When it comes to researching "meaning" one needs to go no further than Victor Frankl's “Man’s Search for Meaning."  A central theme of Frankl’s book is that man is willing to endure nearly anything (including death) if he believes that there is meaning.  Said another way, a sacrifice ceases to be seen and felt as a sacrifice to the person if they believe that their suffering (including death) has meaning.  “...suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning…”  Meaning isn’t self-serving, it is the belief in a greater good or a larger purpose than simply their own personal existence; it is accepting that there is a larger meaning and purpose for their own lives.  It is also why the absence of meaning usually foretells the end for someone, because they simply give up and surrender; they no longer have the will to “fight on.”  It is, then, incumbent upon each of us to search for and find the meaning and purpose behind our very existence and of our lives.

The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.  Joseph Campbell

Our prime purpose in this life is to helpp others. And if you can’t help them, at least don’t hurt them.  The Dalai Lama

The man who is born with a talent which he is meant to use, finds his greatest happiness in using it.  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe