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A Gospel-Centered Resource for Discipleship

The Journey is a proven discipleship curriculum that will help you develop mature and equipped followers of Christ .

The journey is.

The content of The Journey  is based on truths found in the Bible. Each section is rooted in the scriptures and will lead you to study the bible on your own. We believe that a firm understanding and application of the Bible is foundational for every Christian.

The curriculum is built so that you are putting the things that you learn into practice each week. You will develop habits and learn to use tools that will aide in your spiritual walk for years to come. The Journey is also specifically designed so that as you grow you can use it to help others mature as well.

The topics in The Journey are designed to address what is most crucial to the foundational development of a christian. The curriculum is not designed to  simply address knowledge, but to help people take real steps towards applying the Word of God to their lives. As you experience the material The Journey will help you to shape your understanding, motivations, and applications of Biblical truths in many areas of life.

The Journey is structured to give you the necessary tools and skills to effectively share the gospel with others. Throughout the course of study you will have the opportunity to take baby steps towards effectively communicating the gospel with the lost where you live, work, and play.

Looking for the Journey Online?

Head to thejourneybeta.com

What is The Journey?

The Journey is a Gospel centered resource for discipleship that is designed to help a disciple maker develop mature and equipped followers of Christ, who will be able to do the same with others.

The material is designed to be used over one year in a discipleship group setting. There are three different years of material identified as Green, Red, and Blue. With a subscription to one year of the curriculum you will have access to a downloadable PDF and other digital resources for one year.

The digital files include a mixed media offering of written, audio, and video materials.

What is the Journey Online?

The Journey has gone digital and is expanding! The Journey Online allows pastors and leaders to customize their Journey courses, write custom content, manage Journey groups, as well as interact with the curriculum across all devices. You can even download and print your custom Journeys. Learn more at thejourneybeta.com ,  or check out our FAQ at thejourneyapp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

How is The Journey structured?

Each weekly unit is structured in a T.E.A.M.S. format, incorporating each of the following elements.  T.E.A.M.S. stands for T ruth, E quipping, A ccountability, M ission and S upplication.

• T ruth – This is the Bible.  God’s word is the foundation for each unit.
• E quipping – Massaging the truth until it becomes understandable and useable.
• A ccountability – Involves the “one anothering” of Scripture.  Both “encouraging one another towards love and good deeds” as well as lovingly confronting sin in one anothers lives to bring about gospel-motivated transformation.
• M ission – Taking on the mission of Jesus to seek and to save the lost in ministries of both word and deed, explaining the gospel and meeting people’s needs.
• S upplication – Praying for each other and with each other; learning how and why we praying while also experiencing the impact of prayer in the world and in our lives.

What topics are covered in The Journey?

The topics covered in The Journey have been selected because of their foundational importance in developing a mature and equipped follower of Christ. View an overview of the three years of curriculum here .

The Journey Online is also updated during the summer with new sections for the coming discipleship year.

How do I get the most out of The Journey?

The Journey was written in a way that requires group members to study each lesson outside of the group time before attending the group. During the group, leaders do not simply go through each question, but they seek to draw out what God has been doing in the lives of the group members as they’ve studied on their own. Remember, the Journey is not discipleship, but it is an incredible tool for life-on-life missional discipleship. The author’s video below will explain in greater detail.

What is life-on-life missional discipleship?

Life-on-life missional discipleship is laboring in the lives of a few with the intention of imparting one’s life, God’s Word and the gospel in such a way as to see them become mature and equipped followers of Christ, committed to doing the same in the lives of others.

What is included when I purchase one year of The Journey?

• Digital Download of 28 weekly units each following the T.E.A.M.S. structure.
• Additional messages and materials that will help to address specific issues more deeply
• A practical guide for developing a habit for personal worship
• Suggested verses for your groups scripture memory focus
• Tools to help you clarify and communicate your personal faith Journey
• Missional assignments to move you and your group towards sharing the Gospel
• Weekly resources for leaders to provide equipping as you use the materials

Which color should I start on?

The Journey has been designed so that it can be used in any order (Red/Blue/Green). Most importantly you should be sure you are purchasing the same color as the rest of your discipleship group and/or church. However, the majority of users this year will be using Green. If your group or your church is able to start this year with Green, you will have an enhanced experience by being in a larger community of users focusing on this content this year.

Who should purchase The Answer and Life Issues Books?

Over the course of the year, your Journey group will work to become more missional. The Answer and the Life Issues Books are tools that you will use to help you share your faith with others. We hope that each year, you will have had the opportunity to engage with others over the Gospel with these tools. If that is the case, you will need additional copies next year.

Who wrote The Journey?

The Journey was written by Randy Pope , the founding pastor of Perimeter Church and Life on Life Ministries.  The Journey is distributed by Life on Life Ministries – to learn more about Life on Life visit the organization’s website here .

A Journey experience leads to:

Personal worship & spiritual maturity.

► Play Chuck’s Story

Connecting Hearts Through Relationships

► Play Kelly’s Story

Foundations For Life’s Trials & Tribulations

► Play George’s Story

To allow you to get a feel for The Journey before making a purchase, we have developed a Sample Pack that will give you a feeling for how each Section and weekly Unit will be. In the Sample Pack, you will get two sample weekly Units, and an overview sheet showing a 3 year overview of the entire curriculum.

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Purchase The Journey

Ready to purchase a year of The Journey? Click the button to the right to make your purchase and get access to the PDF and weekly materials. After purchase you will receive an email with links to all your materials.

We’re here to help

Frequently asked questions.

How do I access my materials?

Once you purchase a year of The Journey you will be redirected to a confirmation page that will include your receipt and all of the link necessary to download your curriculum. Additionally, you will receive an email with instructions for downloading your PDF copy. The PDF includes links to all the Unit assignments and leader materials. Your purchase will give you access these materials for one year.

How do I log in?

• If you have purchased The Journey after June 9 th , 2017 you can log in using the email address and/or user name that you created during checkout. From the log-in page you can reset your user name and password by using the email address that you provided during checkout.
• If you purchased The Journey prior to June 9 th , 2017 you will need to create a new account on this website. An account can be created during the checkout process the next time you make a purchase.

Thank you for your patience and understanding as we transition to this new system.

I have used the Journey before. Is the content different?

No, the content of The Journey has stayed the same regardless of design. The layout and aesthetics have been updated. If you have older materials you will be able to use them alongside anyone with newer materials.

Can I purchase multiple copies?

Yes. If you are a small group leader or are purchasing for a church, you can purchase multiple copies to cover the number of people that will be using the material each year. So that we can continue to offer The Journey at an affordable price please pay for each person using the materials.

Where can I find the leader guides and Randy’s equipping videos?

There are a couple of easy ways to get to them:

1. The first is via the PDF of the Journey curriculum that you received. At the start of each week there is a link to all of the resources for that week. The links look something like jrny.org/g1-1  We’ve linked them in the digital version of the PDF and used those short urls to make them easier to type in case your working off of a printed copy. On that page you’ll find all of the weekly assignments and leader resources for that week.

2. You can also go to our website thejourneycurriculum.com (or jrny.org if you prefer the short url) and click on the link for “weekly resources” in the top right of the page. From there you can navigate the color and week/unit that you are currently in.

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77 Positive and Inspiring Journey Quotes

Embark on a journey of a lifetime with these inspiring journey quotes. Life’s a thrilling ride, filled with ups and downs.

It’s about braving the storms and cherishing time spent with loved ones.

So whether your path is spiritual, an exciting travel adventure, or just starting something new in life, let these quotes fuel your spirit for exploration and discovery.

Journey quotes to begin your path towards greatness

1. “Never give up on your dreams, no matter how painful and difficult your journey is.” – Lisa

2. “The journey is never ending. There’s always gonna be growth, improvement, adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what’s right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment.” – Antonio Brown

3. “The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

4. “Sometimes its more about the journey than the destination.” – Jamal Crawford

5. “Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.” – Arthur Ashe

6. “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” – Greg Anderson

New journey quotes to inspire your success

7. “Not all those who wander are lost.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

8. “Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” – Drake

9. “Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin

10. “Enjoy the journey and try to get better every day. And don’t lose the passion and the love for what you do.” – Nadia Comaneci

11. “Struggle teaches you a lot of things, and I am happy that I witnessed a roller coaster ride. The journey has improved me as a person and made me more matrure.” – Manoj Bajpayee

12. “Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are traveling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.” – Henri Frederic Amiel

Life is a journey quotes

13. “Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.” – Oliver Goldsmith

14. “Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.” – Robert Frost

15. “Learn to trust the journey, even when you do not understand it.” – Lolly Daskal

16. “Life is a journey that have a lot of different paths, but any path you choose, use it as your destiny.” – Unknown

17. “The beautiful journey of today can only begin when we learn to let go of yesterday.” – Steve Maraboli

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18. “Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

19. “Everyday you got a chance to make your journey more beautiful than yesterday.” – Nitin Namdeo

20. “Every day is a journey and the journey itself is home.” – Matsuo Basho

21. “Everybody has their own story; everything has their own journey.” – Thalia

Enjoy the journey quotes

22. “Enjoy the journey as much as the destination.” – Marshall Sylver

23. “Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame.” – Benedict Cumberbatch

24. “Enjoy the journey and try to get better everyday. And don’t lose the passion and the love for what you do.” – Nadia Comaneci

25. “Enjoy the journey, the destination will come.” – Verghese

26. “Don’t wait for everything to be perfect before you decide to enjoy your life.” – Joyce Meyer

27. “Dream big, stay positive, work hard, and enjoy the journey.” – Urijah Faber

28. “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.” – Oprah Winfrey

29. “Aim for the sky, but move slowly, enjoying every step along the way. It is all those little steps that make the journey complete.” – Chanda Kochar

30. “Enjoy the journey, enjoy every moment, and quit worrying about winning and losing.” – Matt Biondi

31. “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” – Babs Hoffman

32. “I haven’t been everywhere but its on my list.” – Susan Sontag

33. “You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.” – Les Brown

Inspirational journey quotes

34. “You can never regret anything you do in life. You kind of have to learn the lesson from whatever the experience is and take it with you on your journey forward.” – Aubrey O’Day

35. “Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.” – Pope Francis

36. “There’s no map for you to follow and take your journey. You are Lewis and Clark. You are the mapmaker.” – Phillipa Soo

37. “I’m different than most people. When I cross the finish line of a big race, I see that people are ecstatic, but I’m thinking about what I’m going to do tomorrow. It’s as if my journey is everlasting, and there is no finish line.” – David Goggins

38. “We don’t receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.” – Marcel Proust

39. “Though the road’s been rocky it sure feels good to me.” – Bob Marley

40. “We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we’ve established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile.” – Earl Nightingale

41. “Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become.” – Steve Jobs

42. “If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.” – Enoch Powell

Motivational journey quotes 

43. “Make voyages. Attempt them. There’s nothing else.” – Tennessee Williams

44. “Gotta take that adventure in order to understand your journey.” – Jennifer Pierre

45. “Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt

46. “The beauty of my journey is that it’s always been pretty unpredictable, so stay tuned.” – Andreja Pejic

47. “The journey not the arrival matters.” – T.S. Eliot

48. “The future depends on what you do today.” – Mahatma Gandhi

49. “The goal is to die with memories, not dreams.” – Unknown

50. “Never throughout history has a man who lived a life of ease left a name worth remembering.” – Theodore Roosevelt

51. “The harder you work from something, the greater you’ll feel when you achieve it.” – Sudhashree Acharya

52. “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy

53. “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” – ILHQ

54. “When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home.” – Rumi

Positive journey quotes

55. “You may only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” – Mae West

56. “Every day you got a chance to make your journey more beautiful than yesterday.” – Nitin Namdeo

57. “Stay positive. Better days are on their way.” – Unknown

58. “Your destiny is to fulfill those things upon which you focus most intently. So choose to keep your focus on that which is truly magnificent, beautiful, uplifting and joyful. Your life is always moving toward something.” – Ralph Marston

59. “You make a life out of what you have, not what you’re missing.” – Kate Morton

60. “Every sunset is an opportunity to reset. Every sunrise begins with new eyes.” – Richie Norton

61. “Life is very interesting. In the end, some of your greatest pains, become your greatest strengths.” – Drew Barrymore

62. “Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think you’ve lost time. There is no short-cutting life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time.” – Asha Tyson

63. “And suddenty you know…It’s time to start something new and trust the magic of beginnings.” – Meister Eckhart

64. “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” – Dolly Parton

65. “Your success will be determined by your own confidence and fortitude.” – Michelle Obama

66. “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” – Oscar Wilde

67. “If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer

Journey of life quotes

68. “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” – Tony Robbins

69. “When you have a dream, you’ve got to grab it and never let go.” – Carol Burnett

70. “Life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll

71. “You take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing, no one to blame.” – Erica Jong

72. “If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.” – Dan Rather

73. “It’s your reaction to adversity, not adversity itself that determines how your life’s story will develop.” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf

74. “Your Monday morning thoughts set the tone for your whole week. See yourself getting stronger, and living a fulfilling, happier & healthier life.” – Germany Kent

75. “Ability is what you’re capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” – Lou Holtz

76. “Our lives are the journey we take to find our true selves!” – Alyssa Gonzalez

77. “Your braver than you believe, stronger that you seem, and smarter than you think.” – A.A. Milne

Which of these journey quotes were your favorites?

We all have the potential within us to be great.

But greatness isn’t about luck. It’s a choice.

We must choose to succeed and take steps towards it.

Remember, the path to success is a journey, not a quick leap.

Let these quotes inspire you to stay focused on your goals and dreams, no matter what obstacles get in your way along the path.

Helping people and eating tacos are my jam! This blog exists to help provide tips and resources that can help you achieve your goals and live a better life. Whether you’re looking for tips on personal growth, fitness, advice on starting a side hustle, or resources for working remotely, I’ve got you covered.

51 Meaningful Quotes About How Life is a Journey

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They say that life is about the journey and not the destination. But what does that really mean?

You’ve probably heard this line a million times before, but maybe you couldn’t quite understand what it was trying to illustrate. 

The most successful people will tell you that the process of accomplishing something is far more valuable than the end result. You learn much more from all of your experiences and encounters than you do from arriving at the destination.

Ultimately, the process is the greatest reward. The sweetest moments come when you realize that you have attained the final goal because of everything you have experienced.

You look back on the mistakes, the challenges, and everything you had to endure—but you also celebrate the fact that you faced your problems head-on. Your journey through life is what makes you human.

In this article, we share with you a list of quotes about how life is a journey . We hope that, through these words, you’ll be able to enjoy everything that life has to offer. Even more so, we hope that they will inspire you to live a more meaningful and happier life .

But before we check out our list, let’s discuss how reading these quotes can get you motivated.

Table of Contents

Why Read Quotes About How Life Is a Journey?

Reading these quotes can inspire you to live a better and more fulfilling life.

They are, after all, from people who have found their journeys through life enjoyable and gratifying. There’s no better way to motivate yourself than to get inspiration from people who have already lived wonderful lives.

In the same vein, these quotes can help you appreciate the gift of life. They help you realize that you only live once, so you must relish the moments you have been given.

Finally, reading these quotes can encourage you to share your life with others. You will realize that, in order to be able to live your life to the fullest, you need someone to share both your joys and sorrows with. You require companions to fully live in the moment .

Now that you know why it’s important to read journey quotes, let us check out our list!

Meaningful Life is a Journey Quotes

• “If you can’t fly, then run. If you can’t run, then walk. If you can’t walk, then crawl. But by all means, keep moving.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
• “Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• “The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” – Tony Robbins
• “The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.” – Oprah Winfrey
• “Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant.” – Robert Louis Stevenson
• “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it's not the same river and he's not the same man.” – Heraclitus
• “Not I, nor anyone else can travel that road for you. You must travel it by yourself. It is not far. It is within reach. Perhaps you have been on it since you were born, and did not know. Perhaps it is everywhere – on water and land.” – Walt Whitman
• “The most important reason for going from one place to another is to see what's in between, and they took great pleasure in doing just that.” – Norton Juster
• “The beautiful journey of today can only begin when we learn to let go of yesterday.” – Steve Maraboli

• “Some beautiful paths can't be discovered without getting lost.” – Erol Ozan
• “For me, becoming isn’t about arriving somewhere or achieving a certain aim. I see it instead as forward motion, a means of evolving, a way to reach continuously toward a better self. The journey doesn’t end.” – Michelle Obama
• “I am no longer afraid of becoming lost because the journey back always reveals something new, and that is ultimately good for the artist.” – Billy Joel
• “Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” – Pat Conroy
• “Never stop just because you feel defeated. The journey to the other side is attainable only after great suffering.” – Santosh Kalwar
• “There is a strange comfort in knowing that no matter what happens today, the Sun will rise again tomorrow.” – Aaron Lauritsen
• “Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” – Drake
• “ Transformation is a process , and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs. It’s a journey of discovery – there are moments on mountaintops and moments in deep valleys of despair.” – Rick Warren
• “The journey is never-ending. There’s always gonna be growth, improvement, and adversity; you just gotta take it all in and do what’s right, continue to grow, continue to live in the moment.” – Antonio Brown
• “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” – Greg Anderson
• “On your journey, don’t forget to smell the flowers. Take time out to notice that you are alive. You can only live one day.” – Ray Fearon

• “If my ship sails from sight, it doesn’t mean my journey ends. It simply means the river bends.” – Enoch Powell
• “It’s not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place because it frees you.” – Tyler Perry
• “Aim for the sky, but move slowly, enjoying every step along the way. It is all those little steps that make the journey complete.” – Chanda Kochhar
• “Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin
• “Your journey never ends. Life has a way of changing things in incredible ways.” – Alexander Volkov
• “Each one of us has our own evolution of life, and each one of us goes through different tests which are unique and challenging. But certain things are common. And we do learn things from each other's experiences. On a spiritual journey, we all have the same destination.” – A. R. Rahman
• “Going by my past journey, I am not certain where life will take me, what turns and twists will happen; nobody knows where they will end up. As life changes direction, I'll flow with it.” – Katrina Kaif
• “Enjoy the journey and try to get better every day. And don't lose the passion and the love for what you do.” – Nadia Comaneci

• “But it's a journey and the sad thing is you only learn from experience, so as much as someone can tell you things, you have to go out there and make your own mistakes in order to learn.” – Emma Watson
• “The seeker embarks on a journey to find what he wants and discovers, along the way, what he needs.” – Wally Lamb
• “Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.” – Oliver Goldsmith
• “The Sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it's here is up to us. Journey wisely.” – Alexandra Elle
• “We may run, walk, stumble. drive, or fly, but let us never lose sight of the reason for the journey, or miss a chance to see a rainbow on the way.” – Gloria Gaither
• “Whole life is a search for beauty. But, when the beauty is found inside, the search ends and a beautiful journey begins.” – Harshit Walia
• “Not everyone will understand your journey. That's okay. You're here to live your life, not to make everyone understand .” – Banksy
• “I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.” – Les Brown
• “It was being a runner that mattered, not how fast or how far I could run. The joy was in the act of running and in the journey, not in the destination.” – John Bingham
• “As you journey down the path, don't forget to be present moment-by-moment and absorb the beauty and richness of simply being alive.” – Cary David Richards
• “If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.” – Dan Rather

• “Life is a journey of either Fate or Destiny. Fate is the result of giving in to one's wounds and heartaches. Your Destiny unfolds when you rise above the challenges of your life and use them as Divine opportunities to move forward to unlock your higher potential.” – Caroline Myss
• “I know it can be tough to imagine how to get from where you are today to where you want to be tomorrow. But I’m here to tell you that change is possible if you enter into this journey with your eyes wide open, and with real intention.” – David Hauser
• “Part of the challenge that comes with striving for success is how the entire journey comes with its own fair share of failures and disappointments.” – Rupert Johnson
• “The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That's all there ever is.” – Alan Watts
• “Life is a journey and it's about growing and changing and coming to terms with who and what you are and loving who and what you are.” – Kelly McGillis
• “Time is a companion that goes with us on a journey. It reminds us to cherish each moment because it will never come again. What we leave behind is not as important as how we have lived.” – Captain Jean-Luc Picard
• “I just constantly tell myself that I should be the only one to define my worth and what I'm capable of and how I perceive myself. And that I should never source that worth from other people, especially strangers on social media. They don't know who I am, the length of my journey, who I am as a person.” – Catriona Gray
• “ You have learned a lot, but there are still lots of learning for you as you journey through life. Never stop learning.” – Kate Summers

• “One of the most important things that I have learned in my 57 years is that life is all about choices. On every journey you take, you face choices. At every fork in the road, you make a choice. And it is those decisions that shape our lives.” – Mike DeWine
• “I'm different than most people. When I cross the finish line of a big race, I see that people are ecstatic, but I'm thinking about what I'm going to do tomorrow. It's as if my journey is everlasting, and there is no finish line.” – David Goggins
• “The journey matters as much as the destination. By engaging at the moment on set, I've stopped rushing and now find pleasure in the collaborative process – the characters, the costumes – rather than worrying about the finished product.” – Michelle Dockery
• “It's a life's journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.” – Mariska Hargitay

Final Thoughts on Life & Journey

Life is a journey, and we all take different paths.

There are those who take the road less traveled and enjoy unique accomplishments, while others go with the crowd but still end up loving the lives they’ve chosen as well. Regardless of our choices, we will all have the potential to become successful in the ways we personally define success.

We hope that these quotes inspired you to enjoy your life’s journey and make it more meaningful. Enjoy the moment and live happy!

And if you want more inspirational quotes, be sure to check out these blog posts:

• 63 Inspiring Walt Whitman Quotes About Life
• 51 Do What Makes You Happy Quotes for 2023
• 107 Quotes About Overcoming Adversity and Challenges in Your Life

Finally, if you want to use these quotes to make a lasting change to your life, then check out and recite these 57 affirmations for success .

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SOLO TRAVEL , SOLO TRAVEL INSPIRATION

100+ life journey quotes to inspire you.

Life is a journey. How often have you heard that?

As we find our road through life, we all need inspiration and guidance. And this is never so true as when we are travelling, especially as solo travellers. 

This can come from many sources: friends, family, self-help books. But sometimes, a simple quote about life’s journey can provide inspiration or make us view our path through a different lens. 

Drawing on the writings of authors and poets, scholars and spiritual leaders here are my favourite life journey quotes. Is your favourite there? 

Are you looking for a short and sharp travel caption to add to your images or social media feed? If so, check out these dreamy travel captions

IN THIS ARTICLE

My Top 10 Life Journey Quotes

There are many quotes about life as a journey out there and picking a list of favourites is a tough call. From Maja Angelou to Mark Twain, here are those that continue to inspire me.

1. Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away. – Maya Angelou

2. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.   – Mark Twain

3. Remember where you have been and know where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way. – Nikita Koloff

4. We are travelers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.  – Paulo Coelho

You are far from the end of your journey. The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. See how you love. Buddha

6. You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. – C.S. Lewis

7. When setting out on a journey do not seek advice from someone who never left home. – Rumi

One of the greatest journeys in life is overcoming insecurity and learning to truly not give a shit.  J. A. Konrath

9. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds that you plant. – Robert Louis Stevenson 

10. Sometimes life takes you on a journey that changes everything you thought you wanted. – Melaina Rayne

Life Journey Quotes: First Steps

Every journey begins with a single step. Taking that first step is often the hardest part of any endeavour, whether that’s booking your first trip alone , quitting your job or moving overseas.

Be inspired to take the plunge with these inspirational life journey quotes.

11. Big things have small beginnings. – Prometheus 

12. The only impossible journey is the one you never begin . – Tony Robbins

13. A little step may be the beginning of a great journey. – Unknown

14. If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all. – Dan Rather

15. Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone’s hand is the beginning of a journey. – Vera Nazarian

Beginning are usually scary and ending are usually sad, but it’s everything in between that makes it all worth living. Bob Marley

The Next Steps: Quotes on the Journey of Life

But that first step is just that; the first step on the road of life. Life – and travel – can present a series of obstacles to overcome.

17. Life’s journey is a collection of stories. Make yours a bestseller. – The Flashpacker ( Bridget Coleman )

18. One may walk over the highest mountain one step at a time. – John Wanamaker

19 . … a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. – John Steinbeck

20. To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping. – Chinese Proverb 

21. Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right. – Pope Francis

22. The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is. – Alan Watts

23. Life is a journey, travel it well. – Unknown

The key to realising a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.  Oprah Winfrey 

25. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all. – Helen Keller

26. No journey is too great, when one finds what one seeks. – Friedrich Nietzsche

27. Aim for the sky, but move slowly, enjoying every step along the way. It is all those little steps that make the journey complete.  – Chanda Kochhar

28. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike . – John Steinbeck

29. No journey is too great, when one finds what one seeks. – Friedrich Nietzsche

30. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. – John Steinbeck

31. I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination. –  Jimmy Dean

32. Your journey will be much lighter and easier if you don’t carry your past with you! – Tamara Kulish

33. May the stars guide you on your journey, and your heart always lead you home. – Melaina Rayne

Quotes to Inspire Solo Travellers

Any seasoned solo traveller knows that travelling alone has the power to change your life . But sometimes it can be difficult to find the words to describe your experiences. 

To empower you to travel alone , here is the pick of the best life journey quotes that can be applied to solo travel.

