II concentration camps, those who had purpose lived longer and better than those who did not. Those with no meaning in their life watched everything that could provide happiness be stripped away. There was nothing left. They quickly died; they gave up and died. Those who had a reason to wake up in the morning woke up in the morning. He woke up every morning of his life in the camps and then went on to change the world. Viktor Frankl had a tremendous impact on the world.

I don’t know what your purpose is; I know what mine is. I know my calling and purpose in life, and I’m endeavoring every day to live it, to fulfill it. I suggest that each of you keep this quote in mind today and search for your purpose and meaning. What difference will it have made that I lived on the earth today?

“The purpose of life is not to be happy at all. It is to be useful, to be honorable. It is to be compassionate. It is to matter, to have it make some difference that you lived.”

— Leo Rosten

I hope you’ll ponder this and determine to live a life of meaning and purpose. For it to matter that you lived. I hope that speaks to you and you can get something out of it today.