For most of my working life, I don’t remember thinking very much about the meaning of life. There was always something to do. A target to achieve, a business problem to solve, a team to manage, a career to build and of course a family to look after.

That is probably true for many of us. Particularly in Pakistan, where building a career and providing security for our families can consume a large part of our adult lives.

It was only after I stepped away from full-time corporate life that I found myself thinking more about questions of purpose and meaning. In this context, I have recently come across an idea that captures something I have been struggling to put into words.

Instead of asking “What is the meaning of my life?”, we should ask “What gives meaning in my life?”

It is a small change of preposition, but a very different question.The first seems to suggest that somewhere there is a grand purpose we are supposed to discover.The second asks us to look at the life we are already living.

I find meaning today in many different places. In helping a business think through a difficult challenge. In writing something that makes someone think. In watching younger people develop. In spending time with my family. In reading, running, playing tennis or working out at the gym. In moments of mindfulness and quiet reflection. Or simply in having a good conversation.

None of these, individually, is the purpose of my life.Together, they are what gives my life meaning.

I think we spend too much time searching for one overarching answer to the question of purpose and I now wonder whether there needs to be one. Meaning may not be something we discover once and then spend our lives pursuing.

It may be something we continuously create through the choices we make; the work we find worth doing, the people we care about, the things we learn, the experiences we enjoy and where we choose to place our attention.

The better question is not “What is my purpose?” But “What am I doing today that feels worth doing?”