34. It’s your road, and yours alone, others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. – Rumi

35. No one can decide the road that inspires us to kick-start a journey better than the one embarking on the path. We may find others joining our journey, but we have to take the first step alone to reach our destination.  – Dr Prem Jagyasi

36. Don’t be scared to walk alone. Don’t be scared to like it. – John Mayer

37. Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone. – Buddha

There are some places in life where you can only go alone. Embrace the beauty of your solo journey. Mandy Hale

39. No one you have been and no place you have gone ever leaves you. The new parts of you simply jump in the car and go along for the rest of the ride. The success of your journey and your destination all depend on who’s driving. – Bruce Springsteen

40. The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready. – Henry David Thoreau

41. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. – Neale Donald Walsh

42. If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone. – Maxwell Maltz

I have traveled many roads in my life. Some were imbued with pain and I needed to avert my gaze. Others were so beautiful that I would have remained there forever. But always, at some point in these routes, I reached a place where I encountered myself. Pablo Holmberg

44. The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before. – Albert Einstein

45. Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.  – Banksy

Are you looking for more quotes to inspire you to travel alone? If so, check out these inspirational solo travel quotes

Making Friends on the Journey of Life

Of course, none of us needs to be alone. Other people can play a huge part in our life journey.

46 . A journey is best measured in friends, not in miles . – Tim Cahill

47. Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life. – Pythagoras

48. In this journey of life, you will meet people who will make you feel alive! – Avijeet Das

49. On a hard jungle journey, nothing is so important as having a team you can trust. – Tahir Shah

50. Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. – Izaak Walton

The main thing that you have to remember on this journey is, just be nice to everyone and always smile. Ed Sheeran

52. Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind. – Henri Frederic Amiel

53. We never know the journey another person has walked, so be kind to everyone. – Lynette Mather

Having Faith in Yourself

Life throws obstacles at us, and it can be difficult to believe in yourself and in your ability to deal with these challenges. Even with those important first steps, you sometimes have to throw caution to the wind. 

54. Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before. – Erich Fromm

I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.  Les Brown

56. Trust yourself, trust the road, trust the weather, and trust your destination! This quarto-trust can create a miraculously successful journey!  – Mehmet Murat Īldan

57. Have faith in your journey. Everything had to happen exactly as it did to get you where you’re going next! – Mandy Hale

58. Things are only impossible until they’re not. – Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek ( the Star Trek universe can teach us much about travel )

Finding Your Path

As profound as it may seem, sometimes getting lost is the first step to finding our way on the journey of life, and there is not necessarily one right path. The correct path is the one that is right for you. 

59. In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of.  – Dante Alighieri

60. Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost. – Erol Ozan

You have to get lost before you can be found. Jeff Rasley

62. Life is a journey that has a lot of different paths, but any path you choose use it as your destiny. – Ryan Leonard 

63. This thing we call life is not a destination with an end but a path down which we continue to journey as long as we can breathe. Life is to be lived not squandered or to give away waiting for the end to close upon us.  – Byron Pulsifer

64. The path isn’t a straight line; it’s a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths . – Barry H. Gillespie

65. Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Lessons Learnt

Some of the best life journey quotes relate to the lessons you learn along this journey. Many of these lessons may not be obvious at the time, especially in tough times, but ultimately they help shape who we are.

66. A journey taken in vain is not a wasted journey if you have learnt something. – Anthony T. Hincks

67. All journeys have secret destinations of which traveler is unaware. – Martin Buber

68. Always remember life is a learning journey. Keep filling your mind with all that is worthy. – Catherine Pulsifer

69. One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. – Henry Miller

Learn to trust the journey, even when you do not understand it.  Lolly Daskal 

71. We do not receive wisdom, we must discover it for ourselves, after a journey through the wilderness which no one else can make for us, which no one can spare us, for our wisdom is the point of view from which we come at last to regard the world. – Marcel Proust

72. Travel far enough, you meet yourself. – David Mitchell

73. In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse. – Anthon St. Maarten 

74. What you learn in tough times can be used in many ways to bless your personal life journey.  – Scott Gordon

75. Sometimes in your life you will go on a journey. It will be the longest journey you have ever taken. It is the journey to find yourself. – Katharine Sharp

Enjoy the Journey

Ultimately, what is it all for unless you enjoy the journey?

As travellers, we are often guilty of fixating on the destination, instead of learning to enjoy the journey, and celebrating the triumphs instead of stressing about the difficulties.

76. Roads were made for journeys not destinations. – Confucius

77. Life Is What Happens When You’re Busy Making Other Plans . – John Lennon

78. The journey is the reward. – Tao Expression

79. In the tapestry of life, every thread matters. Weave a journey worth treasuring. – The Flashpacker (Bridget Coleman)

80. Life is a journey, and if you fall in love with the journey, you will be in love forever. – Peter Hagerty

81. It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.  – Ernest Hemingway

82. Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. – Greg Anderson

83. Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination . – Drake

84. Accomplishments will prove to be a journey, not a destination. – Dwight D. Eisenhower

85. And at the end of the day, there is nothing but the journey. Because destination is pure illusion. – Rich Roll

86. Life is a journey, not a destination. Learn to enjoy the ride. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

If ever there was a metaphor to illustrate the importance of the journey over the destination, it is life itself. For everyone who departs from birth is destined for death, so the journey IS life. Savor it! Michele Jennae

88. The journey in between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life takes place. – Barbara De Angelis

89. Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.  – Arthur Ashe

It is not the destination where you end up but the mishaps and memories you create along the way! Penelope Riley

91. Your journey has molded you for your greater good, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Don’t think you’ve lost time. There is no short-cutting to life. It took each and every situation you have encountered to bring you to the now. And now is right on time. – Asha Tyson

92. Embrace your life journey with gratitude, so that how you travel your path is more important than reaching your ultimate destination. – Rosalene Glickman

93. Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved. Winnie the Pooh

94. Let your joy be in your journey – not in some distant goal. – Tim Cook

95. Live now; make now always the most precious time. Now will never come again. – Jean-Luc Picard, Star Trek

96. Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore. – Andre Gide

Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride! Hunter S. Thompson

98. Every day is a journey filled with twists and turns. Every day, if you smile, you will feel alive, my son. – Santosh Kalwar

99. Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.  – Fitzhugh Mullan

100. I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be . – Douglas Adams

101. We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. – T.S. Eliot

102. Life is an opportunity, seize the day, live each day to the fullest. Life is not a project, but a journey to be enjoyed. – Catherine Pulsifer

103. I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be. – Douglas Adams

104. Time is a companion who goes with us on the journey and reminds us to cherish every moment, because it will never come again. – Captain Jean Luc Picard in Star Trek

Final Thoughts

Life for me, like travel, is all about the journey. The shape of that journey is up to the individual.

I hope that these life journey quotes help inspire you to live your best life. That’s all that any of us can aim for.  

Enjoy the journey.

Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind. Anthony Bourdain

About Bridget

Bridget Coleman has been a passionate traveller for more than 30 years. She has visited 70+ countries, most as a solo traveller.

Articles on this site reflect her first-hand experiences.

To get in touch, email her at [email protected] or follow her on social media.

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60 life quotes that’ll inspire you to find the good in every day

Ah, life: You can't appreciate the good days without the bad.

In moments of deep frustration, sadness or stress, turn to these life quotes for that very reminder. Although our individual journeys come with unique trials and tribulations, these quotes focus on the one thing we all have in common: the unwavering desire for a happy, healthy life.

Whether you're going through a rough patch, struggling to make a hard decision or about to embark on a life-changing adventure, these wise words from Hoda Kotb , Maya Angelou, Oprah Winfrey and other thought leaders offer much-needed perspective on the importance of embracing every moment — even the most difficult ones — with gratitude and love.

Below, find positive affirmations about self-love , happy quotes that'll motivate you to look on the bright side and other beautiful messages about embracing life's inevitable curveballs.

Our advice: Keep this list handy, so you can take a peek whenever you need a pick-me-up (or, well, an inspiring Instagram caption).

• "Every man dies. Not every man really lives." — William Wallace
• "Life is a song — sing it. Life is a game — play it. Life is a challenge — meet it. Life is a dream — realize it. Life is a sacrifice — offer it. Life is love — enjoy it." — Sathya Sai Baba
• "Growth is the only evidence of life." — John Henry Newman
• "A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life." — Charles Darwin
• "The good life is one inspired by love and guided by knowledge." — Bertrand Russell
• "We can't plan life. All we can do is be available for it." — Lauryn Hill
• "Life is a lot like jazz ... it's best when you improvise." — George Gershwin
• "Life is a succession of moments, to live each one is to succeed." — Corita Kent
• "I have a simple philosophy: Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches." — Alice Roosevelt-Longworth
• "We are here to add what we can to life, not to what we can get from life." — William Osler
• "My formula for living is quite simple. I get up in the morning and I go to bed at night. In between, I occupy myself as best I can." — Cary Grant
• "Nobody got where they are today by living for tomorrow." — Tom Wilson
• "Do not ignore your intuition. There is an infinite intelligence within you; let it be your guiding light." — Cleo Wade, "Heart Talk: Poetic Wisdom for a Better Life"
• "You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." — Mae West
• "There is no failure except failure to serve one's purpose." — Henry Ford
• "The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." — Oprah Winfrey
• "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched, but just felt in the heart." — Helen Keller
• "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude." — Maya Angelou
• "If you fall — and trust me, you will — make sure you fall on your back. Because if you fall on your back, you can see up. And if you can see up, you can get up. And you can keep going and going and going." — Hoda Kotb, "Hoda: How I Survived War Zones, Bad Hair and Kathie Lee"
• "There's power in allowing yourself to be known and heard, in owning your unique story, in using your authentic voice. And there's grace in being willing to know and hear others." — Michelle Obama, "Becoming"
• "To succeed in life, you need three things: a wishbone, a backbone and a funny bone." — Reba McEntire
• "It is better to live your own destiny imperfectly than to live an imitation of somebody else's life with perfection." — Elizabeth Gilbert, "Eat Pray Love"
• "The middle is messy, but it is also where the magic happens." — Brené Brown
• "The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are." — Joseph Campbell
• "Whatever happens to you belongs to you. Make it yours. Feed it to yourself even if it feels impossible to swallow. Let it nurture you, because it will." — Cheryl Strayed, "Tiny Beautiful Things: Advice on Love and Life from Dear Sugar"
• "I make a point to appreciate all the little things in my life. I go out and smell the air after a good, hard rain. These small actions help remind me that there are so many great, glorious pieces of good in the world." — Dolly Parton, "Dream More: Celebrate the Dreamer in You"
• "Gratitude is a celebration we are all invited to." — Cleo Wade, "Heart Talk"
• "Just to be alive is a grand thing." — Agatha Christie, "An Autobiography"
• "If there's a book that you want to read, but it hasn't been written yet, then you must write it." — Toni Morrison
• "Because you are alive, everything is possible." — Thich Nhat Hanh, "Living Buddha, Living Christ"
• "Those who say it can't be done are usually interrupted by others doing it." — James Baldwin, "Notes of a Native Son"
• "I'd rather regret the risks that didn't work out than the chances I didn't take at all." — Simone Biles
• "A pessimist is one who makes difficulties of his opportunities and an optimist is one who makes opportunities of his difficulties." — Harry S. Truman
• "The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves." — Victor Hugo
• "Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life." — Mark Twain
• "I don't make plans because life is short and unpredictable — much like the weather!" — Al Roker
• "I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go." — Langston Hughes
• "The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience." — Eleanor Roosevelt
• "There are times in life when, instead of complaining, you do something about your complaints." — Rita Dove
• "Many people worry so much about managing their careers, but rarely spend half that much energy managing their lives. I want to make my life, not just my job, the best it can be. The rest will work itself out." — Reese Witherspoon
• "Only I can change my life. No one can do it for me." — Carol Burnett
• "Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself." — George Bernard Shaw
• "There is only one difference between a long life and a good dinner: that, in the dinner, the sweets come last." — Robert Louis Stevenson
• "Living is the art of getting used to what we didn’t expect." — Eleanor C. Wood
• "Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears." — Les Brown
• "Do your thing and don't care if they like it." — Tina Fey, "Bossypants"
• "In life, all things come hard, but wisdom is the hardest to come by." — Lucille Ball
• "You and you alone are the only person that can live the life that writes the story that you were meant to tell. And the world needs your story because the world needs your voice." — Kerry Washington
• "I can live without money, but I cannot live without love." — Judy Garland
• "In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: It goes on." — Robert Frost
• "Love doesn’t make the world go ‘round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile." — Franklin P. Jones
• "Do what you can, with what you have, where you can." — Theodore Roosevelt
• "Life imposes things on you that you can’t control, but you still have the choice of how you’re going to live through this." — Celine Dion
• "Life is like a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you only spend it once." — Lillian Dickinson
• "Maybe that's what life is, a wink of the eye and winking stars." — Jack Kerourac
• "Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage." — Anais Nin
• "I believe we are here on the planet Earth to live, grow up and do what we can to make this world a better place for all people to enjoy freedom." — Rosa Parks
• "There’s something liberating about not pretending. Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk." — Drew Barrymore
• "Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. Comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday." — John Wayne
• "You only pass through this life once, you don’t come back for an encore." — Elvis Presley

Amazing love quotes to share with your person

Amanda Garrity is a lifestyle editor at TODAY.com, where she writes, edits and optimizes content in the lifestyle space. Previously, she covered home, holiday and gifts at Good Housekeeping. 

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101 Best Inspirational Quotes for Your Life Journey

Everyone has a unique journey in life, one that is filled with both challenges and triumphs. As we make our way through our individual paths, we can often find ourselves needing a bit of inspiration. Whether it’s a quote from a wise figure, a thought-provoking proverb, or a simple reminder of our own inner strength, inspirational quotes can be a powerful tool to help us stay focused and motivated on our life journey. In this blog post, we will explore some of the most powerful inspirational quotes for your life journey.

Table of Contents

Benefits of Incorporating Inspirational Quotes into Your Life

Are you feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or uninspired? Are you looking for that extra bit of motivation to make a change in your life? Incorporating inspiring quotes into your life can be just the thing you need to help you get back on track! 

Inspirational quotes are words of wisdom that offer guidance and reassurance when you need it most. They can help you stay focused on your goals and keep you motivated to achieve them. Here are some of the benefits of incorporating uplifting quotes into your life. 

Provide Clarity

When life feels uncertain or overwhelming, inspirational quotes can help you gain clarity and perspective. They can help you to see the bigger picture and provide the guidance you need to make the difficult decisions in life. 

Help You Stay Focused

When you’re feeling lost or stuck, inspirational quotes can help you stay focused and motivated on achieving your goals. They can give you the courage to take the necessary steps to move you forward. 

Provide Hope

In times of despair and discouragement, inspirational quotes can help you remain hopeful and energized. They remind you of the importance of having faith, no matter how dark things may seem. 

Provide Encouragement

Life can be overwhelming and filled with challenges. When you’re feeling down and out, inspirational quotes can provide you with the encouragement and positivity you need to push through. 

Provide Guidance

When you’re uncertain of which path to take, inspirational quotes can help you make the right decision. They can provide you with the guidance and wisdom you need to make the best choices and create a brighter future.

You May Also Like: 70 Empowering Inspirational Quotes to Transform Your Life!

Inspirational Quotes for Your Life Journey

Inspirational quotes can be a great source of motivation and guidance when life gets tough. They remind us to stay positive, to keep going even when times are tough, and to never give up. Whether it’s a quote from a great philosopher, a religious leader, or a celebrity, there’s always something inspiring to draw from.

1. “You have to get lost before you can be found.” – Jeff Rasley

2. “Don’t be scared to walk alone. Don’t be scared to like it .” – John Mayer

3. ”The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” – Lao Tzu

4. “There are some places in life where you can only go alone. Embrace the beauty of your solo journey.” – Mandy Hale

5. “Sometimes, reaching out and taking someone’s hand is the beginning of a journey”. – Vera Nazarian

6. “Previous journeys in search of treasure have taught me that a zigzag strategy is the best way to get ahead.” – Tahir Shah

7. “Sometimes the longest journey we make is the sixteen inches from our heads to our hearts.” – Elena Avila

8. “Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.” – Drake

9. “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey.” – Babs Hoffman

10. “The end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started.” – T. S. Eliot

11. “The best part of life is to decide to make the journey through life like a best selling book. Tell a fantastic story when you are ready to tell others how you did it. Make sure life the best story ever written through a journey filled with overcoming obstacles, taking risks, and continuing to develop.” – Catherine Pulsifer

You May Also Like: 115 Good Morning Sunday Inspirational Quotes To Jumpstart Your Day!

12. ”The only impossible journey is the one you never begin.” – Tony Robbins

13. “Life is an opportunity, seize the day, live each day to the fullest. Life is not a project, but a journey to be enjoyed.” – Catherine Pulsifer

14. ”Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and celebrate the journey.” – Fitzhugh Mullan

15. “In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.” – Anthon St. Maarten 

16. “What you learn in tough times can be used in many ways to bless your personal life journey.” – Scott Gordon

17. “Embrace your life journey with gratitude, so that how you travel your path is more important than reaching your ultimate destination .” – Rosalene Glickman

18. “Accomplishments will prove to be a journey, not a destination .” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

19. “Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

20. ”Your journey has molded you for the greater good.” – Asha Tyson

21. “Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take but by the moments that take your breath away .” – Maya Angelou

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Life is a Journey Quotes

Life is a journey, full of ups and downs and unexpected turns. As you embark on your life journey, take some time to be inspired by wise and uplifting words. Inspirational quotes can give you the strength and courage to tackle any challenge and to keep on going even when things get tough. 

22. “Always the journey, never the destination.” – Simon Rattle

23. “Remember where you have been and know where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way.” – Nikita Koloff

24. “Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.” – Oliver Goldsmith

25. “In the middle of the journey of our life, I came to myself in the dark wood, where the direct way was lost”. – Dante Alighieri

26. “Life is a journey and it’s about growing and changing and coming to terms with who and what you are, and loving who and what you are.” – Kelly McGillis

27. “We are travellers on a cosmic journey, stardust, swirling and dancing in the eddies and whirlpools of infinity. Life is eternal. We have stopped for a moment to encounter each other, to meet, to love, to share. This is a precious moment. It is a little parenthesis in eternity.”  – Paulo Coelho

28. “Beginnings are usually scary, and endings are usually sad, but its everything in between that makes it all worth living.” – Bob Marley

29. “Life is a journey filled with unexpected miracles” – Unknown

30. “Travel only with thy equals or thy betters; if there are none, travel alone.” – Buddha

31. “Life is a journey that has a lot different paths, but any path you choose use it as your destiny.” – Ryan Leonard

32. “I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.” – Les Brown

33. “Winning and losing isn’t everything; sometimes, the journey is just as important as the outcome.” – Alex Morgan

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Best Life Journey Quotes

It is important to remember that having quotes to guide you on your journey can make all the difference. Just as a map guides a traveler to a desired destination, so too can inspirational quotes help keep you focused and motivated along your life journey. 

34. “The only journey is the one within.” – Rainer Maria Rilke

35. ”If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

36. “You are far from the end of your journey. The way is not in the sky. The way is in the heart. See how you love.” – Buddha

37. ”Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

38. “Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.” – Henri Frederic Amiel

39. “The benefits of the accomplished journey cannot be weighed in terms of perfect moments but in terms of how this journey affects and changes our character.” – Ella Maillart

40. “We never know the journey another person has walked, so be kind to everyone .” – Lynette Mather

41. “The main thing that you have to remember on this journey is, just be nice to everyone and always smile .” – Ed Sheeran

42. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” – Hunter S. Thompson

43. “In this journey of life, you will meet people who will make you feel alive!” – Avijeet Das

44. “Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved”. – Winnie the Pooh

45. “One of the journeys in life is overcoming insecurity and learning to truly not give a shit.” – J.A. Konrath

46. “Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.” – Erich Fromm

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Life is About the Journey Quotes

Life is about the journey quotes remind us to cherish the journey we are on and to not be so focused on the end result. Life is full of ups and downs and it is important to enjoy and learn from each step we take. 

47. “Some beautiful paths can’t be discovered without getting lost”. – Erol Ozan

48. “To get through the hardest journey we need to take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping .” – Chinese Proverb 

49. “It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.” – Ernest Hemingway

50. “I discovered that a fresh start is a process. A fresh start is a journey – a journey that requires a plan.” – Vivian Jokotade

51. “This thing we call life is not a destination with an end but a path down which we continue to journey as long as we can breathe. Life is to be lived not squandered or to give away waiting for the end to close upon us .” – Byron Pulsifer

52. “The only thing that is ultimately real about your journey is the step that you are taking at this moment. That’s all there ever is.” – Alan Watts

53. “Aim for the sky, but move slowly, enjoying every step along the way. It is all those little steps that make the journey complete. “– Chanda Kochhar

54. “Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” – Greg Anderson

55. “There’s no destination. The journey is all that there is, and it can be very, very joyful”. – Srikumar Rao

56. “Life to me is a journey – you never know what may be your next destination.” – David Russell

57. “What I like is the journey, the year-round struggle to improve.” – Dorian Yates

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Every Day is a Journey Quotes

Every day is a journey and every moment is a lesson. We have the opportunity to learn something new and to grow with each experience. Every day is an opportunity to make a positive change in our lives. These quotes about every day being a journey remind us to stay in the present moment and to appreciate the journey that we are on.

58. “Find the journey’s end in every step.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

59. “Learn to trust the journey, even when you do not understand it .”  – Lolly Daskal 

60. “Always remember life is a learning journey. Keep filling your mind with all that is worthy.” – Catherine Pulsifer

61. “It’s the ‘everyday’ experiences we encounter along the journey to who we wanna be that will define who we are when we get there.” — Aaron Lauritsen

62. “I have traveled many roads in my life. Some were imbued with pain and I needed to avert my gaze. Others were so beautiful that I would have remained there forever. But always, at some point in these routes, I reached a place where I encountered myself .” – Pablo Holmberg

63. “See, life is a journey and every chapter is very interesting.” – Zeenat Aman

64. ”Remember to celebrate milestones as you prepare for the road ahead.” – Nelson Mandela

65. “On your journey, don’t forget to smell the flowers. Take time out to notice that you’re alive. You can only live in one day.” – Ray Fearon

66. ”You will never truly know yourself, or the strength of your relationships, until both have been tested by adversity.” – J.K. Rowling

67. “Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.” – Joseph B. Wirthlin

68. “Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.” – Lyndon B. Johnson

69. “Your journey never ends. Life has a way of changing things in incredible ways.” – Alexander Volkov

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Enjoy the Journey Quotes

Enjoy the journey quotes are words of motivation to appreciate and savor the experiences of life’s journey. Life is a gift, and it’s important to take the time to enjoy and appreciate each moment, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant. 

70. “The journey is the reward .” – Tao Expression

71. “The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is now where the dance of life really takes place.” – Barbara de Angelis 

72. “And at the end of the day, there is nothing but the journey. Because destination is pure illusion.” – Rich Roll

73. “Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter.” – Izaak Walton

75. “It is not the destination where you end up but the mishaps and memories you create along the way !” – Penelope Riley

75. “Enjoy the journey and try to get better every day. And don’t lose the passion and the love for what you do.” – Nadia Comaneci

76. “A journey taken in vain is not a wasted journey if you have learnt something .” – Anthony T. Hincks

77. “If ever there was a metaphor to illustrate the importance of the journey over the destination, it is life itself. For everyone who departs from birth is destined for death, so the journey is life. Savor it!” – Michele Jennae

78. ”A ship in the harbor is safe, but that is not what ships are built for.”- John A. Shedd

79. “Let your joy be in your journey – not in some distant goal.” – Tim Cook

80. “Sometimes it’s more about the journey than the destination.” – Jamal Crawford

81. “Everybody has their own story; everybody has their own journey.” – Thalia

82. “The journey matters as much as the goal.” – Kalpana Chawla

83. “Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame.” – Benedict Cumberbatch

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Journey Quotes to Inspire Success

Journey quotes are a great way to inspire success and motivate yourself to keep pushing forward. They remind us to stay focused on our goals, no matter how hard the journey may be. They remind us that success is a long road and that we have to take it one step at a time. They urge us to never give up and to keep striving towards our dreams. 

84. “Success is a journey, not a destination.” – Ben Sweetland

85. ”Don’t be discouraged if the people around you don’t see what you see in your dream. Most great people were doubted in the beginning of their journey to greatness.” ― Edmond Mbiaka

86. ”Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.”- Arthur Ashe

87. “You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending”. – C.S. Lewis

88. “The woman who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. The woman who walks alone is likely to find herself in places no one has ever been before.” – Albert Einstein

89. “The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait till that other is ready.” – Henry David Thoreau

90. “No one can decide the road that inspires us to kick-start a journey better than the one embarking on the path. We may find others joining our journey, but we have to take the first step alone to reach our destination.” – Dr. Prem Jagyasi

91. “I discovered that a fresh start is a process. A fresh start is a journey – a journey that requires a plan”. – Vivian Jokotad

92. “It has been a long journey, but if you dream and have the ambition and want to work hard, then you can achieve.” – Mo Farah

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93. ”You must remain focused on your journey to greatness.” – Les Brown

94. ”Ambition is the path to success. Persistence is the vehicle you arrive in.” – Bill Bradley

95. ”If you can’t fly, then run, if you can’t walk run, then walk, if you can’t walk, then crawl, but by all means keep moving.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

96. ”The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance, and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.” – Oprah Winfrey

97. ”If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.”—Thomas J. Watson

98. “Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.” – Banksy

99. “Never give up on your dreams, no matter how painful and difficult your journey is.”-  Lisa

100. “Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth, remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.” – Rick Pitino

101. “It’s a long journey to become successful, and you learn to grow with it. You grow with the small steps you take.” – Benson Henderson

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Good Luck on Your Journey

In life, it is important to stay inspired and motivated to keep pushing forward. Inspirational quotes can provide us with the wisdom and encouragement to stay focused on our life journey. Whether it is finding success, experiencing joy, or overcoming adversity, inspirational quotes can be the perfect reminder to keep striving for the best version of ourselves. As we journey through life, let us remember these motivational words and use them to find strength and courage every step of the way.

