{"id":83172,"date":"2018-04-17T13:03:38","date_gmt":"2018-04-17T18:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/?p=83172"},"modified":"2026-10-05T13:39:54","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T18:39:54","slug":"podcast-397-the-3-pillars-of-a-meaningful-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-397-the-3-pillars-of-a-meaningful-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Podcast #397: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed With Happiness"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"m_-5981880584565999895gmail-m_-9143922003382097941bloop_customfont\">In recent years, there\u2019s been a lot of books and blogs put out on how to become happier. But what if searching for happiness actually results in unhappiness, and to get happiness we need to be looking for something else?&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-5981880584565999895gmail-m_-9143922003382097941bloop_customfont\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-5981880584565999895gmail-m_-9143922003382097941bloop_customfont\">That\u2019s what my guest argues in her book. Her name is Emily Esfahani Smith and she&#8217;s the author of&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B01EE0CS9M\/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B01EE0CS9M&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=stucosuccess&amp;linkId=FSXA3GZUT5SFDAZ4\"><i>The Power of Meaning: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed with Happiness<\/i><\/a>.&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-5981880584565999895gmail-m_-9143922003382097941bloop_customfont\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div id=\"m_-5981880584565999895gmail-m_-9143922003382097941bloop_customfont\">We begin our discussion talking about the difference between happiness and meaning and why the latter brings more fulfillment. Emily then highlights research that shows more and more Westerners are reporting that their life lacks meaning and the theories as to why that is. She then breaks down what the three pillars of a meaningful life are and what we can do to experience them. Emily and I then discuss whether it\u2019s really possible to create meaning by yourself and whether or not it requires being embedded in a religious or spiritual tradition.&nbsp;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years, there\u2019s been a lot of books and blogs put out on how to become happier. But what if searching for happiness actually results in unhappiness, and to get happiness we need to be looking for something else?&nbsp; &nbsp; That\u2019s what my guest argues in her book. Her name is Emily Esfahani Smith [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":195519,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[502,156,42388],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-83172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-character","category-podcast","category-self-improvement"],"featured_image_urls":{"large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/397-538x280.png","medium_large":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/397-768x432.png","aom":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/397-372x230.png","reactor-320":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/397-320x180.png","reactor-640":"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/397-640x360.png"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.4 (Yoast SEO v28.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Podcast #397: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed With Happiness | The Art of Manliness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-397-the-3-pillars-of-a-meaningful-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Podcast #397: Finding Fulfillment in a World Obsessed With Happiness | The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In recent years, there\u2019s been a lot of books and blogs put out on how to become happier. But what if searching for happiness actually results in unhappiness, and to get happiness we need to be looking for something else?&nbsp; &nbsp; That\u2019s what my guest argues in her book. Her name is Emily Esfahani Smith [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/character\/self-improvement\/podcast-397-the-3-pillars-of-a-meaningful-life\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Art of Manliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"http:\/\/facebook.com\/artofmanliness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2018-04-17T18:03:38+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-10-05T18:39:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.artofmanliness.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/397.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Brett\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" 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