"Chapter 3: Two Loves"

Individual psychology believes that all human problems can be attributed to three problems: occupation, communication, and gender. Everyone's response to these three questions clearly reveals his deep interpretation of the meaning of life. For example, a person who has no love at all, has suffered setbacks in life, behaves mediocre at work, and is not sociable and has few friends, he feels that it is very painful to associate with his peers. It seems, then, that it is painful and dangerous to live for him, and that it is also very difficult to live. In his cognitive terms, it should be: "In order to keep myself alive, I must protect myself from harm and try not to come into contact with others, so that I will be safe." It can be seen that he regards life as a difficult and dangerous thing, and in the end, there is only one series of real failures, and the chances of survival are getting fewer and fewer. And if a person has a wide range of friends, a wide range of contacts, a successful career, and a sweet love and a happy life. Then we can conclude that the life of this person is rich and full of creativity, and in order to realize opportunities and opportunities, we should strive to overcome all the difficulties of the moment. This also shows that the meaning of life lies in being willing to pay attention to others, eager to be a member of the social family, and dreaming of contributing to humanity and society.

As mentioned earlier, there are common threads in the many correct interpretations of the meaning of life. The same is true for misinterpretations. Psychopaths, criminals, alcoholics, troubled teenagers, suicides, degenerates, prostitutes and other losers fail because they never seek help from others when it comes to professional, social and gender issues, and lack interest and security in society. They give life a personal meaning. In their view, no one can benefit from others, so it is better to rely on others than on oneself. What they perceive from their perceived success or achievement is a self-deluded sense of personal superiority. This sense of self-superiority is worthless to others. It's like a murderer with a weapon in his hand, who may feel a sense of power control, but to others, a weapon does not increase his value in the slightest, and even laughs at it.

In fact, personal meaning has no value, and the true meaning of life lies in the interaction between the individual and others. Everyone wants to be important and valuable, but it is easy to go astray if you don't understand that personal achievements are based on contributions to others. People's ideals and behaviors also follow this principle: what is meaningful to others is meaningful.

Let me tell you the story of a little religious leader. One day, the leader gathered all the members of his religion together and informed him that next Wednesday would be the end of the world. Believing it to be true, the believers sold their possessions one after another, leaving behind the distractions of the world, anxious and panicked for the end to come. But Wednesday passed as usual without any abnormalities. On Thursday, the congregants went to the leader and asked, "You have done us a terrible blow." We gave up everything and told everyone around us that Wednesday was the end of the world. Even if others look at us with contempt, we believe this news. Because this is what our authoritative leader announced. As a result, Wednesday passed like this, isn't the world still like this?" In the face of condemnation and questioning, the leader quibbled: "I am not talking about Wednesday as you think it is. "Clearly, leaders use personal meaning to escape condemnation. This personal meaning certainly cannot exist as truth.

The true mark of all true "meaning of life" is that it can be shared with others and is recognized by the vast majority of people. But all people or things that people think have "meaning in life" have this commonality. Even if you are a genius, you can only be called this when most people around you think you are different. Therefore, the meaning of life means that it contributes to society as a whole. In this context, we are not referring to thoughts and motivations, but to the results of actions. People who can successfully cope with life's problems seem to understand that the meaning of life is to know how to pay attention to others, to cooperate with others, and to be able to solve problems in a way that does not harm the interests of others.

Many people may wonder, is it true that contributing to oneself and cooperating with others is the true meaning of life? If we only value our contribution to others and put the interests of others first, then will we not be very miserable? How can we protect our own interests? When protecting others, shouldn't we protect ourselves first? If a person wants to develop himself, shouldn't he think about himself first?

I think this view is wrong, and these problems cannot be called problems. Because self-development and altruism are not contradictory. If a person's ideals and behaviors are oriented towards contributing to others and working hard for them, his life will naturally develop in the direction that best reflects the value of his life. He will constantly adjust himself to this goal, so that he can develop a sense of mission and responsibility, and gradually learn various skills to adapt to this goal in practice. Once this life goal is determined, it is natural for individuals to manage themselves. Your own career, social and gender problems will also be solved. For example, if we want our partner to be happy and happy, we will naturally try to show our talents, and if our focus is not on our partner but on ourselves, and we only want to develop our own personality, then we will only become more and more arrogant and even disgusting.

We can also learn from this that the true meaning of life lies in dedication and cooperation. If we look closely at what our ancestors have left us, what do we find? All of this is their contribution to humanity, and then we will pass it on from generation to generation.

Therefore, dedication is the true meaning of life. What did our ancestors leave us? The tangible assets we have witnessed—land, roads, and buildings—but also their experiences in the form of philosophy, science, and art—and all kinds of life skills—all of these things are the dedication of our ancestors. And what do those who give personal meaning to life, those who only think about "how do I escape life?" and their lives go by, leaving no trace. Our planet also seems to say to them, "You are good for nothing, your life is worthless." No one needs you, nothing needs you. You don't even deserve to live, die quickly, and those who have nothing to do, disappear quickly. Although this egotism has improved in modern culture, we can still find traces of it. What we need to do is to change it in the spirit of seeking more benefits for humanity.

Life lies in dedication, and after thousands of years of baptism, this truth has been accepted by the public, so the public understands the importance of caring for others and helping others. In particular, people who have religious beliefs even regard the universality of sentient beings as their lifelong ideal. We can find that most of the great historical movements are launched from people's struggle for social interests, and religion still becomes one of the banners of such movements. Sadly, people often lose sight of this great purpose of religion and see it as something that can only do ordinary and worthless things. In fact, individual psychology is also committed to the greater good of humanity, and in this ultimate goal, even transcends religious movements.

Seeking the meaning of life is no longer the most important thing for us to do at present, because the meaning of life has been defined as the patron saint of our cause or the chasert of our cause, and the more important thing we need to do is to understand how this definition came to be, why is it defined as this and not the other, and if this definition contains fallacies, how should it be corrected? These are the questions that psychology is trying to answer, and they are the key to what distinguishes psychology from physiology and biology: psychology can use people's understanding of meaning itself to influence their own behavior and development direction, and thus seek greater human welfare.