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60 Life Is a Journey Quotes on Taking the Right Path

Browsing this list of life is a journey quotes will push you to keep moving forward in the face of tough times!

Life is the most rewarding and challenging journey anyone can take. It’s a long road full of ups and downs, and sometimes, it might lead you to a place you’ve never been before. That’s why many people quickly get distracted and lose sight of their original path.

But, these things shouldn’t stop you from moving forward. In fact, at times like this, it’s essential to have positive thoughts that will help you stay on track because everything is a part of life’s journey.

Don’t lose hope because life is full of incredible surprises for us!

Learn more about the journey of life through this collection.

Read through to the end and make changes and improvements that will keep you moving forward no matter what obstacles are in your way!

Continue reading below.

And don’t forget to check out these quotes to live by and positive quotes .

Best Life Is a Journey Quotes

1. “Life is a journey, and it’s about growing and changing and coming to terms with who and what you are and loving who and what you are.” – Kelly McGillis

2. “Life is a journey, not a destination.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

3. “Life is a journey with problems to solve and lessons to learn but most of all, experiences to enjoy.” – Anonymous

4. “Life is a journey to be experienced, not a problem to be solved.” – Winnie-the-Pooh

5. “Life is a journey. How we travel is up to us. We can just flow with the tide or follow our own dreams.” – Paulo Coelho

6. “The journey of life is not meant to be feared and planned; it is meant to be traveled and enjoyed.” – Anonymous

7. “Life is a long journey between human beings and being human. Let’s take at least one step each day to cover the distance.” – Anonymous

8. “It’s a life’s journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.” – Mariska Hargitay

9. “Remember where you have been and know where you are going. Life is not a race but a journey to be savored each step of the way.” – Nikita Koloff

10. “I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.” – Les Brown

Life Is a Journey Quotes That’ll Inspire You to Go With the Flow

11. “Life is a journey filled with unexpected miracles.” – Anonymous

12. “Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.” – Oliver Goldsmith

13. “This thing we call life is not a destination with an end but a path down which we continue to journey as long as we can breathe. Life is to be lived, not squandered or to give away waiting for the end to close upon us.” – Byron Pulsifer

14. “I think our life is a journey, and we make mistakes, and it’s how we learn from those mistakes and rebound from those mistakes that set us on the path that we’re meant to be on.” – Jay Ellis

15. “Life is indeed a journey, and as we travel, we learn several lessons along the way.” – A. C. Murray

16. “Your journey never ends. Life has a way of changing things in incredible ways.” – Alexander Volkov

17. “Going by my past journey, I am not certain where life will take me, what turns and twists will happen; nobody knows where they will end up. As life changes direction, I’ll flow with it.” – Katrina Kaif

Also read: Life Is Beautiful Quotes , Life Is Good Quotes

Short Life Is a Journey Quotes to Put Things Into Perspective

18. “Life is a journey. When we stop, things don’t go right.” – Pope Francis

19. “Life is a journey; travel it well.” – Anonymous

20. “Life is not a project, but a journey to be enjoyed.” – Catherine Pulsifer

21. “Life is a journey; it’s not where you end up but how you got there.” – Anonymous

22. “Enjoy the journey of life and not just the endgame.” – Benedict Cumberbatch

23. “See, life is a journey, and every chapter is very interesting.” – Zeenat Aman

24. “Life’s journey—it unfolds for you as you are ready for it.” – RuPaul

25. “Life is like unto a long journey with a heavy burden.” – Tokugawa Ieyasu

26. “Life is a journey, isn’t it? Despite the occasional despair.” – Ralph G. McFadden

27. “A single journey can change the course of a life.” – Angelina Jolie

Life Is a Journey Quotes That Zoom in on Fate and Destiny

28. “Life is a journey that has a lot of different paths, but any path you choose uses it as your destiny.” – Ryan Leonard

29. “Life is a journey of either fate or destiny. Fate is the result of giving in to one’s wounds and heartaches. Your destiny unfolds when you rise above the challenges of your life and use them as divine opportunities to move forward to unlock your higher potential.” – Caroline Myss

30. “Life to me is a journey—you never know what may be your next destination.” – David O. Russell

Also read: Life Is Precious Quotes , Simple Life Quotes

Life Is a Journey Quotes That You Need to Remember

31. “Always remember life is a learning journey. Keep filling your mind with all that is worthy.” – Catherine Pulsifer

32. “In setting goals in life, you determine the essence of the change that will be happening, and this decision will take you from the present to the desired goal. Between the two points, the present and the goal, there’s the journey—your life.” – Yaniv Shlomo

33. “The road of life twists and turns, and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.” – Don Williams, Jr.

34. “You have learned a lot, but there are still lots of learning for you as you journey through life. Never stop learning.” – Kate Summers

Also read: Life Goes On Quotes

Life Is a Journey Quotes for Those Who Want Some Positive Vibes

35. “Sometimes life takes you on a journey that changes everything you thought you wanted.” – Melaina Rayne

36. “In order to complete our amazing life journey successfully, it is vital that we turn each and every dark tear into a pearl of wisdom, and find the blessing in every curse.” – Anthon St. Maarten

37. “What you learn in tough times can be used in many ways to bless your personal life journey.” – Scott A. Gordon

38. “Not everyone will understand your journey. That’s okay. You’re here to live your life, not to make everyone understand.” – Banksy

Life Is a Journey Quotes That’ll Lead You to Happiness

39. “If life is a magnificent journey, then peace is the way and happiness is the destination.” – Debasish Mridha

40. “Embrace your life journey with gratitude, so that how you travel your path is more important than reaching your ultimate destination.” – Rosalene Glickman

41. “Each new year that rings in on this journey of life brings new challenges and dreams for us to explore. May this new year bring you happiness and lots of love.” – Catherine Pulsifer

42. “The best part of life is to decide to make the journey through life like a best-selling book. Tell a fantastic story when you are ready to tell others how you did it. Make sure life is the best story ever written through a journey filled with overcoming obstacles, taking risks, and continuing to develop.” – Catherine Pulsifer

Life Is a Journey Quotes That Talk About Love

43. “Life is a journey, and love is what makes that journey worthwhile.” – Anonymous

44. “Life is a journey, and if you fall in love with the journey, you will be in love forever.” – Peter Hagerty

45. “Life is not a long journey, but a constant learning process. And the most important lesson in life is learning to love.” – Anurag Prakash Ray

46. “For each of us, life is a journey. Heavenly Father designed it for us out of love. Each of us has unique experiences and characteristics, but our journey began in the same place before we were born into this world.” – Henry B. Eyring

Life Is a Journey Quotes for Everyone Seeking Good Company

47. “In this journey of life, you will meet people who will make you feel alive!” – Avijeet Das

48. “When traveling life’s journey, it’s good to have a sister’s hand to hold on to.” – Anonymous

49. “The journey of life is never complete without a friend to share the memories.” – Anonymous

50. “Throughout this journey of life, we meet many people along the way. Each one has a purpose in our life. No one we meet is ever a coincidence.” – Mimi Novic

Profound Life Is a Journey Quotes That’ll Make You Think

51. “In the middle of the journey of our life, I found myself astray in a dark wood where the straight road had been lost sight of.” – Dante Alighieri

52. “Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, ‘Wow! What a ride!’” – Hunter S. Thompson

53. “Man’s real home is not a house, but the road and that life itself is a journey to be walked on foot.” – Bruce Chatwin

54. “Our life is an endless journey; it is like a broad highway that extends infinitely into the distance. The practice of meditation provides a vehicle to travel on that road. Our journey consists of constant ups and downs.” – Chögyam Trungpa

55. “If ever there was a metaphor to illustrate the importance of the journey over the destination, it is life itself. For everyone who departs from birth is destined for death, so the journey is life. Savor it!” – Michele Jennae

56. “The journey of life is like a man riding a bicycle. We know he got on the bicycle and started to move. We know that at some point, he will stop and get off. We know that if he stops moving and does not get off, he will fall off.” – William Golding

57. “I think we all suffer from acute blindness at times. Life is a constant journey of trying to open your eyes. I’m just beginning my journey, and my eyes aren’t fully open yet.” – Olivia Thirlby

More Life Is a Journey Quotes That’ll Leave a Mark on Your Mind

58. “We have stories to tell, stories that provide wisdom about the journey of life. What more have we to give one another than our truth about our human adventure as honestly and as openly as we know how?” – Rabbi Saul Rubin

59. “I believe that life is a journey towards God and that no one has the right to insist that you go a certain road.” – Pat Buckley

60. “Live your life as such a journey that it becomes a journey of an entirely new way of life—a life civilized, a life humane, a life truly alive, not just biologically, but psychologically—alive in kindness, alive in love, alive in inclusion, harmony, and assimilation—or simply, alive in and as oneness.” – Abhijit Naskar

Do You Believe You’re on the Path You’re Meant to Be?

A journey is an extremely powerful metaphor, mainly when we use it to describe life. When you think about it, a journey tells your life story. It explains how your character develops and how your dreams unfold.

In real life, you are the protagonist, and you completely control how your story plays out. If you make poor decisions and follow the wrong path, this will lead to severe consequences down the road.

But, if your choices are driven by logical reasoning and thoughtful planning, all will fall into place. Any failure along the way will be treated as stepping stones up the ladder of success.

Always remember that the outcome of your journey is based on how you will drive your own life. You are the one who will decide whether you use all the hardships and struggles to your advantage or not. Remember that the choices you make have consequences, so make sure you’re ready for anything and everything.

With that, we hope these life is a journey quotes were able to help you confront your path and journey. Keep this collection as your guide whenever you feel lost, and find your way back!

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Karen Danao

Hi, I’m Karen , a content curator and writer for Quote Ambition; I’m also a marketing and advertising professional. Beyond the keyboard and the screen, I’m someone who’s out to enjoy every bit that life has to offer!

Poetry, philosophy, history, and movies are all topics I love writing about! However, my true passion is in traveling, photography, and finding common ground to which everyone from different cultures can relate.

With the many places I’ve been to, I found that love, inspiration, and happiness are some things that bring people together. No matter how different we are on the outside, I’m a true believer that our emotions don’t lie; if you dig deep into our psyche, we’re all the same inside.

This belief was further amplified when I joined Quote Ambition. Through the quotes I’ve read, collected, organized, and written about, I found that humans are resilient, creative, and compassionate.

We take from each others’ hearts and courage, and it’s through our individual experiences that we learn how to rise above our challenges and pain. In so many ways, Quote Ambition is a platform that allows people from all over the world to gain the inspiration they need anytime, anywhere!

You can find me on MuckRack and LinkedIn .

GRACIOUS QUOTES

85 inspirational quotes on life journey (enjoy), top 10 encouraging quotes about journey.

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“This thing we call life is not a destination with an end but a path down which we continue to journey as long as we can breathe. Life is to be lived not squandered or to give away waiting for the end to close upon us.” Byron Pulsifer

“Sometimes we make the process more complicated than we need to. We will never make a journey of a thousand miles by fretting about how long it will take or how hard it will be. We make the journey by taking each day step by step and then repeating it again and again until we reach our destination.” Joseph B. Wirthlin

16 Quotes About Journey That Will Help You Surpass Life’s Difficulties

“ Humility is the true key to success. Successful people lose their way at times. They often embrace and overindulge from the fruits of success. Humility halts this arrogance and self-indulging trap. Humble people share the credit and wealth , remaining focused and hungry to continue the journey of success.” Rick Pitino

“ Believe me, my journey has not been a simple journey of progress. There have been many ups and downs, and it is the choices that I made at each of those times that have helped shape what I have achieved.” Satya Nadella

“ Transformation is a process, and as life happens there are tons of ups and downs. It’s a journey of discovery – there are moments on mountaintops and moments in deep valleys of despair.” Rick Warren

“There will always be obstacles and challenges that stand in your way. Building mental strength will help you develop resilience to those potential hazards so you can continue on your journey to success.” Amy Morin

“I think our life is a journey, and we make mistakes, and it’s how we learn from those mistakes and rebound from those mistakes that sets us on the path that we’re meant to be on.” Jay Ellis

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12 Quotes About Journey That Will Make You Think

“Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You’ll find what you need to furnish it – memory, friends you can trust , love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.” Tad Williams

(MUST READ) Life’s Journeys According to Mister Rogers: Things to Remember Along the Way

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Life Is A Journey Quotes

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Life is a journey, not a destination. Happiness is not "there" but here, not "tomorrow" but today.

If you do not know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere

Life is a journey, but don't worry, you'll find a parking spot at the end.

I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.

Life is a journey. How we travel is really up to us. We can just flow with the tide or follow our own dreams.

Your life is a journey of learning to love yourself first and then extending that love to others in every encounter.

If the path be beautiful, let us not ask where it leads.

The whole journey of life is a journey of preparation... to see, to feel, to understand the beauty of what lies ahead, of the homeland towards which we walk.

Remember, Life is a journey, not a destination.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Watch your step.

All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.

Life is a journey, not a home; a road, not a city of habitation; and the enjoyments and blessings we have are but little inns on the roadside of life, where we may be refreshed for a moment, that we may with new strength press on to the end - to the rest that remaineth for the people of God.

The feeling remains that God is on the journey, too.

The moment in between what you once were, and who you are now becoming, is where the dance of life really takes place.

It may be that when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.

The journey is what brings us happiness not the destination.

And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.

Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground covered we have covered before, only higher up; as we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places where we were but no longer are. The journey is both repetitious and progressive; we go both round and upward.

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.

The only journey is the one within.

If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.

Life is a journey for us all. We all face trials. We all have ups and downs. All of us are human. But we are also the masters of our fate. We are the ones who decide how we are going to react to life.

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life.

All that is gold does not glitter.

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40 Inspiring Life Journey Quotes

by Melissa Giroux | Last updated Feb 4, 2023 | Quotes , Travel Tips

Looking for life journey quotes to remind you that it’s not all about the destination? You’ve come to the right place.

Life is a long and sometimes difficult trek, with lots of peaks and troughs, but these quotes will keep you upbeat as you remember that the journey is the sweetest part. 

Use these quotes to help you to slow down and enjoy the present moment for what it is, a chapter of your life.

How To Use And Display Life Journey Quotes

You can use these quotes in lots of different ways, whether that’s on a post-it on your mirror to bring you some motivation and positivity when you get up in the morning, as a piece of art on your wall, or even as a tattoo if one of these quotes really resonates with you deeply. 

These quotes would also make great captions for your social media. If you’re looking for other Instagram inspiration, check out these inspiring and funny travel captions .

Best Life Journey Quotes

Everyone can relate to these life journey quotes, as after all, we’re all on the same journey, we’re just taking different routes.

Here are the 40 best life journey quotes to give you some extra oomph when life is getting you down.

• Sometimes the bad things that happen in our lives put us directly on the path to the best things that will ever happen to us. – Nicole Reed
• In the end, you will talk more about the journey and not about the destination – Nitin Namdeo
•  Learn to trust the journey even if you do not understand it. Sometimes what you never wanted or expected turns out to be what you need. – Unknown
• You are on a journey with no defined beginning, middle, or end. There are no wrong twists and turns. There is just being. And your job is to be as you as you can be. – Jen Sincero
• Have faith in your journey. Everything had to happen exactly as it did to get you where you’re going next! -. Mandy Hale
•  The sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it’s here is yo to us. Journey wisely. – Alexandra Elle 
• This is the journey of your life. Don’t try to explain it to others, because only you can see it. – Nitin Namdeo 
• I hope you live a life you’re proud of. If you find that you are not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again. – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Let your joy be in your journey, not in some distant goal. – Tim Cook 
• Life itself is a privilege, but to live life to the fullest – well, that is a choice. – Andy Andrews 
• The further I go, the closer to me I get. – Andrew McCarthy
• A mind stretched by new experiences can never go back to its old dimensions. – Unknown
• The universe will keep testing you with similar patterns in your life until you prove that you’ve leveled up. – Unknown
• My mission in life is not merely to survive, but to thrive, and to do so with some passion, some compassion, some humor and some style. – Maya Angelou
• The journey starts with a single step – not with thinking about taking a step. – Jeff Olson 
• Maybe the journey isn’t so much about becoming anything. Maybe it’s about unbecoming everything that isn’t really you, so you can be who you were meant to be in the first place. – Unknown
• This is the real secret of life – to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now. And instead of calling it work, realize it is play. – Alan Watts 
• Dare to live the life you have dreamed for yourself. Go forward and make your dreams come true. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination. – Drake 
• Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it. – Greg Anderson 
• Ten years from now, make sure you can say that you chose your life, you didn’t settle for it. – Mandy Hale 
• You would be surprised at who is watching your journey and being inspired by it. Don’t give up. – Unknown
• Climb the mountain, not so the world can add you, but so that you can see the world. – David McCullough jr
• Embrace uncertainty. Some of the most beautiful chapters in our lives won’t have a title until much later. – Unknown
• Your life is your story. Write well. Edit often. – Unknown
• You can’t do anything about the length of your life. But you can do something about its width and depth. – Evan Esar
• Roads were made for journeys, not destinations. – Confucius 
• We are afraid of not knowing what comes next, and so we make our lives predictable. Don’t be afraid of what comes next. You’ll be okay. – Unknown
• On this journey of life, spirituality is the very sound upon which we travel. – Robert W Chism
•  Life is a journey with problems to solve and lessons to learn. But most of all, experiences to enjoy. – Unknown
• The only impossible journey is the one you never begin. – Tony Robbins
• Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself. – George Bernard Shaw
• A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. – Lao Tzu
• Life is a journey that must be traveled, no matter how bad the roads and accommodations. – Oliver Goldsmith 
• I am learning to trust the journey even when I do not understand it. – Mila Bronit
• It’s your road and yours alone. Others may walk it with you, but no one can walk it for you. – Unknown
• Remember where you have been and know where you are going. Life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way. – Nikita Koloff
• You can’t go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending. – C.S. Lewis
• Beginnings are usually scary and endings are usually sad, but it’s everything in between that makes it all worth living. – Bob Marley
• Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!” – Hunter S. Thompson

Final Thoughts On Life Journey Quotes

We hope you found this list of quotes about life journey inspiring and helpful, feel free to bookmark the page to come back to on the days that make you wonder what this wild ride is all about.

Not quite what you were looking for? Take a look at our funny travel quotes or wild woman quotes .

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Embark on a Journey of Life: Exploring the Pathway’s Prose

In our journey through life, we navigate a complex and ever-changing pathway, encountering diverse experiences, challenges, and moments of joy. It is a journey marked by significant milestones, lessons, and the pursuit of meaning and fulfillment. Along the way, we ponder the meaning of life, seek our purpose, and grapple with the obstacles that come our way. How do we grow and evolve as we encounter these challenges, and where do we find happiness and contentment? These questions shape our understanding of the journey of life and the legacy we hope to leave behind.

Join us as we explore the pathways of life, the lessons we learn, and the moments that shape us in our quest for happiness and fulfillment.

Key Takeaways:

• Life is a journey filled with different paths, challenges, and lessons.
• Finding our purpose and overcoming obstacles are key to achieving fulfillment in life.
• By leaving a positive impact and finding joy, we can create a meaningful legacy on our journey of life.

10 Amazing Poems About The Journey of Life

1. pathways unfold.

In life’s journey, a path winds and bends, A story that twists, turns, and extends. Each step, a tale of dreams and fears, Years of laughter, joy, and tears.

We walk in the light, and sometimes in the dark, Marking our trail with an indelible mark. Life’s road with its highs and lows, Shows us where the heart truly goes.

Through forests of doubt and fields of hope, We cope, finding ways to adapt and cope. In every journey, a lesson learned, Earned in the miles we’ve traversed and turned.

Life, a journey of endless scope, In every step, a chance to grow, to cope. A path unique, with stories untold, Bold in its unfolding, a sight to behold.

Did You Know? The longest walking route on Earth is the proposed Transglobal Highway, a network of roads and ferries that would connect most of the continents on Earth. This remarkable journey would span approximately 33,000 kilometers (20,500 miles), offering a unique way to experience diverse cultures and landscapes. More about this epic journey can be explored through the Transglobal Highway project .

2. River of Time

Life flows like a river, steady and true, Through new and old, through the past and new. Its current strong, with moments swift, Adrift in time’s unceasing shift.

In the waters of life, we find our way, Day by day, in the flow and sway. Through calm streams and turbulent tide, We ride, with time as our guide.

Each bend brings a new sight, unseen, A scene of what has been and what will be. In the river of time, we learn to navigate, Celebrate each twist of fate.

Life, a journey on time’s endless stream, A dream, where past and future gleam. In the flow of years, moments shine bright, Light in the river’s dynamic flight.

3. Mountain Ascent

Life’s journey, an ascent of a mountain high, Sky-reaching peaks, under the open sky. Each step, an effort, a climb toward the peak, Seeking the summit, the answers we seek.

The path is steep, rugged, and long, Strong is the heart that sings the mountain’s song. With each rise and fall, with each testing bend, We mend, growing stronger with each ascend.

The view from the top, a sight so grand, A land of dreams, where we understand. In life’s climb, challenges we face, Embrace each step with courage and grace.

The journey of life, a mountain’s tale, A trail of triumphs, where we prevail. In the climb, we find our spirit’s might, In the height of life’s challenging flight.

Did You Know? Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth, has been a symbol of life’s challenges and achievements. It stands at a staggering height of 8,848 meters (29,029 feet). The journey to its summit is not just a physical challenge, but also a mental and spiritual one, much like the journey of life. Discover more about Everest and its climbers at the Himalayan Database .

4. Desert Crossing

Across life’s desert, vast and wide, We stride, under the sun’s scorching guide. A land of extremes, of heat and cold, Bold are the stories in this landscape told.

Each grain of sand, a moment in time, Sublime in its simplicity, yet profound and prime. In the desert’s expanse, we find our strength, Length of resilience, measured at length.

The journey through life’s arid ground, Found in the silence, a profound sound. Mirages of hope, oases of dreams, Seems life is more than what it seems.

In the desert of life, we learn to endure, Pure in our quest, our intentions sure. A passage of self, of discovery and test, In the quest of life’s arid, challenging quest.

5. Sea Voyage

Life, a voyage across the vast sea, Free, where the waves dictate where we’ll be. A journey of depths, of storms and calm, A balm of experiences, a healing psalm.

The ocean’s expanse, wide and deep, A leap into the unknown, a giant sweep. In the tides and currents, we find our way, Day by day, in the play of spray.

Navigating life’s high seas, Sees us through joys and heartache’s freeze. In the ebb and flow of time’s tide, We ride, with hope as our guide.

Life’s journey, a sea adventure, wide and vast, A cast of moments, memories that last. In the voyage of life, on the ocean’s crest, We quest, in our search for life’s best.

Did You Know? The Mariana Trench is the deepest part of the world’s oceans, reaching a depth of about 10,984 meters (36,037 feet). Exploring this part of the ocean is as challenging as exploring outer space, symbolizing the depths and mysteries of life’s journey. The trench’s deepest point, known as Challenger Deep, can be explored further through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website .

6. Forest Trail

Through the forest of life, a trail winds, Finds its way through the trees, the binds. A journey of shadows and dappled light, A sight of nature’s strength and might.

In the woodland’s embrace, paths diverge, Emerge new routes, as our lives surge. Twists and turns, in the forest deep, Keep us seeking, in life’s game of hide and seek.

Among the trees, we find our peace, Cease the noise, let the quiet increase. In the forest of life, lessons are learned, Earned in the tranquility for which we yearned.

Life, a journey through a forest’s maze, A gaze into nature’s mysterious ways. In the woods, we wander and explore, More of life’s secrets, in its core.

7. Urban Odyssey

In the city of life, an odyssey unfolds, Holds a tale of the new and the old. Skyscrapers of dreams, streets of fate, A state of constant change, at a rapid rate.

The urban jungle, alive and loud, Proud in its diversity, a cosmopolitan crowd. In the hustle and bustle, we find our beat, A feat of survival, in the city’s heat.

Life’s journey through the urban sprawl, A call to adapt, to stand tall. In the maze of streets, lessons to learn, Earn our place, at every turn.

The city of life, a journey of discovery, A story of humanity, in all its glory. In the urban odyssey, we find our way, Day by day, in the city’s lively play.

Did You Know? Tokyo, Japan, is one of the largest and most populous cities in the world, symbolizing the complexity and excitement of urban life. With a population of over 37 million in the greater metropolitan area, Tokyo is a prime example of urban expansion, blending ancient traditions with modern innovations. Explore Tokyo’s unique blend of the old and new at Tokyo’s Official Travel Guide .

8. Country Road

Down life’s country road, a journey so serene, Seen in the rolling hills, the landscape green. A path of simplicity, of quiet and calm, A balm of nature’s soothing palm.

The countryside, with its tranquil charm, A farm of life’s experiences, a place to disarm. In the rhythm of the rural pace, A space to breathe, to embrace grace.

Along the country road, life unwinds, Finds its rhythm in the fields and pines. A journey of peace, of slow and steady, Ready to enjoy the scenic beauty.

Life, a country road, a path less trodden, A cotton of quiet, where worries are forgotten. In the countryside, life’s journey is clear, Near to nature’s heart, close and dear.

9. Stairway to Dreams

Life’s journey, a stairway to our dreams, Seems to rise to infinite schemes. Each step, a climb towards our goal, A role in the play of the soul.

The staircase of life, steep and tall, Calls us to rise, to face it all. With each rise, a new level reached, Teached by the steps life has breached.

The ascent, a challenge of heart and mind, Find our strength, our unique kind. In the climb, dreams come into sight, A light at the top, shining bright.

Life, a stairway of hopes and fears, Years of climbing towards our frontiers. In the journey up life’s stairway, A play of dreams, day by day.

10. Galactic Trek

Life, a galactic trek through space and time, A climb through the cosmos, a journey sublime. In the vastness of the universe, we find our way, A play of stars and galaxies in display.

