An Atlanta Landmark Forum graduate distinguishes what they have seen inside the distinction ‘empty and meaningless’. Here are some excerpts.

Everything around a human being is imbued by him with meaning. The basic meaning is, “Is this for me or against me?” “Does this further or hinder my life?”

…the area where you have choice and control is the meaning that you give a particular situation, event or attribute. And the Landmark exercise is valuable in altering the meaning that you give something - especially events and situations that happened in your past.

A person can see a difficult childhood as bad or he can see it as good or some combination. There were things he didn’t have and didn’t experience. On the other hand, he learned to be strong in the face of that and those ways may lead to success in many areas of life.

The point of this distinction is to not blithely say, “Life is empty and meaningless” as a way to dismiss worrying about something or to dismiss another person’s concern. The point is to get in there, take charge of and be responsible for the meaning you create. Each of us, after all, is responsible for this individual human capacity.

Read the entire Landmark graduate blog here.