The Wrong Question?

“Life's most persistent and urgent question is, 'What are you doing for others?'”

― Martin Luther King Jr.

Stop Asking About the Meaning of Life. It's the Wrong Question.

What's the meaning of life? What's the point of it all? People come to me with these questions constantly, as if there's a secret password I can give them that will suddenly unlock a hidden treasure chest of purpose.

Let me be blunt. It's a useless question.

I’m Stuart from Naiture Within, and I'm here to tell you that the search for "the meaning of life" is one of the most sophisticated forms of procrastination ever invented. It’s a self-absorbed dead end. It keeps you stuck in your head, pondering the abstract, while your actual life, the one happening right now, slips by unnoticed.

Here’s the hard truth: there is no universal, pre-packaged meaning waiting for you to discover it. The universe doesn't care if you get out of bed, make changes, or grow as a person. It will keep spinning regardless. You have the absolute freedom to sit in a puddle and wait for the end if that’s what you choose. So, if the question itself is a trap, what do we do? We ask a better one. We stop asking what we can get from the world and start asking a far more powerful question: How can the world become a better place because I am in it?

The Trap of Inward Gazing

Why is "What is my purpose?" such a dangerous question? Because it's all about "my." It puts you, your feelings, and your need for significance at the absolute centre of the universe. It’s a search for a cosmic gold star, a pat on the back from existence that says, "You matter."

This inward gazing is a swamp. The more you struggle to find a solid footing, the deeper you sink into analysis, doubt, and anxiety. You think if you just think hard enough, journal long enough, or meditate correctly, the answer will float down from the heavens. It won't.

Meaning isn't an idea. It's not a concept you can grasp with your mind. It’s a byproduct. It’s the feeling that comes after you’ve done something that contributes. You can't think your way into a meaningful life any more than you can think your way into being physically fit. You have to do the work. The shift from "What's in it for me?" to "What can I give?" is the single most important pivot you will ever make. It moves you from a passive consumer of life to an active creator of it.

Your Brick in the Great Wall

I want you to try an analogy. Imagine all of human history and experience is a single, colossal wall being built, stretching from the dawn of time into the distant future. Every single person who has ever lived gets to place one brick in that wall. Some bricks are grand and ornate, celebrated for centuries. Others are simple, functional, and noticed by only a few. Many are just part of the deep, solid foundation, unseen but absolutely essential.

Your job isn't to stand back and try to comprehend the "meaning" of the entire wall. You can't. It's too vast. Your job isn't to worry if your brick will be famous or admired. That's ego. Your one and only job is to place your brick as well as you can.

That's it. That brick is your contribution. When you focus on laying your brick well, the question of "meaning" simply dissolves. The action becomes its own answer. But the quality of that answer depends entirely on the spirit in which you lay that brick.

The Unconditional Act

This is the part everyone gets wrong. They think contribution is a transaction. They do something "good" for someone else and then secretly, or not so secretly, wait for their reward. A thank you, a returned favour, a bit of good karma. This is just ego in a different disguise. It's not giving; it's bartering.

True contribution is unconditional. It's an output that expects no input. It's a gift with no strings attached. There's a line from a Linkin Park song that puts it perfectly: "The sun doesn't give its light to the moon assuming the moon's going to owe it one."

Read that again. The sun just shines. It is in its nature to radiate energy. It doesn't check who is worthy of its light. It doesn't keep a ledger of debts. It simply gives. This is the mindset. Your contribution, your brick, must be laid in this spirit. You do it because it is your nature to do it, because the act of doing it is the entire point. The moment you start calculating the return on your investment, you've poisoned the well. You've made it about you again, and you're right back in the trap of inward gazing.

The Compounding Effect and The Timeless Truth

Here’s where it gets interesting. When you act unconditionally, you start a fire. A single positive act, done without expectation, has a strange and powerful multiplying effect. It's like compound interest for the human spirit. You do something good. The person who receives it is not only helped, but they are also shown a blueprint for how to act. They become a little more likely to act that way themselves. They pay it forward. Then two more people see it, and the ripple spreads.

Your one small act doesn't just add, it multiplies. It creates a cascade of positivity that you will likely never see the end of. This isn't some new-age fantasy. It is the fundamental engine of culture, community, and progress.

And I'm not the first person to figure this out. I'm not here to give you a lecture on theology, but you have to be wilfully blind not to see this as a timeless truth. If you strip away the dogma, the rituals, and the centuries of bureaucracy from nearly every major religion and wisdom tradition on Earth, you find this exact principle at the core. The Bodhisattva in Buddhism, "agape" in Christianity, "tikkun olam" in Judaism, the Stoic's duty to the common good. They all point to the same truth: a life of meaning is a life of service to something larger than your own skin. This idea is so persistent because it is fundamentally true to the nature of a healthy, functioning human system.

The Myth of Scale

As I write this, I’m listening to a Gloria Estefan record. I have no idea what she’s doing right now, but forty years ago she put her energy into creating this music, laying her brick unconditionally. Today, it’s putting something positive into my world.

You don't need to sell three million albums to participate in this. We get so caught up in the idea that a contribution has to be massive to be valid. This is an illusion. The universe doesn't have a scoreboard for grandeur. Getting humanity to Mars and helping an elderly neighbour with her groceries are only different in scale, not in their moral or spiritual value. Both are unconditional acts of contribution. Both start a ripple.