Through the Milky Way, our life’s path weaves, Believes in the journey of cosmic leaves. Astronauts of existence, in the space we roam, Home in the infinite, where stars foam.

The journey of life, a voyage so grand, A band of experiences, in the cosmic land. In the galaxy of existence, we explore, More of life’s mysteries, in its core.

Life’s trek through the stars, a celestial quest, A test of our spirit, in the cosmic zest. In the galactic journey of life, we sail, A tale of adventure, on an epic scale.

What Is the Journey of Life?

The journey of life is a remarkable odyssey filled with diverse experiences, profound emotions, and the pursuit of self-discovery and growth. It is an adventure that encompasses the myriad paths we tread, the love we encounter, and the reflections that shape our perspectives.

Every step taken, every challenge overcome, adds a unique hue to the canvas of our existence, creating a masterpiece like no other. As time unfolds, we navigate through the ebbs and flows, tasting the sweetness of triumph and feeling the sting of loss. Love , whether tender or tumultuous, adds splendor to this journey, infusing our hearts with a kaleidoscope of emotions, teaching us the depths of vulnerability and the heights of joy.

Self-discovery unfolds like the blooming of a flower, revealing layers of our being we never knew existed. It is a profound exploration, echoing whispers of growth and resilience as we confront our fears and embrace our strengths. Each twist and turn is an opportunity to learn, awaken, and evolve, painting our lives with hues of wisdom and understanding.

What Are the Different Paths We Take in Life?

Life presents a multitude of paths, each adorned with unique experiences, challenges, and opportunities for growth. These paths are akin to verses in a poem, weaving together our experiences and perspectives into a tapestry of existence.

Some paths lead through verdant meadows, where the soft petals of opportunity glisten with the morning dew, while others navigate the rugged terrain of adversity, sculpting resilience from every rock and thorn. Each footfall, a syllable in the grand composition of life’s journey, carries the rhythm of our stories.

From the bustling city streets to the tranquil whispers of nature’s embrace, the diverse landscapes we traverse mirror the intricacies of our own inner landscapes, shaping our perceptions and aspirations. As we thread through the ebbs and flows, our paths intertwine, forming the interconnected verses of human existence, each imbued with the poetic essence of our shared humanity.

What Is the Meaning of Life?

The meaning of life resides in the profound exploration of purpose , the relentless pursuit of self-discovery , and the ceaseless quest for inspiration and lessons that enrich our existence. It is a tapestry woven from the threads of love, growth, and the enigmatic dance of success and failure.

Life’s complexities unfold as we navigate through the ebb and flow of experiences, each moment a brushstroke painting the canvas of our journey. Through introspection, we unravel purpose’s elusive tendrils, seeking to grasp its essence amidst the tumultuous winds of uncertainty. In the pursuit of self-discovery, we embark on an odyssey, looking into the depths of our being, uncovering hidden facets that shape our understanding of existence. These revelations spur inspiration, nurturing the germination of possibilities and expansiveness in our perception of the world. From each adversity, we glean profound lessons, forging resilience and the temerity to embrace change. Life’s enigmatic harmony emanates from this intertwining tapestry of experiences, weaving a mosaic of growth and enlightenment.

How Do We Find Our Purpose in Life?

Discovering our purpose in life entails navigating through the labyrinth of challenges, embracing the winds of change, and seeking inspiration from the wisdom of Rumi. It is a journey of self-discovery and growth, a dance with the unknown to unravel the purpose that ignites our souls.

In the pursuit of purpose, we are called to explore the depths of our being, to venture into the uncharted territories of our hearts. Through the chaos and tranquility, we find that every challenge is a stepping stone, every setback a lesson, and every joy a reminder of our inner calling. Rumi’s words resonate, guiding us to look inward, to connect with our essence , and to embrace the journey, knowing that the answers lie within.

What Are the Challenges We Face in Life?

Life presents an array of challenges, each akin to a mountain waiting to be conquered or a river to be crossed . These obstacles are the crucibles in which our growth is forged, and the mirrors that reflect the kaleidoscope of our emotions and reflections.

As we navigate through these intricate labyrinths, we find ourselves confronting the depths of our fears and the heights of our aspirations. The journey molds us, chiseling away the rough edges of our character, imbuing us with resilience and wisdom.

How Do We Overcome Obstacles in Our Journey?

Overcoming the obstacles that punctuate our journey requires unwavering perseverance , akin to summiting the formidable peaks of Mount Everest. It is a testament to the human spirit’s resilience and the relentless pursuit of success amidst the labyrinth of challenges.

Embracing the mindset of a valiant mountaineer, one must cultivate grit to navigate the treacherous terrain, and a steadfast determination to conquer the insurmountable. Fear must be confronted, for it is often the shadow that looms large, obscuring the path ahead.

The summit of Mount Everest beckons each individual to redefine their limits – pushing beyond what was previously thought attainable, and embracing the fortitude necessary to withstand the howling winds of adversity.

What Are the Lessons We Learn Along the Way?

The journey of life bestows upon us a trove of invaluable lessons , each intricately woven into the fabric of our growth and transformation. These lessons serve as beacons of inspiration, illuminating our path through the labyrinth of challenges and triumphs.

Through the ebb and flow of life’s tapestry, we come to understand that lessons are not confined to classrooms or books but are an integral part of our daily experiences, shaping us in profound ways. The wisdom gained from overcoming adversities and celebrating victories etches a profound resilience within us, enableing us to endure and thrive.

As we reflect on the invaluable lessons imprinted on our souls, we recognize how they have sculpted our character, fostering empathy, wisdom, and gratitude.

How Do We Grow and Evolve on Our Journey?

The journey of life is a crucible for growth and evolution , akin to the transformative odyssey portrayed by Dante Alighieri. It is a symphony of self-discovery, a kaleidoscope of lessons, and a tapestry woven from the diverse perspectives that shape our existence.

In the labyrinth of our experiences, we encounter the challenges that shape our character and propel us toward growth. As we traverse through the circles of our personal inferno and face the shadows of our own making, we deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world.

Each trial and triumph serves as a crucible in which our resilience and resolve are forged, refining our spirit as we ascend towards enlightenment.

From the depths of our abyss , we emerge stronger, enlightened by the wisdom gained from our encounters with the divine and the mundane .

What Are the Milestones in Our Journey of Life?

The journey of life is adorned with an array of milestones , each marking the culmination of profound experiences, exponential growth, and introspective reflections. These milestones are the tapestries that adorn the grand narrative of our existence, signifying the evolution and transformation we undergo.

As we traverse the expansive terrain of existence, these milestones stand as the emblems of perseverance and accomplishment, testifying to our resilience and fortitude. They serve as beacons of progress, guiding us through the labyrinth of challenges and triumphs.

Each milestone etches a story into the fabric of time, capturing the moments of triumph, perseverance, and self-discovery.

What Are the Significant Moments That Shape Us?

Life’s journey is punctuated by significant moments, akin to the poignant verses of Morri Life , which etch themselves into the tapestry of our emotions and the saga of love. These moments become the crucibles that shape our essence, imbuing our journey with depth and meaning.

It is within these moments that we find ourselves facing the intricate dance of joy and sorrow, hope and despair, serenity and chaos. Just as Morri Life encapsulates the raw emotions of the human experience, so too do these impactful moments ripple through our souls, leaving an indelible mark. They are the crescendos and diminuendos in the symphony of our lives, resonating with the essence of love and growth.

How Do We Find Happiness and Fulfillment on Our Journey?

The pursuit of happiness and fulfillment on life’s journey is akin to a lyrical dance of love , self-discovery, and the perpetual quest for inspiration. It is an odyssey that resonates with the echoes of joy, the tapestries of love, and the kaleidoscope of self-discovery that imbue our existence with meaning.

Every step in this dance is adorned with the intricate patterns of emotions, each movement revealing the depths of our desires and dreams. The rhythm of love intertwines with the melody of self-discovery, creating a harmonious symphony that guides us through the labyrinth of experiences.

Through this captivating choreography, we unravel the layers of our soul, embracing our vulnerabilities, and finding strength in our inspiration to pursue the uncharted paths of our aspirations.

What Brings Us Joy and Contentment in Life?

The tapestries of joy and contentment in life are akin to the resonating verses of Margaret Fishback Powers, weaving together the essence of love, diverse perspectives , and the kaleidoscope of happiness . They form the lyrical symphony that enriches our journey with meaning and purpose.

Just as a tapestry is formed by weaving together myriad threads, joy and contentment in life stem from the intertwining of love, acceptance , and gratitude . Each thread represents a unique experience, a diverse perspective that adds depth and richness to the fabric of our existence.

The tapestries of joy are not uniform; rather, they are a patchwork of moments, emotions, and connections that create a beautiful mosaic. It is through embracing the variety of experiences and perspectives that we can truly appreciate the intricate beauty of our own unique tapestries of joy.

What Is the Legacy We Leave Behind on Our Journey?

The legacy we leave behind on life’s journey is an indelible imprint of our impact, a testament to our growth, and a reflection of our profound self-discovery. It is a tapestry woven from the threads of inspiration, the echoes of love, and the transformative essence of our existence.

Every action, every word spoken, every choice made contributes to this tapestry of legacy . Our impact ripples through the lives we touch, shaping the world in both subtle and grand ways. As we traverse through the labyrinth of life, our legacy becomes a roadmap for those who walk in our footsteps, guiding them to navigate their own journey with wisdom and empathy.

It is the echo of our voice, the warmth of our embrace, and the wisdom of our experiences that linger, becoming a source of inspiration for generations to come.

How Do We Make a Positive Impact on Others?

Making a positive impact on others during life’s journey is akin to crafting a symphony of inspiration and resilience, echoing the narratives of Vidya. It is a testament to our ability to transcend challenges, inspire others, and weave a tapestry of hope and compassion within the grand narrative of existence.

When we draw inspiration from the narratives of Vidya, we tap into the profound wellspring of compassion that underpins her remarkable story. Like Vidya, each step we take in the pursuit of spreading positivity and resilience contributes to the sublime harmony of human existence.

The ripples of our actions, no matter how small, resonate with the indomitable spirit that Vidya embodies, enriching the collective symphony of human experience. Through empathy and supportive gestures, we can uplift others amidst their struggles, manifesting inspiration and fortitude in everyday interactions.

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11 Life Journey Poems

• The Journey Poet Unknown You got to have some trouble in this rough old world of ours, You got to fight the bumblebee, sometimes to pick the flowers; Your going find fin' a heap of roughness in the rocky road, Before you get what you can rest and lay aside the load. But be humble, and don't grumble, Because you sometimes slip and stumble, And seems to drop behind the rest of all the hustlin' throng. Don't stop an' start a-whining And a-whimpering and a pinning, But pick your feet up, honey, and go traveling along. You may have fears of troubles that will hit you hard someday, But they're bound to catch you if you halt along the way. You got to keep a moving. Some are fast and some are slow. But all that's looked for from you is to do the best you know. So don't you wait and worry, If you fall down in your hurry, And never mind the chaffing And the hollering and the laughing, Just pull yourself together as you hum a little song, But pick your feet up, honey, and go travelling along.

• A Journey Poet: Dr. M. Coleman Harris Life is like a journey Taken on a train With a pair of travellers At each windowpane. I may sit beside you All the journey through, Or I may sit elsewhere Never knowing you. But if fate should make me To sit by your side, Let’s be pleasant travelers; It’s so short a ride.
• A Purpose Poet: Catherine Pulsifer Looking around the world, big and small, Every one of us is on a journey to help all. A purpose to fulfill, a role to play in society.   An opportunity to excel, not for anxiety! We have special gifts, each one of us; Our life is truly a precious trust! On life's journey find love and grace; Life is meant to be lived, it is not a race.

• Life's Journey Poet: Ella Wheeler Wilcox As we speed out of youth's sunny station The track seems to shine in the light, But it suddenly shoots over chasms Or sinks into tunnels of night. And the hearts that were brave in the morning Are filled with repining and fears, As they pause at the City of Sorrow Or pass through the Valley of Tears. But the road of this perilous journey The hand of the Master has made; With all its discomforts and dangers, We need not be sad or afraid. Paths leading from light into darkness, Ways plunging from gloom to despair, Wind out through the tunnels of midnight To fields that are blooming and fair. Though the rocks and the shadows surround us, Though we catch not one gleam of the day, Above us fair cities are laughing, And dipping white feet in some bay. And always, eternal, for ever, Down over the hills in the west, The last final end of our journey, There lies the great Station of Rest. 'Tis the Grand Central point of all railways, All roads unite here when they end; 'Tis the final resort of all tourists, All rival lines meet here and blend. All tickets, all seasons, all passes, If stolen or begged for or bought, On whatever road or division, Will bring you at last to this spot. If you pause at the City of Trouble, Or wait in the Valley of Tears, Be patient, the train will move onward, And rush down the track of the years. Whatever the place is you seek for, Whatever your game or your quest, You shall come at the last with rejoicing To the beautiful City of Rest. You shall store all your baggage of worries, You shall feel perfect peace in this realm, You shall sail with old friends on fair waters, With joy and delight at the helm. You shall wander in cool, fragrant gardens With those who have loved you the best, And the hopes that were lost in life's journey You shall find in the City of Rest.

• Silver And Gold Poet: Unknown Get of this life I shall never take Things of silver and gold I make. All that I cherish and hoard away, After I leave, on earth must stay. All that I gather and all that I keep, I must leave behind when I fall asleep. And I often wonder what I shall own In the other life when I pass along. What shall they find and what shall they see In the soul that answers the call for me? Shall the Great Judge learn, when my task is through, That my spirit has gathered some riches, too? Or shall at the last it be mine to find That all I'd worked for I'd left behind?
• Roses and Sunshine Poet: Edgar A. Guest Rough is the road I am journeying now, Heavy the burden I'm bearing to-day; But I'm humming a song, as I wander along, And I smile at the roses that nod by the way. Red roses sweet, Blooming there at my feet, Just dripping with honey and perfume and cheer; What a weakling I'd be If I tried not to see The joy and the comfort you bring to us here. Just tramping along o'er the highway of life, Knowing not what's ahead but still doing my best; And I sing as I go, for my soul seems to know In the end I shall come to the valley of rest. With the sun in my face And the roses to grace The roads that I travel, what have I to fear? What a coward I'd be If I tried not to see The roses of hope and the sunshine of cheer.

• Our Journey Poet: Catherine Pulsifer, © 2020 Our journey through life has its ups and downs Sometimes feelings of being sad and others of a clown We all have highs and the lows Many happy times and times of sorrow. But there is one factor that makes a difference It is the attitude of your preference. Do you look for the good or do you see the bad Your attitude determines whether you're happy or sad. Our journey can be negative or it can be positive Is just depends on our life perspective. No matter what happens, no matter the time Find the good and upward you will climb. Life is too short to sit and moan Seize the good and it can change your life tone Our journey through life can be a happy one A positive attitude can bring more fun!

• Life And Moods Poet: Patience Strong Moods will lead you such a dance - If you just give them half a chance. They'll lift you up and fling you down. They'll turn a smile into a frown. They'll drive you into black despairs. They'll creep upon you unaware... Your friends will drop you one by one - no wonder, for there's not much fun - in people who are bright and gay - and dull, and bored with life, next day... So don't be swayed by each new mood... Just throw them off, or they'll intrude - and spoil some bright and happy hour... For you, yourself, give them power.

• It's The Journey That's Important... Poet: John McLeod Life, sometimes so wearying Is worth its weight in gold The experience of traveling Lends a wisdom that is old Beyond our 'living memory' A softly spoken prayer: "It's the journey that's important, Not the getting there!" Ins and outs and ups and downs Life's road meanders aimlessly? Or so it seems, but somehow Leads us where we need to be, And being simply human We oft question and compare... "Is the journey so important Or the getting there?" And thus it's always been That question pondered down the ages By simple men with simple ways To wise and ancient sages... How sweet then, quietly knowing Reaching destination fair: "It's the journey that's important, Not the getting there!"

• These Would I Keep Poet: Lida Marie Erwin These would I keep: My faith in men, Though one may stumble now and then - A faith which helps me still to see What God intends a man to be. A cheery heart, in spite of fate; The strength to work, the patience to wait; A hand that lifts a brother up And shares with him the bitter cup. A spirit calm, despite the storm. Which sees through clouds, the stalwart form Of Him who stilled the maddened wave - Is ever near to help and save. The optimism childhood had; The simple trust that made me glad; The beauty of life in its crimson dawn - These would I keep as I journey on.

• The Light Of A Cheerful Heart Poet: Max Ehrmann I tell you that you and I and the commonest person are all journeying the same way, hemmed in by the same narrow path, leading to the eternal years. We pride ourselves over our particular superiority; but really there is little difference between us; And in this journey over the thousand hills and valleys called life, he is wisest who is patient where the way is hard, has faith when he does not understand, and carries into the dark places the light of a cheerful heart.

Strength in Prayer

21 Inspirational Prayers About Life’s Journey

Life’s journey is a remarkable and often unpredictable adventure, filled with ups and downs, challenges, and moments of profound joy. Along this path, we seek guidance, strength, and inspiration to navigate the twists and turns that come our way. In our quest for meaning and purpose, we turn to prayer as a source of solace and encouragement.

In this blog post, we present to you inspirational prayers about life’s journey. These prayers are designed to provide you with words of comfort, hope, and reflection. Whether you’re facing a daunting crossroad, celebrating a milestone, or simply seeking a moment of inner peace, these heartfelt prayers offer a connection to the divine, reminding us that we are never alone on our life journey.

Join us as we embark on this spiritual voyage, drawing strength and wisdom from these unique and uplifting prayers about life’s journey. Let’s explore the power of faith and compassion as we navigate the beautiful tapestry of existence together.

#1. A Prayer for Strength on Life’s Journey

As I embark on this journey called life, I humbly ask for your strength to carry me through its challenges. Life’s path may be steep and rocky at times, but with your unwavering support, I know I can overcome anything. Help me find the resilience within me to face adversity head-on and emerge stronger.

Thank you for being my rock and my refuge. Your strength is my shield, and I am grateful for the courage it gives me.

#2. A Prayer for Guidance Along Life’s Journey

Heavenly Father,

In the midst of life’s many choices and decisions, I seek your divine guidance. Illuminate my path with your wisdom so that I may make choices that align with your purpose for me. Lead me away from darkness and uncertainty, and into the light of your truth.

Thank you for being my guiding star, always present to show me the way. I trust in your plan for my life, and I am grateful for your loving guidance.

#3. A Prayer for Hope on Life’s Journey

When life’s journey becomes difficult and I feel lost in despair, I turn to you for hope. Fill my heart with the assurance that brighter days are ahead, even when the road seems long and arduous. Help me see the beauty in each moment, and remind me that you have a purpose for my life.

Thank you for being my source of hope, even in the darkest of times. With you, I know there is always a reason to believe in a better tomorrow.

Related Prayers: 25 Vibrant Prayers About Living Life to the Fullest

#4. A Prayer for Patience in Life’s Journey

Teach me the virtue of patience as I navigate the twists and turns of life’s journey. Sometimes, I find myself rushing ahead, eager for what’s next, but I know that true growth often requires waiting and enduring. Grant me the serenity to accept the pace of my journey and the patience to trust your timing.

Thank you for your lessons in patience, which mold me into a better version of myself. With your guidance, I learn to savor each moment and trust in your perfect timing.

#5. A Prayer for Courage on Life’s Journey

As I face the challenges and uncertainties of my life journey, grant me the courage to step boldly into the unknown. Help me overcome my fears and doubts, knowing that you are with me every step of the way. With your courage, I can break through barriers and embrace new opportunities.

Thank you for infusing me with the strength to be brave, even in the face of adversity. I am grateful for your unwavering support and the bravery it instills in me.

#6. A Prayer for Gratitude Along Life’s Journey

In the midst of life’s hustle and bustle, I pause to express my profound gratitude for the journey I’m on. Thank you for the gift of life itself, for the moments of joy and the lessons learned through challenges. Help me cultivate a heart filled with gratitude, recognizing the beauty in both the ordinary and extraordinary.

With a heart full of thanks, I find contentment and joy in the present moment. Your blessings surround me, and I am deeply appreciative of the experiences that shape my life journey.

Related Prayers: 25 Illuminating Prayers for Life’s Direction

#7. A Prayer for Healing on Life’s Journey

As I travel through the seasons of life, I acknowledge the wounds and hurts that I carry within. I humbly ask for your healing touch to mend my brokenness and soothe my spirit. Grant me the strength to forgive, the courage to let go of pain, and the wisdom to find inner peace.

Thank you for your transformative power that brings healing to my life journey. With your love, I am made whole again, ready to embrace the future with a heart unburdened by past sorrows.

#8. A Prayer for Resilience in Life’s Journey

Life often presents challenges that test my endurance and resilience. In those moments of doubt, I turn to you, seeking the strength to persevere. Teach me to bounce back from adversity, to face setbacks with unwavering determination, and to emerge from trials stronger than before.

Thank you for instilling me with resilience and the ability to rise above life’s challenges. Your presence empowers me to overcome obstacles on this extraordinary journey.

#9. A Prayer for Faith on Life’s Journey

In the midst of life’s uncertainties, I place my trust in your divine plan. Help me nurture my faith, knowing that you hold the map to my life journey. When doubt creeps in, grant me the assurance that you walk beside me, guiding my steps and watching over me.

Thank you for being my anchor of faith, a constant presence in my life journey. With you as my guide, I journey forward with unwavering trust and belief in your purpose for me.

#10. A Prayer for Joy Along Life’s Journey

Amidst life’s challenges and responsibilities, I seek the gift of joy. Help me find moments of laughter and delight in the midst of my daily journey. May my heart be filled with the simple pleasures that remind me of your love and the beauty that surrounds me.

Thank you for the gift of joy, a treasure that enriches my life journey. With a heart brimming with happiness, I embrace each day as a precious opportunity to experience your grace.

#11. A Prayer for Wisdom in Life’s Journey

As I journey through the pages of life, I beseech you for the gift of wisdom. Grant me the discernment to make choices that align with your divine plan. May your guidance illuminate my path, helping me navigate life’s complex decisions with clarity and understanding.

Thank you for bestowing upon me the wisdom to make choices that honor your purpose for my life. With your insight, I journey forward, making decisions that lead me closer to your truth.

#12. A Prayer for Love on Life’s Journey

In the tapestry of my life, I recognize the threads of love that bind us all together. Help me to love unconditionally, to show kindness to others, and to nurture the bonds that connect us. Fill my heart with the love that emanates from your divine presence.

Thank you for the love that surrounds me on this journey. With your love as my compass, I am better equipped to navigate the complexities of human relationships and to be a beacon of love in this world.

#13. A Prayer for Perseverance in Life’s Journey

Life’s journey often requires endurance and unwavering determination. When the path becomes arduous, grant me the strength to persevere. May I face challenges with resilience, knowing that each obstacle is an opportunity for growth and transformation.

Thank you for instilling in me the spirit of perseverance. With your steadfast support, I journey forward with confidence, knowing that I can overcome whatever hurdles lie ahead.

#14. A Prayer for Peace Along Life’s Journey

In the midst of life’s chaos and turmoil, I seek the tranquility of your peace. Surround me with your serenity, even in the most tumultuous moments. Help me find solace in your presence and carry the calmness of your spirit throughout my journey.

Thank you for the peace that surpasses all understanding. With your peace as my anchor, I navigate the storms of life with a heart unburdened by fear and anxiety.

#15. A Prayer for Purpose in Life’s Journey

As I travel through the chapters of my life, I yearn to discover my true purpose. Guide me to recognize the unique gifts and talents you have bestowed upon me. May I find fulfillment in aligning my path with your divine plan, knowing that I am part of a greater purpose.

Thank you for revealing my purpose along this journey. With your guidance, I embrace my role in your grand design, confident that every step I take is meaningful and significant.

#16. A Prayer for Forgiveness on Life’s Journey

In the course of my life journey, I recognize the moments when I have fallen short, when my actions have caused pain or harm. I humbly ask for your forgiveness, knowing that your grace and mercy are boundless. Grant me the strength to forgive others as I seek your forgiveness, and help me release the burdens of guilt and regret.

Thank you for your loving forgiveness, which offers me a fresh start on this journey. With your forgiveness, I strive to be a better person, free from the weight of past mistakes.

#17. A Prayer for Acceptance in Life’s Journey

Life’s journey often leads us to encounters with diverse individuals and experiences. I pray for the gift of acceptance, that I may embrace the differences in others and find unity in our shared humanity. Help me see the beauty in diversity and practice tolerance and understanding.

Thank you for the wisdom of acceptance, which enriches my journey with compassion and harmony. With your guidance, I journey forward with an open heart, ready to learn from every soul I meet.

#18. A Prayer for Transformation Along Life’s Journey

As I continue along this ever-evolving journey of life, I recognize the need for growth and transformation. Grant me the courage to let go of old habits and beliefs that no longer serve me. May I be open to your transformative power, allowing you to shape me into the person I am meant to become.

Thank you for the gift of transformation, which enables me to evolve and thrive on this journey. With your guidance, I embrace change as an opportunity for growth and self-discovery.

#19. A Prayer for Connection in Life’s Journey

In the midst of life’s busyness, I seek to cultivate meaningful connections with those around me. Help me foster relationships built on trust, empathy, and love. May I recognize the significance of human connection and cherish the bonds that enrich my journey.

Thank you for the gift of connection, which brings warmth and purpose to my life journey. With your love as the foundation, I build bridges of understanding and support with those I encounter on this path.

#20. A Prayer for Abundance on Life’s Journey

As I journey through life, I pray for an abundance of blessings, not only for myself but for all those I encounter. May your grace overflow in my life, allowing me to be a source of abundance for others. Help me share my blessings with generosity and a giving heart.

