The Meaning of Life Personality Test and Video

Below is a test I made to determine what you think the meaning of life is. See more here.

Five Meanings of Life Questionnaire

Rate yourself for each. ‘1’ is strongly disagree, ‘3’ is neutral and ‘5’ is strongly agree.

• Causes

• I often donate time, money and talents to organizations that I believe in.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I spend a lot of time thinking about how I can help change the world for the better.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• My biggest heroes are people that tried to change the world.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• My deepest sense of identity comes from the activities I participate in to help improve

humanity and the planet.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• Life is about serving a cause greater than myself.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• Experiences

• I spend a lot of time planning and pursuing new experiences, adventures, interesting

vacations/weekends, the next thrill.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I consider myself a connoisseur of certain items.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• It’s important that I surround myself with beauty and the finer things.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I focus a lot of my time on hobbies.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• You only live once, experience as much as you can while you can.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• Challenges

• I spend a lot of  time thinking about how I’ll accomplish the goals that are important to me.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I can easily look back on my life and name important accomplishments I’ve reached.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• My biggest heroes are those that succeeded in achieving difficult personal objectives.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• A large portion of my identity centers around significant achievements I’ve accomplished.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• Life is about reaching meaningful goals.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

Personal Growth

• I spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve myself and/or how I can model my life

off of exemplars.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I often read about how to grow as a person or in a certain field.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I care very deeply about how I’ve improved personally.  

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I regularly engage in personal growth activities like prayer, meditation, exercise, reading to

learn, developing better habits, self- and other-directed education.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• Life is all about becoming the best person you can.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• Relationships

• I spend a lot of time connecting with family and friends in person, via phone, Facebook, and email.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I plan activities/vacations around other people.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• My deepest sense of identity is from the relationships I’m connected to.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• I experience a strong sense of loneliness when separated from others for extended periods of time.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

• Life is all about meaningful relationships.

1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5

Total for Causes:  ______.   
Total for Experiences:      ______.  
Total for Achievements:______.  
Total for Personal Growth:______.  
Total for Relationships: ______.

Note your dominant and next most dominant ways to find meaning.  What thoughts come to mind?


This is a video I edited compiling people describing how they add meaning to their life through the above five methods.