Thank you for the abundance that surrounds me on this journey. With your guidance, I aspire to be a conduit of blessings, spreading joy, and prosperity to those in need.

#21. A Prayer for Fulfillment in Life’s Journey

In the grand tapestry of life, I seek fulfillment and purpose. Guide me toward a life that aligns with my deepest desires and your divine plan. May I find contentment in the pursuit of meaningful goals and the realization of my dreams.

Thank you for the promise of fulfillment along this journey. With your guidance, I embark on a path of purpose, knowing that every step brings me closer to the fulfillment of my heart’s desires.

Closing Thoughts

In the winding roads of our lives, prayer serves as a guiding light, offering solace, strength, and hope along the intricate paths we traverse. Inspirational prayers about life’s journey has been a heartfelt journey of its own, filled with words of faith, courage, and gratitude.

As we reflect on these prayers, may they remind us that amidst life’s challenges and triumphs, we are never alone. The compassionate presence of a higher power walks with us, lighting the way and infusing our journey with purpose and grace.

May these prayers continue to inspire and uplift you on your unique life journey, guiding you toward a future filled with love, peace, and fulfillment.

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The Meaning of Life

Many major historical figures in philosophy have provided an answer to the question of what, if anything, makes life meaningful, although they typically have not put it in these terms (with such talk having arisen only in the past 250 years or so, on which see Landau 1997). Consider, for instance, Aristotle on the human function, Aquinas on the beatific vision, and Kant on the highest good. Relatedly, think about Koheleth, the presumed author of the Biblical book Ecclesiastes, describing life as “futility” and akin to “the pursuit of wind,” Nietzsche on nihilism, as well as Schopenhauer when he remarks that whenever we reach a goal we have longed for we discover “how vain and empty it is.” While these concepts have some bearing on happiness and virtue (and their opposites), they are straightforwardly construed (roughly) as accounts of which highly ranked purposes a person ought to realize that would make her life significant (if any would).

Despite the venerable pedigree, it is only since the 1980s or so that a distinct field of the meaning of life has been established in Anglo-American-Australasian philosophy, on which this survey focuses, and it is only in the past 20 years that debate with real depth and intricacy has appeared. Two decades ago analytic reflection on life’s meaning was described as a “backwater” compared to that on well-being or good character, and it was possible to cite nearly all the literature in a given critical discussion of the field (Metz 2002). Neither is true any longer. Anglo-American-Australasian philosophy of life’s meaning has become vibrant, such that there is now way too much literature to be able to cite comprehensively in this survey. To obtain focus, it tends to discuss books, influential essays, and more recent works, and it leaves aside contributions from other philosophical traditions (such as the Continental or African) and from non-philosophical fields (e.g., psychology or literature). This survey’s central aim is to acquaint the reader with current analytic approaches to life’s meaning, sketching major debates and pointing out neglected topics that merit further consideration.

When the topic of the meaning of life comes up, people tend to pose one of three questions: “What are you talking about?”, “What is the meaning of life?”, and “Is life in fact meaningful?”. The literature on life's meaning composed by those working in the analytic tradition (on which this entry focuses) can be usefully organized according to which question it seeks to answer. This survey starts off with recent work that addresses the first, abstract (or “meta”) question regarding the sense of talk of “life’s meaning,” i.e., that aims to clarify what we have in mind when inquiring into the meaning of life (section 1). Afterward, it considers texts that provide answers to the more substantive question about the nature of meaningfulness (sections 2–3). There is in the making a sub-field of applied meaning that parallels applied ethics, in which meaningfulness is considered in the context of particular cases or specific themes. Examples include downshifting (Levy 2005), implementing genetic enhancements (Agar 2013), making achievements (Bradford 2015), getting an education (Schinkel et al. 2015), interacting with research participants (Olson 2016), automating labor (Danaher 2017), and creating children (Ferracioli 2018). In contrast, this survey focuses nearly exclusively on contemporary normative-theoretical approaches to life’s meanining, that is, attempts to capture in a single, general principle all the variegated conditions that could confer meaning on life. Finally, this survey examines fresh arguments for the nihilist view that the conditions necessary for a meaningful life do not obtain for any of us, i.e., that all our lives are meaningless (section 4).

1. The Meaning of “Meaning”

2.1. god-centered views, 2.2. soul-centered views, 3.1. subjectivism, 3.2. objectivism, 3.3. rejecting god and a soul, 4. nihilism, works cited, classic works, collections, books for the general reader, other internet resources, related entries.

One of the field's aims consists of the systematic attempt to identify what people (essentially or characteristically) have in mind when they think about the topic of life’s meaning. For many in the field, terms such as “importance” and “significance” are synonyms of “meaningfulness” and so are insufficiently revealing, but there are those who draw a distinction between meaningfulness and significance (Singer 1996, 112–18; Belliotti 2019, 145–50, 186). There is also debate about how the concept of a meaningless life relates to the ideas of a life that is absurd (Nagel 1970, 1986, 214–23; Feinberg 1980; Belliotti 2019), futile (Trisel 2002), and not worth living (Landau 2017, 12–15; Matheson 2017).

A useful way to begin to get clear about what thinking about life’s meaning involves is to specify the bearer. Which life does the inquirer have in mind? A standard distinction to draw is between the meaning “in” life, where a human person is what can exhibit meaning, and the meaning “of” life in a narrow sense, where the human species as a whole is what can be meaningful or not. There has also been a bit of recent consideration of whether animals or human infants can have meaning in their lives, with most rejecting that possibility (e.g., Wong 2008, 131, 147; Fischer 2019, 1–24), but a handful of others beginning to make a case for it (Purves and Delon 2018; Thomas 2018). Also under-explored is the issue of whether groups, such as a people or an organization, can be bearers of meaning, and, if so, under what conditions.

Most analytic philosophers have been interested in meaning in life, that is, in the meaningfulness that a person’s life could exhibit, with comparatively few these days addressing the meaning of life in the narrow sense. Even those who believe that God is or would be central to life’s meaning have lately addressed how an individual’s life might be meaningful in virtue of God more often than how the human race might be. Although some have argued that the meaningfulness of human life as such merits inquiry to no less a degree (if not more) than the meaning in a life (Seachris 2013; Tartaglia 2015; cf. Trisel 2016), a large majority of the field has instead been interested in whether their lives as individual persons (and the lives of those they care about) are meaningful and how they could become more so.

Focusing on meaning in life, it is quite common to maintain that it is conceptually something good for its own sake or, relatedly, something that provides a basic reason for action (on which see Visak 2017). There are a few who have recently suggested otherwise, maintaining that there can be neutral or even undesirable kinds of meaning in a person’s life (e.g., Mawson 2016, 90, 193; Thomas 2018, 291, 294). However, these are outliers, with most analytic philosophers, and presumably laypeople, instead wanting to know when an individual’s life exhibits a certain kind of final value (or non-instrumental reason for action).

Another claim about which there is substantial consensus is that meaningfulness is not all or nothing and instead comes in degrees, such that some periods of life are more meaningful than others and that some lives as a whole are more meaningful than others. Note that one can coherently hold the view that some people’s lives are less meaningful (or even in a certain sense less “important”) than others, or are even meaningless (unimportant), and still maintain that people have an equal standing from a moral point of view. Consider a consequentialist moral principle according to which each individual counts for one in virtue of having a capacity for a meaningful life, or a Kantian approach according to which all people have a dignity in virtue of their capacity for autonomous decision-making, where meaning is a function of the exercise of this capacity. For both moral outlooks, we could be required to help people with relatively meaningless lives.

Yet another relatively uncontroversial element of the concept of meaningfulness in respect of individual persons is that it is logically distinct from happiness or rightness (emphasized in Wolf 2010, 2016). First, to ask whether someone’s life is meaningful is not one and the same as asking whether her life is pleasant or she is subjectively well off. A life in an experience machine or virtual reality device would surely be a happy one, but very few take it to be a prima facie candidate for meaningfulness (Nozick 1974: 42–45). Indeed, a number would say that one’s life logically could become meaningful precisely by sacrificing one’s well-being, e.g., by helping others at the expense of one’s self-interest. Second, asking whether a person’s existence over time is meaningful is not identical to considering whether she has been morally upright; there are intuitively ways to enhance meaning that have nothing to do with right action or moral virtue, such as making a scientific discovery or becoming an excellent dancer. Now, one might argue that a life would be meaningless if, or even because, it were unhappy or immoral, but that would be to posit a synthetic, substantive relationship between the concepts, far from indicating that speaking of “meaningfulness” is analytically a matter of connoting ideas regarding happiness or rightness. The question of what (if anything) makes a person’s life meaningful is conceptually distinct from the questions of what makes a life happy or moral, although it could turn out that the best answer to the former question appeals to an answer to one of the latter questions.

Supposing, then, that talk of “meaning in life” connotes something good for its own sake that can come in degrees and that is not analytically equivalent to happiness or rightness, what else does it involve? What more can we say about this final value, by definition? Most contemporary analytic philosophers would say that the relevant value is absent from spending time in an experience machine (but see Goetz 2012 for a different view) or living akin to Sisyphus, the mythic figure doomed by the Greek gods to roll a stone up a hill for eternity (famously discussed by Albert Camus and Taylor 1970). In addition, many would say that the relevant value is typified by the classic triad of “the good, the true, and the beautiful” (or would be under certain conditions). These terms are not to be taken literally, but instead are rough catchwords for beneficent relationships (love, collegiality, morality), intellectual reflection (wisdom, education, discoveries), and creativity (particularly the arts, but also potentially things like humor or gardening).

Pressing further, is there something that the values of the good, the true, the beautiful, and any other logically possible sources of meaning involve? There is as yet no consensus in the field. One salient view is that the concept of meaning in life is a cluster or amalgam of overlapping ideas, such as fulfilling higher-order purposes, meriting substantial esteem or admiration, having a noteworthy impact, transcending one’s animal nature, making sense, or exhibiting a compelling life-story (Markus 2003; Thomson 2003; Metz 2013, 24–35; Seachris 2013, 3–4; Mawson 2016). However, there are philosophers who maintain that something much more monistic is true of the concept, so that (nearly) all thought about meaningfulness in a person’s life is essentially about a single property. Suggestions include being devoted to or in awe of qualitatively superior goods (Taylor 1989, 3–24), transcending one’s limits (Levy 2005), or making a contribution (Martela 2016).

Recently there has been something of an “interpretive turn” in the field, one instance of which is the strong view that meaning-talk is logically about whether and how a life is intelligible within a wider frame of reference (Goldman 2018, 116–29; Seachris 2019; Thomas 2019; cf. Repp 2018). According to this approach, inquiring into life’s meaning is nothing other than seeking out sense-making information, perhaps a narrative about life or an explanation of its source and destiny. This analysis has the advantage of promising to unify a wide array of uses of the term “meaning.” However, it has the disadvantages of being unable to capture the intuitions that meaning in life is essentially good for its own sake (Landau 2017, 12–15), that it is not logically contradictory to maintain that an ineffable condition is what confers meaning on life (as per Cooper 2003, 126–42; Bennett-Hunter 2014; Waghorn 2014), and that often human actions themselves (as distinct from an interpretation of them), such as rescuing a child from a burning building, are what bear meaning.

Some thinkers have suggested that a complete analysis of the concept of life’s meaning should include what has been called “anti-matter” (Metz 2002, 805–07, 2013, 63–65, 71–73) or “anti-meaning” (Campbell and Nyholm 2015; Egerstrom 2015), conditions that reduce the meaningfulness of a life. The thought is that meaning is well represented by a bipolar scale, where there is a dimension of not merely positive conditions, but also negative ones. Gratuitous cruelty or destructiveness are prima facie candidates for actions that not merely fail to add meaning, but also subtract from any meaning one’s life might have had.

Despite the ongoing debates about how to analyze the concept of life’s meaning (or articulate the definition of the phrase “meaning in life”), the field remains in a good position to make progress on the other key questions posed above, viz., of what would make a life meaningful and whether any lives are in fact meaningful. A certain amount of common ground is provided by the point that meaningfulness at least involves a gradient final value in a person’s life that is conceptually distinct from happiness and rightness, with exemplars of it potentially being the good, the true, and the beautiful. The rest of this discussion addresses philosophical attempts to capture the nature of this value theoretically and to ascertain whether it exists in at least some of our lives.

2. Supernaturalism

Most analytic philosophers writing on meaning in life have been trying to develop and evaluate theories, i.e., fundamental and general principles, that are meant to capture all the particular ways that a life could obtain meaning. As in moral philosophy, there are recognizable “anti-theorists,” i.e., those who maintain that there is too much pluralism among meaning conditions to be able to unify them in the form of a principle (e.g., Kekes 2000; Hosseini 2015). Arguably, though, the systematic search for unity is too nascent to be able to draw a firm conclusion about whether it is available.

The theories are standardly divided on a metaphysical basis, that is, in terms of which kinds of properties are held to constitute the meaning. Supernaturalist theories are views according to which a spiritual realm is central to meaning in life. Most Western philosophers have conceived of the spiritual in terms of God or a soul as commonly understood in the Abrahamic faiths (but see Mulgan 2015 for discussion of meaning in the context of a God uninterested in us). In contrast, naturalist theories are views that the physical world as known particularly well by the scientific method is central to life’s meaning.

There is logical space for a non-naturalist theory, according to which central to meaning is an abstract property that is neither spiritual nor physical. However, only scant attention has been paid to this possibility in the recent Anglo-American-Australasian literature (Audi 2005).

It is important to note that supernaturalism, a claim that God (or a soul) would confer meaning on a life, is logically distinct from theism, the claim that God (or a soul) exists. Although most who hold supernaturalism also hold theism, one could accept the former without the latter (as Camus more or less did), committing one to the view that life is meaningless or at least lacks substantial meaning. Similarly, while most naturalists are atheists, it is not contradictory to maintain that God exists but has nothing to do with meaning in life or perhaps even detracts from it. Although these combinations of positions are logically possible, some of them might be substantively implausible. The field could benefit from discussion of the comparative attractiveness of various combinations of evaluative claims about what would make life meaningful and metaphysical claims about whether spiritual conditions exist.

Over the past 15 years or so, two different types of supernaturalism have become distinguished on a regular basis (Metz 2019). That is true not only in the literature on life’s meaning, but also in that on the related pro-theism/anti-theism debate, about whether it would be desirable for God or a soul to exist (e.g., Kahane 2011; Kraay 2018; Lougheed 2020). On the one hand, there is extreme supernaturalism, according to which spiritual conditions are necessary for any meaning in life. If neither God nor a soul exists, then, by this view, everyone’s life is meaningless. On the other hand, there is moderate supernaturalism, according to which spiritual conditions are necessary for a great or ultimate meaning in life, although not meaning in life as such. If neither God nor a soul exists, then, by this view, everyone’s life could have some meaning, or even be meaningful, but no one’s life could exhibit the most desirable meaning. For a moderate supernaturalist, God or a soul would substantially enhance meaningfulness or be a major contributory condition for it.

There are a variety of ways that great or ultimate meaning has been described, sometimes quantitatively as “infinite” (Mawson 2016), qualitatively as “deeper” (Swinburne 2016), relationally as “unlimited” (Nozick 1981, 618–19; cf. Waghorn 2014), temporally as “eternal” (Cottingham 2016), and perspectivally as “from the point of view of the universe” (Benatar 2017). There has been no reflection as yet on the crucial question of how these distinctions might bear on each another, for instance, on whether some are more basic than others or some are more valuable than others.

Cross-cutting the extreme/moderate distinction is one between God-centered theories and soul-centered ones. According to the former, some kind of connection with God (understood to be a spiritual person who is all-knowing, all-good, and all-powerful and who is the ground of the physical universe) constitutes meaning in life, even if one lacks a soul (construed as an immortal, spiritual substance that contains one’s identity). In contrast, by the latter, having a soul and putting it into a certain state is what makes life meaningful, even if God does not exist. Many supernaturalists of course believe that God and a soul are jointly necessary for a (greatly) meaningful existence. However, the simpler view, that only one of them is necessary, is common, and sometimes arguments proffered for the complex view fail to support it any more than the simpler one.

The most influential God-based account of meaning in life has been the extreme view that one’s existence is significant if and only if one fulfills a purpose God has assigned. The familiar idea is that God has a plan for the universe and that one’s life is meaningful just to the degree that one helps God realize this plan, perhaps in a particular way that God wants one to do so. If a person failed to do what God intends her to do with her life (or if God does not even exist), then, on the current view, her life would be meaningless.

Thinkers differ over what it is about God’s purpose that might make it uniquely able to confer meaning on human lives, but the most influential argument has been that only God’s purpose could be the source of invariant moral rules (Davis 1987, 296, 304–05; Moreland 1987, 124–29; Craig 1994/2013, 161–67) or of objective values more generally (Cottingham 2005, 37–57), where a lack of such would render our lives nonsensical. According to this argument, lower goods such as animal pleasure or desire satisfaction could exist without God, but higher ones pertaining to meaning in life, particularly moral virtue, could not. However, critics point to many non-moral sources of meaning in life (e.g., Kekes 2000; Wolf 2010), with one arguing that a universal moral code is not necessary for meaning in life, even if, say, beneficent actions are (Ellin 1995, 327). In addition, there are a variety of naturalist and non-naturalist accounts of objective morality––and of value more generally––on offer these days, so that it is not clear that it must have a supernatural source in God’s will.

One recurrent objection to the idea that God’s purpose could make life meaningful is that if God had created us with a purpose in mind, then God would have degraded us and thereby undercut the possibility of us obtaining meaning from fulfilling the purpose. The objection harks back to Jean-Paul Sartre, but in the analytic literature it appears that Kurt Baier was the first to articulate it (1957/2000, 118–20; see also Murphy 1982, 14–15; Singer 1996, 29; Kahane 2011; Lougheed 2020, 121–41). Sometimes the concern is the threat of punishment God would make so that we do God’s bidding, while other times it is that the source of meaning would be constrictive and not up to us, and still other times it is that our dignity would be maligned simply by having been created with a certain end in mind (for some replies to such concerns, see Hanfling 1987, 45–46; Cottingham 2005, 37–57; Lougheed 2020, 111–21).

There is a different argument for an extreme God-based view that focuses less on God as purposive and more on God as infinite, unlimited, or ineffable, which Robert Nozick first articulated with care (Nozick 1981, 594–618; see also Bennett-Hunter 2014; Waghorn 2014). The core idea is that for a finite condition to be meaningful, it must obtain its meaning from another condition that has meaning. So, if one’s life is meaningful, it might be so in virtue of being married to a person, who is important. Being finite, the spouse must obtain his or her importance from elsewhere, perhaps from the sort of work he or she does. This work also must obtain its meaning by being related to something else that is meaningful, and so on. A regress on meaningful conditions is present, and the suggestion is that the regress can terminate only in something so all-encompassing that it need not (indeed, cannot) go beyond itself to obtain meaning from anything else. And that is God. The standard objection to this relational rationale is that a finite condition could be meaningful without obtaining its meaning from another meaningful condition. Perhaps it could be meaningful in itself, without being connected to something beyond it, or maybe it could obtain its meaning by being related to something else that is beautiful or otherwise valuable for its own sake but not meaningful (Nozick 1989, 167–68; Thomson 2003, 25–26, 48).

A serious concern for any extreme God-based view is the existence of apparent counterexamples. If we think of the stereotypical lives of Albert Einstein, Mother Teresa, and Pablo Picasso, they seem meaningful even if we suppose there is no all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good spiritual person who is the ground of the physical world (e.g., Wielenberg 2005, 31–37, 49–50; Landau 2017). Even religiously inclined philosophers have found this hard to deny these days (Quinn 2000, 58; Audi 2005; Mawson 2016, 5; Williams 2020, 132–34).

Largely for that reason, contemporary supernaturalists have tended to opt for moderation, that is, to maintain that God would greatly enhance the meaning in our lives, even if some meaning would be possible in a world without God. One approach is to invoke the relational argument to show that God is necessary, not for any meaning whatsoever, but rather for an ultimate meaning. “Limited transcendence, the transcending of our limits so as to connect with a wider context of value which itself is limited, does give our lives meaning––but a limited one. We may thirst for more” (Nozick 1981, 618). Another angle is to appeal to playing a role in God’s plan, again to claim, not that it is essential for meaning as such, but rather for “a cosmic significance....intead of a significance very limited in time and space” (Swinburne 2016, 154; see also Quinn 2000; Cottingham 2016, 131). Another rationale is that by fulfilling God’s purpose, we would meaningfully please God, a perfect person, as well as be remembered favorably by God forever (Cottingham 2016, 135; Williams 2020, 21–22, 29, 101, 108). Still another argument is that only with God could the deepest desires of human nature be satisfied (e.g., Goetz 2012; Seachris 2013, 20; Cottingham 2016, 127, 136), even if more surface desires could be satisfied without God.

In reply to such rationales for a moderate supernaturalism, there has been the suggestion that it is precisely by virtue of being alone in the universe that our lives would be particularly significant; otherwise, God’s greatness would overshadow us (Kahane 2014). There has also been the response that, with the opportunity for greater meaning from God would also come that for greater anti-meaning, so that it is not clear that a world with God would offer a net gain in respect of meaning (Metz 2019, 34–35). For example, if pleasing God would greatly enhance meaning in our lives, then presumably displeasing God would greatly reduce it and to a comparable degree. In addition, there are arguments for extreme naturalism (or its “anti-theist” cousin) mentioned below (sub-section 3.3).

Notice that none of the above arguments for supernaturalism appeals to the prospect of eternal life (at least not explicitly). Arguments that do make such an appeal are soul-centered, holding that meaning in life mainly comes from having an immortal, spiritual substance that is contiguous with one’s body when it is alive and that will forever outlive its death. Some think of the afterlife in terms of one’s soul entering a transcendent, spiritual realm (Heaven), while others conceive of one’s soul getting reincarnated into another body on Earth. According to the extreme version, if one has a soul but fails to put it in the right state (or if one lacks a soul altogether), then one’s life is meaningless.

There are three prominent arguments for an extreme soul-based perspective. One argument, made famous by Leo Tolstoy, is the suggestion that for life to be meaningful something must be worth doing, that something is worth doing only if it will make a permanent difference to the world, and that making a permanent difference requires being immortal (see also Hanfling 1987, 22–24; Morris 1992, 26; Craig 1994). Critics most often appeal to counterexamples, suggesting for instance that it is surely worth your time and effort to help prevent people from suffering, even if you and they are mortal. Indeed, some have gone on the offensive and argued that helping people is worth the sacrifice only if and because they are mortal, for otherwise they could invariably be compensated in an afterlife (e.g., Wielenberg 2005, 91–94). Another recent and interesting criticism is that the major motivations for the claim that nothing matters now if one day it will end are incoherent (Greene 2021).

A second argument for the view that life would be meaningless without a soul is that it is necessary for justice to be done, which, in turn, is necessary for a meaningful life. Life seems nonsensical when the wicked flourish and the righteous suffer, at least supposing there is no other world in which these injustices will be rectified, whether by God or a Karmic force. Something like this argument can be found in Ecclesiastes, and it continues to be defended (e.g., Davis 1987; Craig 1994). However, even granting that an afterlife is required for perfectly just outcomes, it is far from obvious that an eternal afterlife is necessary for them, and, then, there is the suggestion that some lives, such as Mandela’s, have been meaningful precisely in virtue of encountering injustice and fighting it.

A third argument for thinking that having a soul is essential for any meaning is that it is required to have the sort of free will without which our lives would be meaningless. Immanuel Kant is known for having maintained that if we were merely physical beings, subjected to the laws of nature like everything else in the material world, then we could not act for moral reasons and hence would be unimportant. More recently, one theologian has eloquently put the point in religious terms: “The moral spirit finds the meaning of life in choice. It finds it in that which proceeds from man and remains with him as his inner essence rather than in the accidents of circumstances turns of external fortune....(W)henever a human being rubs the lamp of his moral conscience, a Spirit does appear. This Spirit is God....It is in the ‘Thou must’ of God and man’s ‘I can’ that the divine image of God in human life is contained” (Swenson 1949/2000, 27–28). Notice that, even if moral norms did not spring from God’s commands, the logic of the argument entails that one’s life could be meaningful, so long as one had the inherent ability to make the morally correct choice in any situation. That, in turn, arguably requires something non-physical about one’s self, so as to be able to overcome whichever physical laws and forces one might confront. The standard objection to this reasoning is to advance a compatibilism about having a determined physical nature and being able to act for moral reasons (e.g., Arpaly 2006; Fischer 2009, 145–77). It is also worth wondering whether, if one had to have a spiritual essence in order to make free choices, it would have to be one that never perished.

Like God-centered theorists, many soul-centered theorists these days advance a moderate view, accepting that some meaning in life would be possible without immortality, but arguing that a much greater meaning would be possible with it. Granting that Einstein, Mandela, and Picasso had somewhat meaningful lives despite not having survived the deaths of their bodies (as per, e.g., Trisel 2004; Wolf 2015, 89–140; Landau 2017), there remains a powerful thought: more is better. If a finite life with the good, the true, and the beautiful has meaning in it to some degree, then surely it would have all the more meaning if it exhibited such higher values––including a relationship with God––for an eternity (Cottingham 2016, 132–35; Mawson 2016, 2019, 52–53; Williams 2020, 112–34; cf. Benatar 2017, 35–63). One objection to this reasoning is that the infinity of meaning that would be possible with a soul would be “too big,” rendering it difficult for the moderate supernaturalist to make sense of the intution that a finite life such as Einstein’s can indeed count as meaningful by comparison (Metz 2019, 30–31; cf. Mawson 2019, 53–54). More common, though, is the objection that an eternal life would include anti-meaning of various kinds, such as boredom and repetition, discussed below in the context of extreme naturalism (sub-section 3.3).

3. Naturalism

Recall that naturalism is the view that a physical life is central to life’s meaning, that even if there is no spiritual realm, a substantially meaningful life is possible. Like supernaturalism, contemporary naturalism admits of two distinguishable variants, moderate and extreme (Metz 2019). The moderate version is that, while a genuinely meaningful life could be had in a purely physical universe as known well by science, a somewhat more meaningful life would be possible if a spiritual realm also existed. God or a soul could enhance meaning in life, although they would not be major contributors. The extreme version of naturalism is the view that it would be better in respect of life’s meaning if there were no spiritual realm. From this perspective, God or a soul would be anti-matter, i.e., would detract from the meaning available to us, making a purely physical world (even if not this particular one) preferable.

Cross-cutting the moderate/extreme distinction is that between subjectivism and objectivism, which are theoretical accounts of the nature of meaningfulness insofar as it is physical. They differ in terms of the extent to which the human mind constitutes meaning and whether there are conditions of meaning that are invariant among human beings. Subjectivists believe that there are no invariant standards of meaning because meaning is relative to the subject, i.e., depends on an individual’s pro-attitudes such as her particular desires or ends, which are not shared by everyone. Roughly, something is meaningful for a person if she strongly wants it or intends to seek it out and she gets it. Objectivists maintain, in contrast, that there are some invariant standards for meaning because meaning is at least partly mind-independent, i.e., obtains not merely in virtue of being the object of anyone’s mental states. Here, something is meaningful (partially) because of its intrinsic nature, in the sense of being independent of whether it is wanted or intended; meaning is instead (to some extent) the sort of thing that merits these reactions.

There is logical space for an orthogonal view, according to which there are invariant standards of meaningfulness constituted by what all human beings would converge on from a certain standpoint. However, it has not been much of a player in the field (Darwall 1983, 164–66).

According to this version of naturalism, meaning in life varies from person to person, depending on each one’s variable pro-attitudes. Common instances are views that one’s life is more meaningful, the more one gets what one happens to want strongly, achieves one’s highly ranked goals, or does what one believes to be really important (Trisel 2002; Hooker 2008). One influential subjectivist has recently maintained that the relevant mental state is caring or loving, so that life is meaningful just to the extent that one cares about or loves something (Frankfurt 1988, 80–94, 2004). Another recent proposal is that meaningfulness consists of “an active engagement and affirmation that vivifies the person who has freely created or accepted and now promotes and nurtures the projects of her highest concern” (Belliotti 2019, 183).

Subjectivism was dominant in the middle of the twentieth century, when positivism, noncognitivism, existentialism, and Humeanism were influential (Ayer 1947; Hare 1957; Barnes 1967; Taylor 1970; Williams 1976). However, in the last quarter of the twentieth century, inference to the best explanation and reflective equilibrium became accepted forms of normative argumentation and were frequently used to defend claims about the existence and nature of objective value (or of “external reasons,” ones obtaining independently of one’s extant attitudes). As a result, subjectivism about meaning lost its dominance. Those who continue to hold subjectivism often remain suspicious of attempts to justify beliefs about objective value (e.g., Trisel 2002, 73, 79, 2004, 378–79; Frankfurt 2004, 47–48, 55–57; Wong 2008, 138–39; Evers 2017, 32, 36; Svensson 2017, 54). Theorists are moved to accept subjectivism typically because the alternatives are unpalatable; they are reasonably sure that meaning in life obtains for some people, but do not see how it could be grounded on something independent of the mind, whether it be the natural or the supernatural (or the non-natural). In contrast to these possibilities, it appears straightforward to account for what is meaningful in terms of what people find meaningful or what people want out of their lives. Wide-ranging meta-ethical debates in epistemology, metaphysics, and the philosophy of language are necessary to address this rationale for subjectivism.

There is a cluster of other, more circumscribed arguments for subjectivism, according to which this theory best explains certain intuitive features of meaning in life. For one, subjectivism seems plausible since it is reasonable to think that a meaningful life is an authentic one (Frankfurt 1988, 80–94). If a person’s life is significant insofar as she is true to herself or her deepest nature, then we have some reason to believe that meaning simply is a function of those matters for which the person cares. For another, it is uncontroversial that often meaning comes from losing oneself, i.e., in becoming absorbed in an activity or experience, as opposed to being bored by it or finding it frustrating (Frankfurt 1988, 80–94; Belliotti 2019, 162–70). Work that concentrates the mind and relationships that are engrossing seem central to meaning and to be so because of the subjective elements involved. For a third, meaning is often taken to be something that makes life worth continuing for a specific person, i.e., that gives her a reason to get out of bed in the morning, which subjectivism is thought to account for best (Williams 1976; Svensson 2017; Calhoun 2018).

Critics maintain that these arguments are vulnerable to a common objection: they neglect the role of objective value (or an external reason) in realizing oneself, losing oneself, and having a reason to live (Taylor 1989, 1992; Wolf 2010, 2015, 89–140). One is not really being true to oneself, losing oneself in a meaningful way, or having a genuine reason to live insofar as one, say, successfully maintains 3,732 hairs on one’s head (Taylor 1992, 36), cultivates one’s prowess at long-distance spitting (Wolf 2010, 104), collects a big ball of string (Wolf 2010, 104), or, well, eats one’s own excrement (Wielenberg 2005, 22). The counterexamples suggest that subjective conditions are insufficient to ground meaning in life; there seem to be certain actions, relationships, and states that are objectively valuable (but see Evers 2017, 30–32) and toward which one’s pro-attitudes ought to be oriented, if meaning is to accrue.

So say objectivists, but subjectivists feel the pull of the point and usually seek to avoid the counterexamples, lest they have to bite the bullet by accepting the meaningfulness of maintaining 3,732 hairs on one’s head and all the rest (for some who do, see Svensson 2017, 54–55; Belliotti 2019, 181–83). One important strategy is to suggest that subjectivists can avoid the counterexamples by appealing to the right sort of pro-attitude. Instead of whatever an individual happens to want, perhaps the relevant mental state is an emotional-perceptual one of seeing-as (Alexis 2011; cf. Hosseini 2015, 47–66), a “categorical” desire, that is, an intrinsic desire constitutive of one’s identity that one takes to make life worth continuing (Svensson 2017), or a judgment that one has a good reason to value something highly for its own sake (Calhoun 2018). Even here, though, objectivists will argue that it might “appear that whatever the will chooses to treat as a good reason to engage itself is, for the will, a good reason. But the will itself....craves objective reasons; and often it could not go forward unless it thought it had them” (Wiggins 1988, 136). And without any appeal to objectivity, it is perhaps likely that counterexamples would resurface.

Another subjectivist strategy by which to deal with the counterexamples is the attempt to ground meaningfulness, not on the pro-attitudes of an individual valuer, but on those of a group (Darwall 1983, 164–66; Brogaard and Smith 2005; Wong 2008). Does such an intersubjective move avoid (more of) the counterexamples? If so, does it do so more plausibly than an objective theory?

Objective naturalists believe that meaning in life is constituted at least in part by something physical beyond merely the fact that it is the object of a pro-attitude. Obtaining the object of some emotion, desire, or judgment is not sufficient for meaningfulness, on this view. Instead, there are certain conditions of the material world that could confer meaning on anyone’s life, not merely because they are viewed as meaningful, wanted for their own sake, or believed to be choiceworthy, but instead (at least partially) because they are inherently worthwhile or valuable in themselves.

Morality (the good), enquiry (the true), and creativity (the beautiful) are widely held instances of activities that confer meaning on life, while trimming toenails and eating snow––along with the counterexamples to subjectivism above––are not. Objectivism is widely thought to be a powerful general explanation of these particular judgments: the former are meaningful not merely because some agent (whether it is an individual, her society, or even God) cares about them or judges them to be worth doing, while the latter simply lack significance and cannot obtain it even if some agent does care about them or judge them to be worth doing. From an objective perspective, it is possible for an individual to care about the wrong thing or to be mistaken that something is worthwhile, and not merely because of something she cares about all the more or judges to be still more choiceworthy. Of course, meta-ethical debates about the existence and nature of value are again relevant to appraising this rationale.

Some objectivists think that being the object of a person’s mental states plays no constitutive role in making that person’s life meaningful, although they of course contend that it often plays an instrumental role––liking a certain activity, after all, is likely to motivate one to do it. Relatively few objectivists are “pure” in that way, although consequentialists do stand out as clear instances (e.g., Singer 1995; Smuts 2018, 75–99). Most objectivists instead try to account for the above intuitions driving subjectivism by holding that a life is more meaningful, not merely because of objective factors, but also in part because of propositional attitudes such as cognition, conation, and emotion. Particularly influential has been Susan Wolf’s hybrid view, captured by this pithy slogan: “Meaning arises when subjective attraction meets objective attractiveness” (Wolf 2015, 112; see also Kekes 1986, 2000; Wiggins 1988; Raz 2001, 10–40; Mintoff 2008; Wolf 2010, 2016; Fischer 2019, 9–23; Belshaw 2021, 160–81). This theory implies that no meaning accrues to one’s life if one believes in, is satisfied by, or cares about a project that is not truly worthwhile, or if one takes up a truly worthwhile project but fails to judge it important, be satisfied by it, or care about it. A related approach is that, while subjective attraction is not necessary for meaning, it could enhance it (e.g., Audi 2005, 344; Metz 2013, 183–84, 196–98, 220–25). For instance, a stereotypical Mother Teresa who is bored by and alienated from her substantial charity work might have a somewhat significant existence because of it, even if she would have an even more significant existence if she felt pride in it or identified with it.

There have been several attempts to capture theoretically what all objectively attractive, inherently worthwhile, or finally valuable conditions have in common insofar as they bear on meaning in a person’s life. Over the past few decades, one encounters the proposals that objectively meaningful conditions are just those that involve: positively connecting with organic unity beyond oneself (Nozick 1981, 594–619); being creative (Taylor 1987; Matheson 2018); living an emotional life (Solomon 1993; cf. Williams 2020, 56–78); promoting good consequences, such as improving the quality of life of oneself and others (Singer 1995; Audi 2005; Smuts 2018, 75–99); exercising or fostering rational nature in exceptional ways (Smith 1997, 179–221; Gewirth 1998, 177–82; Metz 2013, 222–36); progressing toward ends that can never be fully realized because one’s knowledge of them changes as one approaches them (Levy 2005); realizing goals that are transcendent for being long-lasting in duration and broad in scope (Mintoff 2008); living virtuously (May 2015, 61–138; McPherson 2020); and loving what is worth loving (Wolf 2016). There is as yet no convergence in the field on one, or even a small cluster, of these accounts.

One feature of a large majority of the above naturalist theories is that they are aggregative or additive, objectionably treating a life as a mere “container” of bits of life that are meaningful considered in isolation from other bits (Brännmark 2003, 330). It has become increasingly common for philosophers of life’s meaning, especially objectivists, to hold that life as a whole, or at least long stretches of it, can substantially affect its meaningfulness beyond the amount of meaning (if any) in its parts.

For instance, a life that has lots of beneficence and otherwise intuitively meaning-conferring conditions but that is also extremely repetitive (à la the movie Groundhog Day ) is less than maximally meaningful (Taylor 1987; Blumenfeld 2009). Furthermore, a life that not only avoids repetition but also ends with a substantial amount of meaningful (or otherwise desirable) parts seems to have more meaning overall than one that has the same amount of meaningful (desirable) parts but ends with few or none of them (Kamm 2013, 18–22; Dorsey 2015). Still more, a life in which its meaningless (or otherwise undesirable parts) cause its meaningful (desirable) parts to come about through a process of personal growth seems meaningful in virtue of this redemptive pattern, “good life-story,” or narrative self-expression (Taylor 1989, 48–51; Wong 2008; Fischer 2009, 145–77; Kauppinen 2012; May 2015, 61–138; Velleman 2015, 141–73). These three cases suggest that meaning can inhere in life as a whole, that is, in the relationships between its parts, and not merely in the parts considered in isolation. However, some would maintain that it is, strictly speaking, the story that is or could be told of a life that matters, not so much the life-story qua relations between events themselves (de Bres 2018).

There are pure or extreme versions of holism present in the literature, according to which the only possible bearer of meaning in life is a person’s life as a whole, and not any isolated activities, relationships, or states (Taylor 1989, 48–51; Tabensky 2003; Levinson 2004). A salient argument for this position is that judgments of the meaningfulness of a part of someone’s life are merely provisional, open to revision upon considering how they fit into a wider perspective. So, for example, it would initially appear that taking an ax away from a madman and thereby protecting innocent parties confers some meaning on one’s life, but one might well revise that judgment upon learning that the intention behind it was merely to steal an ax, not to save lives, or that the madman then took out a machine gun, causing much more harm than his ax would have. It is worth considering how far this sort of case is generalizable, and, if it can be to a substantial extent, whether that provides strong evidence that only life as a whole can exhibit meaningfulness.

Perhaps most objectivists would, at least upon reflection, accept that both the parts of a life and the whole-life relationships among the parts can exhibit meaning. Supposing there are two bearers of meaning in a life, important questions arise. One is whether a certain narrative can be meaningful even if its parts are not, while a second is whether the meaningfulness of a part increases if it is an aspect of a meaningful whole (on which see Brännmark 2003), and a third is whether there is anything revealing to say about how to make tradeoffs between the parts and whole in cases where one must choose between them (Blumenfeld 2009 appears to assign lexical priority to the whole).

Naturalists until recently had been largely concerned to show that meaning in life is possible without God or a soul; they have not spent much time considering how such spiritual conditions might enhance meaning, but have, in moderate fashion, tended to leave that possibility open (an exception is Hooker 2008). Lately, however, an extreme form of naturalism has arisen, according to which our lives would probably, if not unavoidably, have less meaning in a world with God or a soul than in one without. Although such an approach was voiced early on by Baier (1957), it is really in the past decade or so that this “anti-theist” position has become widely and intricately discussed.

One rationale, mentioned above as an objection to the view that God’s purpose constitutes meaning in life, has also been deployed to argue that the existence of God as such would necessarily reduce meaning, that is, would consist of anti-matter. It is the idea that master/servant and parent/child analogies so prominent in the monotheist religious traditions reveal something about our status in a world where there is a qualitatively higher being who has created us with certain ends in mind: our independence or dignity as adult persons would be violated (e.g., Baier 1957/2000, 118–20; Kahane 2011, 681–85; Lougheed 2020, 121–41). One interesting objection to this reasoning has been to accept that God’s existence is necessarily incompatible with the sort of meaning that would come (roughly stated) from being one’s own boss, but to argue that God would also make greater sorts of meaning available, offering a net gain to us (Mawson 2016, 110–58).

Another salient argument for thinking that God would detract from meaning in life appeals to the value of privacy (Kahane 2011, 681–85; Lougheed 2020, 55–110). God’s omniscience would unavoidably make it impossible for us to control another person’s access to the most intimate details about ourselves, which, for some, amounts to a less meaningful life than one with such control. Beyond questioning the value of our privacy in relation to God, one thought-provoking criticism has been to suggest that, if a lack of privacy really would substantially reduce meaning in our lives, then God, qua morally perfect person, would simply avoid knowing everything about us (Tooley 2018). Lacking complete knowledge of our mental states would be compatible with describing God as “omniscient,” so the criticism goes, insofar as that is plausibly understood as having as much knowledge as is morally permissible.

Turn, now, to major arguments for thinking that having a soul would reduce life’s meaning, so that if one wants a maximally meaningful life, one should prefer a purely physical world, or at least one in which people are mortal. First and foremost, there has been the argument that an immortal life could not avoid becoming boring (Williams 1973), rendering life pointless according to many subjective and objective theories. The literature on this topic has become enormous, with the central reply being that immortality need not get boring (for more recent discussions, see Fischer 2009, 79–101, 2019, 117–42; Mawson 2019, 51–52; Williams 2020, 30–41, 123–29; Belshaw 2021, 182–97). However, it might also be worth questioning whether boredom is sufficient for meaninglessness. Suppose, for instance, that one volunteers to be bored so that many others will not be bored; perhaps this would be a meaningful sacrifice to make. Being bored for an eternity would not be blissful or even satisfying, to be sure, but if it served the function of preventing others from being bored for an eternity, would it be meaningful (at least to some degree)? If, as is commonly held, sacrificing one’s life could be meaningful, why not also sacrificing one’s liveliness?

Another reason given to reject eternal life is that it would become repetitive, which would substantially drain it of meaning (Scarre 2007, 54–55; May 2009, 46–47, 64–65, 71; Smuts 2011, 142–44; cf. Blumenfeld 2009). If, as it appears, there are only a finite number of actions one could perform, relationships one could have, and states one could be in during an eternity, one would have to end up doing the same things again. Even though one’s activities might be more valuable than rolling a stone up a hill forever à la Sisyphus, the prospect of doing them over and over again forever is disheartening for many. To be sure, one might not remember having done them before and hence could avoid boredom, but for some philosophers that would make it all the worse, akin to having dementia and forgetting that one has told the same stories. Others, however, still find meaning in such a life (e.g., Belshaw 2021, 197, 205n41).

A third meaning-based argument against immortality invokes considerations of narrative. If the pattern of one’s life as a whole substantially matters, and if a proper pattern would include a beginning, a middle, and an end, it appears that a life that never ends would lack the relevant narrative structure. “Because it would drag on endlessly, it would, sooner or later, just be a string of events lacking all form....With immortality, the novel never ends....How meaningful can such a novel be?” (May 2009, 68, 72; see also Scarre 2007, 58–60). Notice that this objection is distinct from considerations of boredom and repetition (which concern novelty ); even if one were stimulated and active, and even if one found a way not to repeat one’s life in the course of eternity, an immortal life would appear to lack shape. In reply, some reject the idea that a meaningful life must be akin to a novel, and intead opt for narrativity in the form of something like a string of short stories that build on each other (Fischer 2009, 145–77, 2019, 101–16). Others, though, have sought to show that eternity could still be novel-like, deeming the sort of ending that matters to be a function of what the content is and how it relates to the content that came before (e.g., Seachris 2011; Williams 2020, 112–19).

There have been additional objections to immortality as undercutting meaningfulness, but they are prima facie less powerful than the previous three in that, if sound, they arguably show that an eternal life would have a cost, but probably not one that would utterly occlude the prospect of meaning in it. For example, there have been the suggestions that eternal lives would lack a sense of preciousness and urgency (Nussbaum 1989, 339; Kass 2002, 266–67), could not exemplify virtues such as courageously risking one’s life for others (Kass 2002, 267–68; Wielenberg 2005, 91–94), and could not obtain meaning from sustaining or saving others’ lives (Nussbaum 1989, 338; Wielenberg 2005, 91–94). Note that at least the first two rationales turn substantially on the belief in immortality, not quite immortality itself: if one were immortal but forgot that one is or did not know that at all, then one could appreciate life and obtain much of the virtue of courage (and, conversely, if one were not immortal, but thought that one is, then, by the logic of these arguments, one would fail to appreciate limits and be unable to exemplify courage).

The previous two sections addressed theoretical accounts of what would confer meaning on a human person’s life. Although these theories do not imply that some people’s lives are in fact meaningful, that has been the presumption of a very large majority of those who have advanced them. Much of the procedure has been to suppose that many lives have had meaning in them and then to consider in virtue of what they have or otherwise could. However, there are nihilist (or pessimist) perspectives that question this supposition. According to nihilism (pessimism), what would make a life meaningful in principle cannot obtain for any of us.

One straightforward rationale for nihilism is the combination of extreme supernaturalism about what makes life meaningful and atheism about whether a spiritual realm exists. If you believe that God or a soul is necessary for meaning in life, and if you believe that neither is real, then you are committed to nihilism, to the denial that life can have any meaning. Athough this rationale for nihilism was prominent in the modern era (and was more or less Camus’ position), it has been on the wane in analytic philosophical circles, as extreme supernaturalism has been eclipsed by the moderate variety.

The most common rationales for nihilism these days do not appeal to supernaturalism, or at least not explicitly. One cluster of ideas appeals to what meta-ethicists call “error theory,” the view that evaluative claims (in this case about meaning in life, or about morality qua necessary for meaning) characteristically posit objectively real or universally justified values, but that such values do not exist. According to one version, value judgments often analytically include a claim to objectivity but there is no reason to think that objective values exist, as they “would be entities or qualities or relations of a very strange sort, utterly different from anything else in the universe” (Mackie 1977/1990, 38). According to a second version, life would be meaningless if there were no set of moral standards that could be fully justified to all rational enquirers, but it so happens that such standards cannot exist for persons who can always reasonably question a given claim (Murphy 1982, 12–17). According to a third, we hold certain beliefs about the objectivity and universality of morality and related values such as meaning because they were evolutionarily advantageous to our ancestors, not because they are true. Humans have been “deceived by their genes into thinking that there is a distinterested, objective morality binding upon them, which all should obey” (Ruse and Wilson 1986, 179; cf. Street 2015). One must draw on the intricate work in meta-ethics that has been underway for the past several decades in order to appraise these arguments.

In contrast to error-theoretic arguments for nihilism, there are rationales for it accepting that objective values exist but denying that our lives can ever exhibit or promote them so as to obtain meaning. One version of this approach maintains that, for our lives to matter, we must be in a position to add objective value to the world, which we are not since the objective value of the world is already infinite (Smith 2003). The key premises for this view are that every bit of space-time (or at least the stars in the physical universe) have some positive value, that these values can be added up, and that space is infinite. If the physical world at present contains an infinite degree of value, nothing we do can make a difference in terms of meaning, for infinity plus any amount of value remains infinity. One way to question this argument, beyond doubting the value of space-time or stars, is to suggest that, even if one cannot add to the value of the universe, meaning plausibly comes from being the source of certain values.

A second rationale for nihilism that accepts the existence of objective value is David Benatar’s (2006, 18–59) intriguing “asymmetry argument” for anti-natalism, the view that it is immoral to bring new people into existence because doing so would always be on balance bad for them. For Benatar, the bads of existing (e.g., pains) are real disadvantages relative to not existing, while the goods of existing (pleasures) are not real advantages relative to not existing, since there is in the latter state no one to be deprived of them. If indeed the state of not existing is no worse than that of experiencing the benefits of existence, then, since existing invariably brings harm in its wake, it follows that existing is always worse compared to not existing. Although this argument is illustrated with experiential goods and bads, it seems generalizable to non-experiential ones, including meaning in life and anti-matter. The literature on this argument has become large (for a recent collection, see Hauskeller and Hallich 2022).

Benatar (2006, 60–92, 2017, 35–63) has advanced an additional argument for nihilism, one that appeals to Thomas Nagel’s (1986, 208–32) widely discussed analysis of the extremely external standpoint that human persons can take on their lives. There exists, to use Henry Sidgwick’s influential phrase, the “point of view of the universe,” that is, the standpoint that considers a human being’s life in relation to all times and all places. When one takes up this most external standpoint and views one’s puny impact on the world, little of one’s life appears to matter. What one does in a certain society on Earth over 75 years or so just does not amount to much, when considering the billions of temporal years and billions of light-years that make up space-time. Although this reasoning grants limited kinds of meaning to human beings, from a personal, social, or human perspective, Benatar both denies that the greatest sort of meaning––a cosmic one––is available to them and contends that this makes their lives bad, hence the “nihilist” tag. Some have objected that our lives could in fact have a cosmic significance, say, if they played a role in God’s plan (Quinn 2000, 65–66; Swinburne 2016, 154), were the sole ones with a dignity in the universe (Kahane 2014), or engaged in valuable activities that could be appreciated by anyone anywhere anytime (Wolf 2016, 261–62). Others naturally maintain that cosmic significance is irrelevant to appraising a human life, with some denying that it would be a genuine source of meaning (Landau 2017, 93–99), and others accepting that it would be but maintaining that the absence of this good would not count as a bad or merit regret (discussed in Benatar 2017, 56–62; Williams 2020, 108–11).

Finally, a distinguishable source of nihilism concerns the ontological, as distinct from axiological, preconditions for meaning in life. Perhaps most radically, there are those who deny that we have selves. Do we indeed lack selves, and, if we do, is a meaningful life impossible for us (see essays in Caruso and Flanagan 2018; Le Bihan 2019)? Somewhat less radically, there are those who grant that we have selves, but deny that they are in charge in the relevant way. That is, some have argued that we lack self-governance or free will of the sort that is essential for meaning in life, at least if determinism is true (Pisciotta 2013; essays in Caruso and Flanagan 2018). Non-quantum events, including human decisions, appear to be necessited by a prior state of the world, such that none could have been otherwise, and many of our decisions are a product of unconscious neurological mechanisms (while quantum events are of course utterly beyond our control). If none of our conscious choices could have been avoided and all were ultimately necessited by something external to them, perhaps they are insufficient to merit pride or admiration or to constitute narrative authorship of a life. In reply, some maintain that a compatibilism between determinism and moral responsibility applies with comparable force to meaning in life (e.g., Arpaly 2006; Fischer 2009, 145–77), while others contend that incompatibilism is true of moral responsibility but not of meaning (Pereboom 2014).

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• Delon, N., 2021, “ The Meaning of Life ”, a bibliography on PhilPapers.
• Metz, T., 2021, “ Life, Meaning of ”, in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy , E. Mason (ed.).
• O’Brien, W., 2021, “ The Meaning of Life: Early Continental and Analytic Perspectives ”, in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , J. Fieser and B. Dowden (eds.).
• Seachris, J., 2021, “ Meaning of Life: The Analytic Perspective ”, in Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , J. Fieser and B. Dowden (eds.).

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The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is copyright © 2023 by The Metaphysics Research Lab , Department of Philosophy, Stanford University

Library of Congress Catalog Data: ISSN 1095-5054

Bible Verses About Journey

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1 Kings 19:4

Deuteronomy 10:11, exodus 3:18, exodus 40:36, genesis 29:1, jeremiah 29:11.

Proverbs 22:6

Psalms 23:4

Psalms 91:11

Psalms 119:105.

Psalms 146:9

Romans 15:24, numbers 9:13, proverbs 3:5-6.

Judges 18:5-6

Genesis 12:1-2.

Books and Media

Discipleship Resources

The journey.

A Gospel Centered Discipleship Resource

The Journey is a gospel centered discipleship resource, designed to help a disciple maker develop mature and equipped followers of Christ, who will be able to do the same with others.

It has been designed and proven to be a resource that is helpful in the context of a local church that is implementing life-on-life missional discipleship.

The Journey: A Resource to Empower Multiplying Movements

Leader resources.

Each weekly unit has an accompanying leader guide, and an equipping video by Randy Pope, walking you through how he uses each lesson in his group.

3 Years of Content

The curriculum is broken out into three years (Red, Blue, or Green) that are available for individual purchase. The three years may be used in any order.

Direct Access

All content is sold and distributed directly through a dedicated website. Digital and print versions available.

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Making & Training Disciples Life-on-Life

In these booklets, Randy Pope gives insights from years of personal disciple making and training experience to show that anyone can make and train disciples in our culture today.

Discipleship Foundations

A five-week guide to discipleship that helps. Learn the foundational principles for life-on-life Missional Discipleship.

The Journey curriculum is a gospel-centered resource for discipleship groups. Three full years of curriculum are available, and each year contains in-depth leader's guides and discipleship content to help disciple makers develop mature followers of Christ, who will be able to do the same with others.

The Answer – Putting An End to the Search for Life Satisfaction

Are you frustrated that your life lacks lasting satisfaction? In "The Answer," Randy Pope invites us to discover a greater purpose and more fulfilled life. This paperback book is an excellent resources for anyone looking to live a more satisfied life.

Life Issues Booklets

The Life Issues booklets are a perfect resource for anyone who is interested in investigating the claims of Christianity or is assisting others through that process. These 4 booklets explore the Gospel of John and are accompanied by helpful readings and questions about the Christian faith.

INsourcing: Bringing Discipleship Back to the Local Church

What are you doing to mature your people. Is it working? Learn how a wide-scale personal discipleship program is attainable for any church.  

A primer for Life-On-Life Discipleship

​Many pastors and leaders are slowly awakening to the reality that current models of ministry just aren’t working the way they had hoped they would. Randy’s journey as a pastor will encourage and invite you to consider the effectiveness and fruitfulness of your own church’s discipleship efforts.

Express Your Faith

Helping Others Investigate Christ

Express Your Faith is a method of effectively sharing your faith developed by Randy Pope, lead teaching pastor of Perimeter Church. Some of the essentials you will learn include how to

Transition a conversation from secular to spiritual

Help your friends investigate Christ

Provide discipleship resources for others to easily investigate Christ

Introduce others to Christ and help them begin to follow Him

Monthly Info Calls

Interested to learn more about our discipleship training process? Our monthly information calls are a convenient way to get your questions answered from the comfort of your home or office.

Calendar of Events

Whether you are part of a current discipleship cohort or looking to learn more, check out all of our live and virtual events to see where you can take the next step.

Discipleship Training Workshops

Exclusively for current discipleship cohorts, our workshops are multi-day gatherings where church leaders dive into deep discipleship lessons, share experiences, and develop their skills.

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What Happened To Steve Perry's Daughter? The Truth About The Journey Members Personal Life

Steve Perry was never married, but he had a daughter who he raised with an ultra-private lifestyle.

• Journey's Perry, known for his music, had a hidden personal life, including a daughter who was kept out of the public eye.
• Despite being private, photos surfaced of Perry's daughter Shamela, hinting at the singer's private fatherhood.
• Perry found love in late Kellie Nash, inspiring his music comeback after years of isolation and personal struggles.

Steve Perry’s life in public mostly revolved around his music during the peak years of his career. The veteran rocker made a name for himself as the revered frontman of the iconic band Journey. However, away from his musical prowess and success, Perry had a complicated music career with Journey and a personal life that included a daughter with whom he had a strained relationship.

For the longest time, fans had no idea that the singer could have fathered a child because he was never married. Steve Perry had his personal reserve against marriage , and he made it public. However, the star made headlines in 2018 when he shared that he had a daughter, although he refused to speak further about her. This article will take a look at who Steve Perry’s daughter is, her life, and his personal life outside of fame.

A Look Into The Private Life Of Steve Perry’s Daughter

Steve Perry caught fans of his 80s rock music off guard in 2019 when he revealed in an interview that he fathered a child. The Journey lead rocker made his reveal while speaking with American journalist Dan Rather. The news was even more surprising because it came out years after Perry decided to return to the music world. During the eye-opening interview, the music star briefly spoke about his grown daughter’s life, adding that he was also a grandfather.

The “After All These Years” singer, however, relayed that he was not willing to divulge more information about his daughter’s life as he preferred to keep her identity hidden. He further told the interviewer that her privacy was of the essence. Steve Perry stated:

“I do have a child, but in the essence of protecting her, I kinda don't want to get into that...and I have grandchildren too."

The Reason Steve Perry Decided To Leave His Journey Band Members

However, the identity of Steve Perry’s only daughter appeared to surface in 2016 after eagle-eyed fans spotted and photographed her during a family outing. On Facebook, a fan page dedicated to Steve Perry showed two snapshots of the young lady and her family . Describing her as Shamela in the caption, the fan page presented the singer’s daughter looking happy with her children at an amusement park. The second image was an up-close photograph of Shamela posing with her superstar dad. The caption read:

Steve has a daughter and two grandsons. Her name is Shamela. No one knows what his grandsons’ names are because he protects them from public life…”

According to Tuko, Steve Perry welcomed his daughter with a woman he briefly dated in the 90s. The short-lived romance was private, leading up to their daughter’s birth. This ultimately led the former lovers to raise their child away from the limelight. It was also amid his fatherhood journey that Steve Perry noticeably drew away from the spotlight.

Since then, there haven't been any other public sightings caught on camera or shared on the internet. It is safe to say that the musician upheld his penchant for privacy at that time. It is noteworthy that he also hit a rough patch with his former bandmates around the same time. After decades of retreating to a very private life, Steve Perry reemerged in 2018, bearing a comeback album titled "Traces."

Steve Perry Is Still Making Millions From Journey, Even Though He Quit The Band In 1998

What happened to Steve Perry? During the years, he was missing in action, the Journey lead vocalist channeled a spiritual life and became enlightened on theological matters . Speaking to Rolling Stone in 2018, Perry opened up on how he learned to become open-minded about religions, although he did not actually become religious.

Steve Perry's career profile and net worth per Celebrity Net Worth:

Inside Steve Perry's Personal Life And Relationship

The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer got his big break alongside other members of Journey in the late 1970s after introducing music fans to their electrifying rock sound. Perry was known for his unique singing style, and it earned him a moniker from Jon Bon Jovi. Between his body of work with Journey and his solo career, Perry was known as "the Voice." Many years later, his evergreen music and name were immortalized in Billboard's Top 50 list of best rock singer band lead vocalists of all time.

During the years of his peak stardom, part of Steve Perry's love life played out in public, particularly his memorable relationship with Sherrie Swafford . The duo was known as one of the IT couples in the 1980s, and as a sign of his love, Perry dedicated his hit song, "Oh Sherrie" to her. The song came off his first solo album "Street Talk," which was released in 1984.

However, their romance did not stand the test of time due to Steve Perry's busy lifestyle. The singer was always on the road, doing so many tours, that this eventually drove a wedge between them. Following their breakup, Sherrie Swafford retreated from the spotlight until 2013, when Marc Tyler Nobleman of Nobelamania blog caught up with her. Swafford revealed to him that she had become an esthetician with a love for animals and yoga. She revealed that she never got married, but unlike Steve Perry, she never had kids.

Is Steve Perry Still Feuding With The Rest Of Journey?

Steve Perry found love again in 2011 when he met the late Kellie Nash . She was a cancer survivor at the time, and they hit it right off from the start. During an interview with the New York Times, Perry revealed that his relationship with her was the greatest thing that ever happened to him. The lovers were together for one year and a half before Nash passed on in 2012.

What became of Steve Perry's career after exiting Journey? On her deathbed, Kellie Nash made the Dream After Dream singer promise he would never retreat to isolation again. This ultimately geared his return to the music world. Steve Perry never had a wife due to how he witnessed the failed marriages of some of his friends, but it is safe to say that he experienced life-changing and wholesome romances.

More From Forbes

David archuleta lost ‘american idol’ but tells how he won a new life.

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David Archuleta, no longer the boy in this photo, is all grown up now, releasing his new hit about ... [+] leaving his faith, coming out and maturing into a man and his true self (Photo by Jonathan Leibson/FilmMagic)

When you find yourself on the side of the majority, it’s time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain

On the heels of the recent “American Idol” finale and May’s Mental Health Awareness month and in light of June’s Gay Pride Month, it’s only fitting to highlight the story of one Idol’s journey from boyhood into manhood, from the closet into the light. Like many gay youth, former Idol contestant David Archuleta had to squash his true self in order to gain acceptance from society, his Mormon faith and just to survive psychologically.

I sat down with Archuleta recently, and he spoke about what it’s like to morph from a teenager who did as he was told into a man who embraces the truth about himself— how he broke the bonds of society’s demands and religious expectations. The singer described how that freedom has had a big influence on his identity and mental wellness and how he plans to live a new life according to his own values—not someone else’s.

The Aftereffects Of ‘American Idol’

As a 16-year-old “American Idol” contestant, Archuleta rose to the top, placing second in the 2008 contest, losing to David Cook. But not without significant emotional trauma. Despite “Idol fame,” he was never able to be fully himself like many youth forced to deny or hide their sexual orientation. Compared to heterosexual people, LGBTQIA+ individuals —are 2.5 times more likel y to experience depression, anxiety and substance abuse as they face social pressures, stigma and discrimination.

Imagine the added pressures of being on the biggest show on television, watched by 30 million viewers, and it’s easy to see how that could break anyone. I asked Archuleta about his trauma from the “American Idol” experience. “It’s not just me,” he discloses. “Several other contestants told me they thought they were the only ones going through this. It has affected many of us even years after being on the show.”

The former Idol described panic attacks and trust issues as part of the PTSD. “You’re programmed not to trust people when you’re on the show, at least at the time we were on it,” he reveals. “I’ve spoken with former contestants who go back to appear on Idol, and they say, ‘I don’t know if I can handle this.’ And I’ve felt like that performing, too, terrified and wondering why it was affecting me that way. It makes you ask, ‘What was the mindset this show brings you to have as a performer?’ When you perform, you have a persona and become a character for everyone else. There are some parts that are you and other parts that are not.”

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‘suicide squad: kill the justice league’ ends its weekly updates, 1 dead and 26 hurt in overnight shooting in akron ohio, ‘it felt like a volcano erupting’ before coming out.

He shared his fears of coming out, announcing to the world that he is gay, and how scary it was to leave the comfort of his faith—the only world he knew that defined his purpose and identity.

“When you grow up in an environment where you’re told not to even acknowledge your sexuality because it’s not okay, you get an inkling that it’s possible that can be inside of you, and you disregard it,” he told me. “It’s scary to even play with that idea. I didn’t know that I was too afraid that it could be me until I couldn’t hold it in anymore.”

He sensed there was something about him that others said wasn’t okay but thought there was a misunderstanding around the issue. “First I was told I was going to hell for being a Mormon, and then I was told I was going to hell for coming out as well.”

Archuleta believes human beings naturally fear what’s different from them. “You’re wrong if you’re not like me,” as he puts it. Mormon people would tell him he was a nice person but that he was going to hell, anyway. The singer describes how he saw an anger in people because they didn’t want him to accept his sexuality. “I always wondered why it makes people angry. They’d say because it’s unnatural. ‘But how is that affecting you?’ I would ask. If this is wrong, then let me make a wrong choice. There’s a cultural fear that if you let people be queer, it will contaminate the hetero-normative society and diminish families. Gay people are told you can’t have what we have. So, if we say fine, then we’ll create our own and have relationships and our own families, then society says, ‘Look how disgusting they are. They’re not capable of being normal.’”

The singer states that when you’re not able to be yourself in the workplace, talking with someone can be healthy to get it out so you realize you’re not crazy or wrong, and it’s okay for you to be who you are. He suggests finding someone you can trust and open up about fear of rejection.

“I was a people-pleaser and kept trying to be something I’m not to get approval from the community I’m part of. But inside it felt like a volcano about to erupt like when you shake a carbonated soda and don’t know how to get rid of it. Finally, it pops out because you’ve pushed something down that didn’t belong to be pushed down inside of you. I got to the point of feeling I can’t do this anymore. It’s not honest it’s not sincere.”

The Man Today And His New Release

HOLLYWOOD, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 12: David Archuleta attends The Queerties 2024 on March 12, 2024 in ... [+] Hollywood, California. (Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino/Getty Images)

No longer the 16-year-old boy who topped “American Idol,” the 34-year-old man told me how he reclaimed the life he wasn’t supposed to lead during his Idol days. As the boy has grown, his mind has expanded, too.

He details how therapy helped him get to know himself, why he had the panic attacks and get through bumpy times. He spells out how, if he had a do-over of his boyhood, he would speak his mind and take more risks.

The man has learned to think for himself. He’s more vocal now and more bold, stretching through his shyness and extending his hand to others in social situations. “I’ve learned not to take everything so personally. If you have a fear of rejection and you get rejected, you say well I’m still here. Okay, my character is still intact.”

His new release “Hell Together ” was inspired by what his mom said to him after he left his Mormon faith and religion altogether. “It was a scary place to leave something that was all I knew and that gave me my purpose to live, but it was something I knew I needed to do as I felt a new sense and purpose for life,” the singer explains. “A few days after I publicly announced leaving the Mormon church my mom texted me saying she had decided to leave, too. I was shocked as she was so devout. I asked what made her feel she needed to leave because she didn’t need to follow my example. She said ‘If you go to Hell, we’re all going to Hell with you. We’re a family, and we’ll always be there for each other, in good or in bad!’ I was really moved by that.”

Archuleta says that most people in his church would think leaving your faith makes you feel dark and lost, but that wasn’t the case for him. “I felt like I found myself!” He exclaims, insisting his new release is meant to show the joy and how by leaving his religion he found a greater light within himself. “I’m enjoying who I am more than ever.”

Catch Archuleta’s performance when he appears on “Good Morning America” on June 28th and keep an eye out for his memoir due out next year.

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7 Steps to Create a Roadmap for Your Life

How to effectively navigate any major life change..

Posted March 30, 2022 | Reviewed by Ekua Hagan

• The archetype for life is the journey. The roadmap helps chart the trip through change and transition.
• A roadmap helps a person visualize their life—where they have been and where they want to go.
• Learning how to navigate change and transition will help one gain control of life's circumstances.

Since the archetype for life is the journey, a roadmap will help you plan your life moving forward much as you would prepare for a trip. Charting your trip tells you where you’ve been so far, where you intend to go, what obstacles you may face, and the places you keep returning to over and over again.

Our journeys are both inner and outer. The events of the outer journey, the cumulative transitions of a lifetime, will be somewhat similar for all of us who share the human experience. Our personal inner journey is a much more private affair. The roadmap is a reliable context within which to place your very own experiences and transitions.

The nature of life is change and all of us will make many changes and go through numerous transitions as we live life. Nothing stays the same and neither do we. So much colors who we are and who we are to become. Knowingly or not, we move into new and different phases that connect us socially and emotionally to others who are going through the same phase.

But beyond the normal changes we will encounter, there will be those changes and transitions we did not expect, did not prepare for, did not want to happen. How do we cope with encounters and transitions that are difficult, challenging, and often overwhelming?

One way is to learn to be prepared for whatever comes your way. How do you do that? Well, experience will be a great teacher. Once something has happened to you, it will no longer be an unknown. You will have learned something from it. But, it’s a lot easier if you have the tools to handle change and transition so you’re not surprised, so you’ll know what to do.

Here are seven essential steps to help you navigate through any change/transition you may encounter during the course of your life.

Have a realistic expectation. Before you embark on your next big change/transition, map your trip as best you can, knowing that things don’t always work out as you plan or hope they will. Know that things can go smoothly, or there may be delays, detours, and roadblocks. Be realistic about the timetable. Again, things may happen quickly or there may be delays, sudden stops, and sometimes re-routing before you reach your destination.

Review what you’ve learned about change . Each of your trips to a new place in your life has hopefully taught you something. It’s these cumulative events and your responses to them that help you navigate whatever happens to you moving forward. What you’ve learned and how to respond will help you make the best possible choices and decisions.

The exception to that, of course, is an event that places you in imminent danger, such as a life-threatening illness, unexpected personal crisis, or natural disaster, where you have no choice but to take immediate action. In that case, once the necessary actions have been taken and the dust finally settles, you can then go back and review, in order to figure out what the change/transition meant and what to do next.

Create a Life Timetable. This timetable should reflect major life transitions. What events did you initiate on your own? In other words, what inner events caused you to make a change? What happenings were foisted upon you by life circumstances? In other words, what events happened to you from the outside; those events you had little control over? What were your “triumphs?" What were your losses? Pay attention to the main emotions for each of these changes/transitions. How did you react to whatever happened to you?

Do you view each major event in your life in a positive light—you got something out of it? Or, do you fear change because you believe the things that have happened to you have impacted you negatively?

Define your Life Themes. This goes well beyond charting the chronological order of events, the basic facts of your life. Themes are generally easily recognizable—they are recurring and repetitive. Positively, life themes help you define who you are and alert you to your purpose and passion. Developing insight into how you process life and what is most important to you can help you gain more personal control so that you can skillfully steer the course in the direction you want to go.

Get in touch with your Life Lessons. We all have them. Each of us has our own unique things to experience and lessons to be learned. Not one size fits all. Our lessons come from every single facet of our lives—our background, family, culture, religion, social group, education . Those influencers help us define who we are from birth. Some of us are fortunate enough to have been given life skills early on so that finding our way through life is made easier, while others struggle to find their way. But there is always the opportunity at any point in life to learn and receive guidance from those around you.

Where you choose to take yourself in life and who you choose to associate with will inevitably influence you greatly. Paying close attention to how you respond to life will help you become acutely aware of the life lessons that await you.

Go beyond limiting beliefs. Do you really know what you believe? We often assume we know what we believe to be true—but that’s often not the case. What we think is true is frequently colored by others’ opinions and influenced by those we admire and trust. As much as they may care about us, they may not always know what’s in our best interest. And too, often the actions we take and the choices and decisions we make are based on ideas and beliefs that no longer serve us, if they ever did. So going beyond limiting beliefs may pave the way for changing how you make transitions moving forward. Push through to beliefs that bolster your confidence and support your endeavors.

Accept the unknown. There’s so much we don’t know as we go through life. With as much planning as we’ll do to ensure our desired outcome, there will always be those times when all the planning in the world will not get us the result we want. Who knows why? But it happens. Consider the unknown your friend in life. When you accept what you can’t control, what you can’t do anything about, it becomes far easier to accept what does come and make it work for you.

As Rilke said so well, “Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books that are now written in a very foreign tongue. Do not seek the answers, which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer.”

Abigail Brenner, M.D . , is a psychiatrist in private practice. She is the author of Transitions: How Women Embrace Change and Celebrate Life and other books.

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Screen Rant

What happened to kirsten perez after my 600-lb life season 4.

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American Idol Winner Already Dropped By Record Label Amid "Transition Period" In Career

90 day fiancé: is liz woods married to her new boyfriend jayson, the golden bachelor: what happened to theresa nist after her split from gerry turner.

• Kirsten Perez's appearance on My 600-Lb Life showcased her struggle with obesity. Her emotional eating problem was sparked by childhood trauma.
• With the help of Dr. Now and therapy, Kirsten made real progress. She got bariatric surgery, which led to significant weight loss. As she slimmed down, her health improved.
• After relocating to Washington with her son, Kirsten continued her weight-loss journey. She showed that the My 600-Lb Life program can really work.

This article references a sexual assault.

Kirsten Perez appeared on My 600-Lb Life , and curiosity surrounds how she's fared since the show. In her episode, she weighed 612 pounds and had mobility issues. Concerned that she might become bedridden, Kristen reached out to the infamous Dr. Now . Like a lot of other cast members from the show, Kirsten lived with the effects of trauma. She revealed that she was gang-raped when she was a teenager, overeating as a coping mechanism.

She also had addiction issues beyond food, which she opened up about on the show.

Due to Kirsten's avoidance of therapy, Dr. Now gave her an ultimatum - if she refused therapy, he would withdraw his offer to help her. Kirsten agreed to Dr. Now's request and obtained bariatric surgery. She even managed to surprise her dad by doing so well. By the end of her episode, with assistance from her therapist, she'd started trying to see things in a more positive light. Was Kirsten able to maintain her weight-loss journey after My 600-Lb Life ? It seems like she's doing well.

People who are very overweight should talk to physicians. Doctors can help them to create realistic and healthy weight-loss plans.

Kirsten's Journey On My 600-Lb Life Was Turbulent

Her impaired mobility made her angry.

Kirsten suffered so much due to her high weight. In the clip above, she was trapped in a body that was betraying her. Unable to move with ease, her anger and frustration drove her to tears. It's wrenching to watch an addict (Kirsten's hooked on food) self-destruct. Addiction is so powerful - it ruins (and often ends) lives. In the video, Kirsten had trouble getting out of a chair and walking around . She said:

“Getting out to the car should be two seconds, but it takes me like, ten minutes.”

Also, Kirsten couldn't enjoy a ride in a car because of her size. She managed to get into the passenger seat, but the door wouldn't close. These experiences underscore how humiliating and degrading super-morbid obesity can be. Her frustration stemmed from a feeling of powerlessness. At that point, her addiction was stronger than she was. However, in time, she found the strength to lose over 100 pounds. When she did, she began to take control of her life. That weight loss was achieved after her gastric bypass procedure.

Kirsten had other challenges. Since she was so large, it was hard for her to bathe regularly. She depended on others for help with a lot of personal care tasks - her mother was her primary helper. Some of the psychological turmoil that led to obesity was the result of "daddy issues." In her family, she felt like her father preferred her brother.

Most people have these issues on some scale - they have their mommy or daddy issues - they have their body issues etc. However, people who end up at extremely high weights may also be dealing with mental illness. Their depression (or whatever mental health problem they have) makes it harder for them to get over things and focus on their own well-being. Mental illness is really a given in such situations , and many My 600-Lb Life stars have talked about their depression.

Kirsten Perez Gets Trashed At Reddit

My 600-lb life fans don't appreciate her.

Despite this sad fact, on Reddit, there is little pity. In fact, although Kirsten sobbed onscreen, a thread started by DonutsJunction was harsh. Kirsten was torn apart. The OP said:

I'm in shock with how disgusted I am by her. So she hates her family so much that she gets knocked up twice and then abandons her children with said family so she can continue living a disgusting hedonistic life and then has the nerve to complain her son has problems and is nasty to her??? You gave your children a broken mess of a home and then you try to burden your teen son with your care? YOU'RE the adult here! And throughout the episode she yells at him unnecessarily. She whines and complains and has excuses for her excuses. Her family has the patience of saints to put up with her absolute wretchedness!

Kirsten has said shocking things and behaved badly. So, she does deserve some of the shade. However, mental illness may be the reason why. She should have stopped to think before she described a hospital as a:

"fat person concentration camp"

It's not good to throw around jokey concentration camp references. 12 million Jewish people died in WWII, and many of them perished in Nazi concentration camps. While she was trying to say that the situation was unbearable, she could have used different words . Referencing a sick genocide was offensive.

Kirsten Moved Back To Washington After My 600-Lb LIfe

She kept working on her fitness.

In 2016, Kirsten moved to Houston to be closer to Dr. Now and kick-start her My 600-lb Life weight-loss journey . However, after Kristen obtained bariatric surgery, she and her son relocated to Washington. He was uncomfortable in Houston, and she had to send him back to Washington due to behavioral issues. While living there, she continued her weight-loss journey .

Kirsten Made An Inspiring Recovery After My 600-Lb Life

Kirsten never gives up.

Kirsten has maintained a very quiet life, but she's undoubtedly healthier. Before she embarked on her weight-loss journey, she was living with addiction, and her family members weren't quite sure how to help her. Her diet and addiction were out of control. Luckily, she managed to pull herself up with help from Dr. Now and her therapist, Lola Clay. Whether she still sees them is unknown, but they undoubtedly helped her feel better after a very traumatic time. It can be challenging to commit to therapy, and Kirsten's bravery should be commended.

Kirsten may have lost up to 200 pounds. She lost at least a hundred pounds. While that's a lot of weight, some reality stars have lost even more. For example, 1000-lb Sisters star Tammy Slaton lost 440 pounds. She's had one of the most dramatic transformations in reality TV history.

Nonetheless, Kirsten lost a lot of weight. Maybe she wanted to lose more, but she did slim down. When a person who's obese changes their body by getting thinner, they may minimize health risks.

There may be less visceral fat around organs - this kind of fat can trigger metabolic syndromes, such as diabetes.

Dr. Now Did Help Kirsten Perez

He has helped many patients.

Kirsten realized that being so overweight was negatively impacting her quality of life, and she decided to seek help. She overcame significant obstacles to get the results she wanted. In My 600-Lb Life season 12 , there were more inspirational weight-loss journeys. While Kirsten is no longer in the spotlight, she seems to have benefited from the program and surgery showcased on My 600-Lb Life .

Sources: DonutsJunction /Reddit

My 600 Lb Life

Science | June 2024

Journey Into the Fiery Depths of Earth’s Youngest Caves

What Iceland’s volcanoes are revealing about early life on our planet

Speleologists in metallurgical “cooling suits” emerge from the extreme heat of a lava tube formed by the eruption in 2021 of Mount Fagradalsfjall.

By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee

Photographs by Robbie Shone

Francesco Sauro first explored a cave when he was 4 years old. He was with his dad, a professor of geography, in the Lessini mountains, near the northern Italian village of Bosco Chiesanuova, where his father had grown up. His dad was also an amateur cave explorer, and the trip was a kind of preordained rite of passage. “The only memory I have about those caves is that I cried,” Sauro recalls. “I was very scared because of the darkness.” When Sauro was 12, and visiting the area again with his family, the founder of a local museum told him that a nearby cave held the bones of ancient cave birds. “In that moment, my curiosity overcame my fear,” Sauro says. From that day on, he was hooked.

In the nearly three decades since, the 39-year-old geologist has trekked into dozens of caves around the world: on islands in the Atlantic Ocean, inside glacier mills in the Alps, beneath the forest floor of the Amazon rainforest. In 2013, he discovered some of the world’s oldest caves inside the mountain known as Auyán Tepui in Venezuela. All told, he’s surveyed more than 60 miles of these hidden worlds, including several caves that were unknown to humankind. Some were millions of years old. Others formed tens of thousands of years ago. Recently, he explored caves that are even younger: pristine cavities known as lava tubes, forged inside cooling mounds of molten rock during the eruption of the Fagradalsfjall volcano, in southern Iceland, in 2021. For explorers looking to set foot on uncharted territory, few spaces can match the novelty. But beyond that elemental thrill, these infant caves offer an exceedingly rare opportunity to study cavernous worlds almost from their moment of origin.

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This article is a selection from the June 2024 issue of Smithsonian magazine

The most common caves on Earth are formed when rainwater mixes with carbon dioxide in the soil and turns into a weak acid, dissolving soft, soluble rock such as limestone below. Similar “destructional” caves are formed inside mountains and rocky formations made of less soluble material such as basalt, when flowing water slowly erodes the stone over long periods of time. “Constructional” caves, by contrast, are forged when flowing lava begins to cool, creating a top, crusty layer that solidifies into rock. As the molten lava beneath the crust flows out, it leaves behind a new cavity—a lava tube. “These caves are built in an instant of geologic time,” Sauro says. Lava tubes can range in size from a small hollow barely three feet in diameter to a large chamber more than 150 feet tall. They can be formed as a single conduit, or as a series of small, interconnected tubes. Some might be “tiered” one on top of another—a stack of caves.

Somewhere between 50 to 70 of the planet’s 1,500 or so active volcanoes erupt every year. When Mount Fagradalsfjall began to erupt in March 2021, capping what had been more than 800 years of dormancy, the world looked on with fascination, in part because an eruption elsewhere in Iceland a decade earlier spewed giant clouds of ash into the atmosphere over Europe, impacting air travel. This time there was no such disruption. Instead, tourists from Iceland and around the world swarmed to the site, some getting within 500 or so feet of the eruption, to glimpse the brilliant red and crimson lava gushing from the mountain and cascading down its sides. “It was the first case where we had cameras everywhere around the volcano, and images coming from the thousands of tourists that were going there to see this incredible show,” Sauro says.

Sauro, a full-time speleologist and president of a geographical exploration society called La Venta who also works with NASA and the European Space Agency to help train astronauts in planetary exploration, monitored these developments from his home in northern Italy. He spent hours each day looking at photographs and video footage from the site. This rich stream of information was not just giving researchers the ability to track how and where the caves were forming. It also presented a rare chance to study the interiors of caves that hadn’t yet been touched by living matter: to observe the cooling process, the formation of minerals and the early microbial colonization of those environments in unprecedented detail. And because the caves were formed from lava surpassing temperatures of 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit, the environment inside would be completely sterile. “I was thinking: Hey, as soon as the eruption stops, this will become like an incredible laboratory,” Sauro recalls. “This will become a new world.”

Mount Fagradalsfjall is not actually a single mountain but a cluster of small ridges on a plateau on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 25 miles southwest of Reykjavik. The surrounding area is flat and covered in moss. The eruption began in a valley between the ridges. As it continued over the next few months, Sauro began making plans. He knew it was imperative to access the caves as soon as physically possible.

That time was of the essence was a lesson that speleologists had learned in 1994, when studying lava tubes formed after Mount Etna erupted in Italy. When they entered the tubes nearly a year after the eruption had stopped, at which point the temperature inside was still a dangerously high 158 degrees, the researchers found rare crystals and minerals. Returning six months later, however, those minerals were gone. They were “metastable”—holding their form only at high temperatures. As the lava tubes cooled, they had disappeared, and so had the opportunity to examine them in detail.

To prepare to enter the new caves in Iceland, Sauro and his team needed a precise understanding of where exactly they were forming and which tubes presented the easiest and safest access. Gro Pedersen, a geologist at the University of Iceland’s Nordic Volcanological Center, was tasked with collecting images. She and Birgir Óskarsson, from the Icelandic Institute of Natural History, surveyed the volcano from an airplane, flying over it once every two weeks or so between March and September 2021. They also collected other images captured by drones and satellite imagery. “Because of the different angles, we were actually able to create a topographic map, in addition to a good visual map of the lava flow field,” Pedersen says.

Sauro and his colleagues, who had received a grant from the National Geographic Society, finally got close to the volcano in September 2021, about a week after the eruption subsided. Using their maps, the team identified windows, or “skylight points,” on the surface—locations that were potential entrances into newly formed caves. They flew a drone equipped with thermal imaging cameras over the site to map the temperatures of different parts of the volcanic landscape. In May 2022, they were able to approach the entrances of several caves, but thermal cameras indicated that inside temperatures were still reaching 900 degrees. “There was burning air coming out,” Sauro says. “The winds outside were cold. The contrast between the exterior and the interior was crazy.”

Sauro and his expedition members finally entered one of the caves that October, wearing metallurgist suits designed to withstand high temperatures and breathing from portable tanks filled with compressed air, because the air inside was too hot to breathe and laden with toxic gases. The walls were still radiating heat like a furnace, and in certain places the floor was nearly 400 degrees. Sauro and two other team members, equipped with thermal imaging cameras to monitor conditions, advanced cautiously, like a line of soldiers, allowing for the person in the middle and the person in the rear to pull back the line leader in case the expedition suddenly turned dangerous. “The air temperature could change from 100 to 200 degrees [Celsius] in just one meter,” Sauro says. In one tube Sauro entered, the cave wall was still glowing, with a temperature of nearly 600 degrees Celsius (1,100 degrees Fahrenheit). “It was one of the most impressive things I saw,” he says. Pedersen visited the caves after they had cooled further. “I know very few places on Earth where you can go into things that you have seen being born,” she says. “That’s kind of amazing.”

Two lines of research interested Sauro and his colleagues. First, they were eager to study the minerals they would find inside the caves—those formed on the cave walls and other rocky surfaces. Second, they hoped to discover when these extreme habitats would be colonized by micro-organisms and discern which microbes would thrive. Learning how such newly formed caves might begin to harbor life could help researchers refine their ideas about how life developed on Earth, and it would also provide guidance about how and where to look for signs of life, current or past, on other planets, such as Mars. “We know that lava tubes were constantly forming in Martian volcanoes,” Sauro explains. “So they could have been quickly colonized, becoming a kind of Noah’s Ark for Martian life—if life ever existed there.”

Concerned that some minerals could change or disappear over time, the researchers brought a scanning electron microscope to the site to produce high-resolution images of the samples to help them identify them. Rogier Miltenburg, a technician with the biotechnology company Thermo Fisher Scientific, housed the instrument inside a tent next to the volcano, and he ran a generator inside the tent to maintain the vacuum needed for the microscope to function. The conditions were precarious: Once, when it was raining, a river started to form through the tent. “I had the power supply on the floor, and luckily the water sort of diverted around it,” Miltenburg recalls. “Otherwise we would have had a short.”

The researchers came across a variety of minerals along fissures and grooves on the cave surfaces. “We found this beautiful white stuff. And then we said, ‘Wait a minute, that’s green there, that’s blue there,’” says Bogdan Onac, a mineralogist at the University of South Florida who was part of the team. Using sterile spatulas, the researchers scraped off samples and packed them in vacuum-sealed bags. Since the temperatures in the lava tubes were so high at the outset, Onac was expecting the minerals to be completely dehydrated crystals, so he was surprised to find some whose texture resembled that of wet sugar, indicating that, in spite of the high heat, water molecules in the environment had been incorporated during mineralization. After collecting samples, Sauro and his colleagues would turn around and walk to the tent for a look at what they had found. By ascertaining a sample’s chemical composition from the images produced by the electron microscope, they could usually identify the mineral within half an hour.

The team had expected to find some minerals such as mirabilite, which is made up of hydrogen, sodium and sulfur. But they also found novel minerals formed from the combination of copper with sodium, potassium, sulfur and other elements, resulting in rare substances that the team is currently studying in greater detail. One surprise mineral, for instance, was wulffite—an emerald-green crystal whose composition includes sodium and potassium along with copper sulfate. “It has only been found once before in the history of mineralogy, in a Russian volcano site,” says Fabrizio Nestola, a mineralogist at the University of Padua. Nestola, who is conducting detailed analyses of the mineral samples at his Padua lab, is certain that some of the minerals will turn out to be entirely new to science, potentially revealing as yet unknown processes by which mineralization takes place.

Sauro’s microbiologist colleagues, meanwhile, collected samples from patches of rock surfaces marked by “biofilms”—areas that had begun to be colonized by bacteria. After extracting samples and analyzing DNA from them at laboratories off-site, the researchers found that different micro-organisms had flourished in different parts of the same cave. “The first data indicate that environmental bacteria, mostly those associated with soil, begin the colonization,” says Martina Cappelletti of the University of Bologna, a microbiologist. “They are probably initially transported inside the cave through air currents.” These micro-organisms can thrive because they are able to subsist on rocks—that is, to derive energy from oxidizing inorganic materials. Over time, as the caves cooled, the diversity of microbes inside the caves increased. The findings suggest that such life-forms, which would not require water or organic matter to survive, should have the best chance to establish a foothold in extreme environments—whether in the distant past or on other planets.

Indeed, tracking microbial colonization will help scientists searching for life elsewhere in the universe. Even on planets where surface conditions today seem inhospitable, lava tubes may once have provided temporary or enduring refuge to life-forms that rapidly colonized the interiors and survived. “If some specific microbial life is able to quickly colonize lava tubes on Earth, why could this not have happened on Mars?” Sauro says.

Penelope Boston, director of NASA’s Astrobiology Institute at NASA Ames, Moffett Field, describes lava tubes as “a model for what we may potentially find on other bodies in the solar system.” And volcanic activity isn’t limited to Earth and Mars. Even Io, one of Jupiter’s moons, has active volcanoes, suggesting that planets and moons beyond our solar system may have volcanoes—and lava tubes—too. That’s why Boston sees great value in studying the caves Sauro is investigating. “I think that designating places around the world where we have this ability to see an early history of microbial colonization from the get-go is something that deserves worldwide attention,” she says.

The eruption of Fagradalsfjall has subsided, but Sauro has been following news about other volcanoes in Iceland with interest. This past March, when a new eruption started on the Reykjanes Peninsula , at Mount Hagafell, a few miles west of Fagradalsfjall, he mused about “new tubes forming, literally, right now.” These uncharted caverns could be his next hunting ground.

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Yudhijit Bhattacharjee | READ MORE

Yudhijit Bhattacharjee, a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine , has also written for Wired , the New Yorker and others.

Robbie Shone | READ MORE

Cave explorer Robbie Shone has photographed cave systems in some of the remotest parts of the world.

Abi Carter is the newest 'American Idol' winner: Look back at her best moments this season

Newly crowned 2024 winner Abi Carter was an "American Idol" frontrunner since her Season 22 audition , where Luke Bryan declared she "may be the winner."

But that didn't mean the 21-year-old musician from Indio, California, was coasting over the course of the season, which ended with Sunday night's finale.

Though Carter earned one of three coveted platinum tickets from  Lionel Richie ,  Katy Perry  and  Luke Bryan and became known for her emotional performances of sweeping ballads, she also came out on the "Idol" stage with several alternative and rock hits to show she wasn't a one-trick pony.

When she wasn't wowing viewers with her vocals singing Billie Eilish's " What Was I Made For? " (her audition song) and " Part of Your World " from "The Little Mermaid," she was storming the stage in dramatic fashion with songs like Fall Out Boy's " My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light Em Up) " and Evanescence's " Bring Me to Life ."

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"I probably had a lot of the voters who liked me for the slow, nice things but then there's a massive part of the voters that don't like the slow stuff," Carter told media outlets, including USA TODAY, an hour after her "Idol" win. "So I think it was really cool — that gave me the opportunity to show versatility I didn't even know I had."

In celebration of Carter being crowned "American Idol's" 22nd winner , here's a look back on her season.

From Jennifer Hudson to Abi Carter: All 22 'American Idol' winners, ranked

Abi Carter says she wouldn't 'be here without Billie Eilish'

During the May 19 finale, in a full-circle moment, Carter received a surprise personal message from Eilish.

"Hi Abi, it's Billie. I wanted to say congratulations on making the Top 3 on 'American Idol.' This is such a big deal, and I'm so happy for you. It's so amazing to see you in the finale after you sang my song 'What Was I Made For?' in your audition," the Grammy winner said as Carter, shocked, sank to the floor on stage.

Eilish added, "I love you so much. I wish you nothing but the best. I am here to support you forever, and I love ya."

Carter told members of the press after filming, "I've literally been a fan of Billie Eilish since her first single, 'Ocean Eyes,' came out. That, I'm pretty sure, changed me musically (and) who I am as a person. I just don’t think I'd be here without Billie Eilish."

Of Eilish's video, she said, "Maybe that was a kick and helped me. It's changed my life. She's changed my life.”

Luke Bryan predicted Abi Carter as the winner after her audition with 'What Was I Made For?'

As the final televised audition, Carter finished Episode 2 with a bang.

"I hope I can do it justice for you," she told Perry, who'd expressed her love for Eilish's song.

As the 21-year-old sang and played the piano, the judges exchanged approving glances. With her closing notes, the room erupted in applause, with the judges giving a standing ovation as Carter cried.

"Thank you for being an example of singing from your heart. What were you made for? You were made for this, 100%," Perry said before embracing the singer.

"That may be the winner of 'American Idol,'" Luke declared, adding, "I've never heard the crew clap."

After Carter's family rushed into the room to congratulate her, Perry exclaimed, "She's the best thing we’ve ever heard!"

Richie concurred: "That’s the best we've ever heard on this show," he said. "I'm not kidding."

Carter looked back at the life-changing audition in March while speaking with the Palm Springs Desert Sun , part of the USA TODAY Network.

"It was nerve-racking, of course. I'm pretty sure I blacked out during the performance," she said. "But to see all three of the judges stand up, and for Katy to come up to me and give me a big hug, for Luke Bryan to say that he thought I was going to be the next winner of 'American Idol,' and Lionel Richie to agree with him and say they didn't even have to vote, that just meant the absolute world to me.

"I thought I was dreaming."

Who's replacing Katy Perry? Judges reveal must-haves for whoever takes Katy's seat

Abi Carter was an early favorite for the judges

In an 18-episode season, Carter rarely fumbled.

A week after she squeaked into the Top 24 despite performing Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time" with bronchitis, Carter made a valiant comeback with her performance of "Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)" by Hillsong United in Episode 8.

"I don't know if I’m allowed to say it, but you're my favorite," Perry said as Carter was brought to tears. "I just think you are so gifted."

Fast forward a few weeks, and Carter was continuing to kill it in the live shows. After she sang Elton John's "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" in Episode 12 , Perry deployed one of her favorite adjectives for her fellow Southern Californian: "angelic."

"From day one, it's always been you," Perry said. "Tonight, it's always been you. You sing with such an angelic frequency, and I think a lot of things are going to happen in the future when you sing."

As the competition narrowed down to the Top 5, Perry was as shocked as the rest of the viewers by Carter's fiery performance of "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark."

"Why were you saving that for almost the last show? You can do that?" Perry said, then added, "That performance made me scared for my job."

Who is Abi Carter? The 'Idol' winner's background

Carter, the second oldest of seven children, was homeschooled for most of her life, she told the Desert Sun in March. She attended high school for part of a school year but decided to stay home and help her single mom manage their family when her parents got divorced.

"My mom had to start going back to school to get a degree to support all of us," she said. "I, subsequently, kind of had to leave public high school and go back into homeschooling so that I could get a job to be able to buy a car and take my siblings to and from school and extracurricular activities because my mom was then occupied with her schooling."

With the inspiration of her mom, who enjoyed singing, Carter was a lifelong chanteuse. When she was 7 or 8 years old, she started piano classes. And when her family could no longer afford the lessons, the teacher "continued to do it for free because she believed so much in me," Carter recalled.

She went on to perform all across the Southern California's Coachella Valley in street fairs and on small stages in local venues. For college, she attended California State University San Bernardino and earned a degree in psychology.

Contributing: Ema Sasic, USA TODAY Network

‘The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson' Bosses on 10-Year Journey to the Docuseries

Though Lifetime first announced the four-part docuseries, The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson , on April 12 - one day after O.J. Simpson died from metastatic prostate cancer at the age of 76 - the project has actually been a decade coming, says one of its executive producers, Melissa Moore.

"It's 10 years in the making," Moore tells The Hollywood Reporter in the conversation below. "I connected with Denise Brown first over the topic of domestic violence. I'm a survivor of domestic violence myself, and we connected through going to speaking events and galas, raising money. Over this last decade, a friendship and trust started to be built, so much so that I got introduced to the other Brown sisters, Dominique and Tanya, and then in 2016, they introduced me to the Simpson children, and that trust then continued on with my relationship with Brie and Jesse," Moore says of her co-executive producers, Brie Miranda Bryant and Jesse Daniels, both of whom worked on the Lifetime documentary Surviving R. Kelly.

The laborious process of conducting the hundreds of hours of interviews captured with Nicole's loved ones - like her sisters and close friends Kris Jenner , Faye Resnick and Kato Kaelin, as well as Detective Tom Lange, who oversaw the investigation into the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman on June 12, 1994 - began roughly a year ago. It was the 30th anniversary of Nicole's death that prompted the sisters to initiate the project.

"It was New Year's that Denise called me and she said, ‘I'm ready. It's going to be the 30-year anniversary soon. It's either now or never. It's time to tell Nicole's story," Moore recalls. "I thought, ‘Wow, it's finally happening.' This is something that I've wanted to do for a very long time, and it's hard to really state - there was a personal drive within me that wanted to tell this story that was matched with Brie, that was matched with Jesse. It was almost like kismet that we all came together, and we were all unified in this north star of telling Nicole's story in a way that can't ever be duplicated. I hope that we were so definitive in this doc that it can never be duplicated."

Below, Moore, Daniels and Bryant talk with THR about their research process and the personal insights they gained into who Nicole was in the midst of putting the docuseries together.

What was Lifetime the right home for this docuseries?

MELISSA MOORE Lifetime is a brand centered on survivors and female voices, and that's what I felt was missing here. That if I close my eyes and I think of Nicole's voice, I couldn't hear it, but if I closed my eyes, I could tell you exactly what O.J.'s voice sounds like, and that's a tragedy to me. That she's the victim in this horrific murder case and we don't even know what her voice sounds like.

Did you talk to Nicole's children, Sydney and Justin, about potentially being a part of the docuseries?

MOORE Obviously, the timing of their father's passing has had a great effect [on them]. They lost their mother 30 years ago, now they've lost their father. That's something to be considered.

How did the process begin? Did you start with archival research or with interviewing the sisters?

JESSE DANIELS It was parallel. The second meeting with the sisters, Dominique opened up her trunk and there were boxes and boxes of tapes and reels in all kinds of formats. So on the archive side, we had our work cut out for us. It's one of those great problems to have where we had hours and hours and hours of footage that we needed to start digitizing immediately because nobody knew what was on there.

MOORE Something special about the footage that you see in this documentary is it was at one time at the bottom of the ocean in a container. When the Browns moved from Germany to Laguna to Monarch Bay, their shipping container with some of their belongings fell off the ship and they eventually recovered some of it. So it was heavy, heavy pressure when we started digitizing the footage because it's very fragile.

DANIELS But from an archive standpoint, it's so important to have that layer where we can hear Nicole's voice, we see her as a child, we see that relationship getting forged between Nicole and her sisters as children. It adds such an emotional layer to be able to see that in connection with the interviews. It really brings Nicole to life.

Nicole's diaries also shed a greater light on what her life was like with O.J. What was it like for you reading those entries?

MOORE I feel like it was her voice from the grave, and this was a story that she wanted to share. It was buried in a safety deposit box that was intended to potentially save her at some point. I know the creation of this diary was to document the abuse so that at some point she could free herself. And in that safety lock deposit box were letters from O.J. to her apologizing for the abuse. It was a collection of a timeline that she was using for her freedom that ultimately, she never got. So I felt like it was her words from the grave and that they were never used in the trial is astonishing.

DANIELS The diary entries coupled with our interviews, I think, really give viewers a comprehensive look at the abuse that was happening behind closed doors for so many years, and the lengths to which Nicole fought it in her own way, sometimes just alone by herself. That was a huge focus of ours. This story is not just about her murder, it was about the years leading up to it.

O.J.'s alleged pattern of abuse is established early in episode one with his ex-wife, Marguerite Simpson. Her sister, Veterdata Jones, is featured in the doc. Did Marguerite decline to participate?

DANIELS We reached out to everybody. There are 50 interviews that we did for this series and for the 50 that agreed, we reached out to countless others to interview and try to build as comprehensive and dynamic a story as possible. Certainly, Marguerite was one of the people we reached out to.

And the same is true for Nicole and O.J.'s friends AC (Al Cowlings) and Marcus Allen?

DANIELS Absolutely. This reminds me of Surviving R. Kelly . Our school of thought is that we don't know what we don't know. So our job, especially in telling Nicole's story, which has never really been documented ever before, is we needed to reach out to as many people as possible because everybody had a story. Some people were huge parts of Nicole's life. They were a sister, they were a best friend, others had just a moment with Nicole, but their story also mattered in a big way. So that was our process in reaching out to the 50 participants who interviewed with us.

How did O.J.'s passing in April affect production? Was he a figure that you had discussed potentially being a part of this series?

DANIELS We were just as surprised as everybody else to hear his passing. We were already very far along with the production. Nothing changed in terms of our timeline, on top of which our focus was always Nicole. So, creatively, not much changed either. As part of our process in putting this together, there was going to be a point where we were going to reach out to O.J. as part of our journalistic process with this story, but we never got to that.

Did the high-profile nature of this murder and the coverage it received in the ‘90s make finding footage to include easier?

MOORE I would say harder. There's a high bar because when it comes to these really huge milestone moments in the case; it's been very well documented and defined and unearthed. To have access to it was arduous. Some of the access that we got was through the lead detective Tom Lange. The audio that you hear in the Bronco is of Simpson and Tom negotiating and having a conversation. But we always wanted to bring it back to Nicole, so in the Bronco Chase, the conversation O.J. is having with Detective Tom is about Rockingham, how he took Nicole there for his first date. It reminds you this is a story about two people that were once in love and went in a horrific pattern down.

DANIELS To add to that, our post team really combed through every single piece of archive you can imagine because the goal was not to show the same clips that we're used to seeing every day. So the big challenge was, where are those clips that are out there that people have not seen? And our post team, our archivist, was really instrumental in finding new footage, as well as our participants.

What new insights did you uncover that particularly struck you while working on this project?

BRIE MIRANDA BRYANT I think that there were so many nuances and connective tissues that we had to create about this particular story that just have never been explained. There are some really tremendous works that evolve around this trial of the century. You have Ezra Edelman's talk, you have The People v. O. J. Simpson , a wealth of information has been shared over the course of 30 years, but the Life & Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson is different because we had never heard from her before to understand her as a wife and a mother, a daughter, a sister, a friend. So tapping into the nuances of that and creating a fabric out of it was interesting in itself. I think the thing that we also did that was pretty interesting and different from everything else is talk about the aftermath of the trial. Most of these works stopped at the trial and that's not where it ended for her family and her friends and her kids.

What stuck out to each of you most about who Nicole was?

MOORE I feel like I know her because of all the conversations I've had with her sisters. Her voice, to me, sounds like Denise's voice. When I hear it on the tape, I hear Denise talking. What I loved about Nicole is her idea of romance. She loved flowers and beauty and wanted to be this kind of Martha Stewart-like mom. And I found that very warm. She was modeling that after her own mother, "Dita." I found her to be a beautiful, loyal friend too. Everybody spoke about her loyalty. She wasn't a girl that was impressed with material things, but she was a beauty, and a natural beauty, too.

DANIELS There are two parts of Nicole that come to mind because going into this all I knew was Nicole the victim. On a personal level, I'm a parent as well so I got to know Nicole as a mother. I feel like I've built a really strong connection with her as a mother and as a parent throughout this process. The other big surprise for me was getting to know Nicole as a fighter. She, in her own way, fought. And while she didn't survive this, she certainly was a fighter for many, many years, and I think people will be surprised about that.

BRYANT You can see that fight too. You see that fight in Denise, in the stories of their mom. She sacrificed so that she could continue the relationship with her grandchildren. And when Denise talks, I feel that fight. So, for me, this is for the people that have known her and loved her, that were so lucky to have her. I feel like we're so lucky to have been able to get to know her through this and the Brown family.

The Life and Murder of Nicole Brown Simpson  aired its first two episodes on Saturday and will conclude Sunday with the final two episodes at 8 p.m. ET/PT on Lifetime. 

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