Nothing Has Meaning… Except the Meaning You Give It

“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”
— Proverbs 23:7

The Story of the Empty Room

A man sat alone in a cold, gray room. The walls were bare. No sounds. No clocks. No windows. Just him and silence.

One man enters this room and says, “I’m being punished. They’ve stripped me of everything. I’m forgotten.”
Another walks in and says, “Finally. Peace. A retreat from the noise. I can finally hear myself think.”

Same room.
Same silence.
Completely different experience.

Why?

Because nothing has meaning except the meaning you give it.

The Science Behind Meaning

Neuroscience agrees: your brain is not a passive recorder of life. It is a meaning-making machine. According to Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett, a leading psychologist and neuroscientist, the brain constructs your emotions not by reacting to the world, but by interpreting it through your past experiences and assigning predictions to the present moment. This is called predictive coding. You feel what you believe, and you believe what you repeatedly assign meaning to.

The Reticular Activating System (RAS) filters the information you notice based on what you believe is meaningful. If you believe people cannot be trusted, you will only notice betrayal. If you believe life is full of opportunities, you will find them. Meaning is not something found. It is something created.

This is what Tony Robbins means when he says, “Meaning equals emotion, and emotion equals life.”

The Inner War of Meaning

You have probably had seasons where everything felt like a curse. Maybe betrayal hit you hard. A divorce. A failure. A lie you told yourself. Or maybe a story someone else told about you, and you believed it.

That is the battlefield.
Your interpretation, not the event itself.

Dr. Jordan Peterson writes that we are narrative creatures. The stories we live by are not merely reflections of the past. They are projections of our future. If the story you tell yourself is one of defeat, your body and habits will follow. If it is one of redemption and resilience, your physiology, posture, and possibilities will shift too.

The enemy is not always outside of you. Often, it is the voice inside saying, “This means I am not enough.”

But you have the power to rewrite it.

Viktor Frankl and the Ultimate Test of Meaning

If there is one man whose life and words prove that meaning is not something given by circumstances but chosen by the soul, it is Viktor Frankl.

Frankl was an Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor who endured Auschwitz and other concentration camps. He lost his pregnant wife, his parents, and nearly everything he owned. But he refused to surrender his ability to choose meaning.

In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl wrote:

“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

Even in the darkest, most inhumane conditions, Frankl noticed that those who survived were not necessarily the strongest or the smartest. They were those who clung to purpose. The ones who believed their suffering could be transformed into service.

He recounted how, in the camps, men who had something to live for… an unfinished work, a child they hoped to see again, a conviction of faith… endured what should have broken them.

Frankl also wrote:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

That is the sacred power of meaning. It allows you to rise, even when life pins you down. Frankl called this “tragic optimism”… the ability to say yes to life, even in the face of suffering, guilt, and death.

Meaning is what makes a man unbreakable. Not because life is kind, but because the soul is anchored.

This is not theory. It is spiritual warriorship. And every man must fight this battle if he hopes to be truly free.

Biblical Meaning: Anchored in Truth

Scripture calls us to rise above fleeting feelings and shallow stories.

“Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely… think on these things.”
— Philippians 4:8

The Apostle Paul was imprisoned, shipwrecked, beaten, and betrayed. Yet he still wrote, “Rejoice always.” How? Because he chose the meaning.

In Acts 16, Paul and Silas are in prison. Not just any prison, but a Roman dungeon. Their backs are bleeding. Their feet are in stocks. Yet they choose to sing.

And that choice cracks the walls of the prison.

Your prison may not be made of iron. It might be shame, addiction, resentment, or a father wound. But meaning is your key. When you take the pain and reinterpret it through the lens of purpose, you begin to crack the walls of your own captivity.

Choose or Be Chosen For

If you do not choose meaning, meaning will be chosen for you.

Society, culture, trauma, and even algorithms are more than happy to interpret your life for you. But when you surrender the pen, you surrender your power.

I have sat with thousands of men. Warriors. Fathers. Leaders. Addicts. Kings. Beasts. And what separates those who transform from those who repeat is simple:
They took back authorship.

They stopped asking, “Why is this happening to me?”
And started asking, “What does this mean for me?”

The Man Who Rewrote His Story

One of my clients, a former combat veteran, came to me haunted by guilt. He believed he was cursed to relive the worst day of his life over and over. That day defined him.

But through our work, he began to see something deeper. That day had forged a man of responsibility, humility, and conviction. The guilt became fuel. The pain became his offering. He began to live not from shame, but from sacred duty.

And for the first time in decades, he could breathe.

That is what happens when you assign a new meaning. One based not on trauma but on truth. Not on fear but on freedom.

The Invitation: Meaning Is a Muscle

You can train your body. You can master your schedule. But until you train your meaning-making muscle, you will always be vulnerable to the storms of life.

You are not a passive participant in this world. You are the author. The steward. The man God has called to interpret pain into purpose and setbacks into sacred preparation.

If you want to walk through this process with me, and you are ready to stop repeating the same narrative and start rewriting your life, then I invite you into the deeper work.

Not shallow advice.
Not soft coaching.
Not generic goals.

This is the work I do with high-performing men who are tired of hiding behind performance, pain, or perfection. It is not for everyone. But if you know it is time, then visit the link below.

www.keithmwaggoner.com and apply to work with me personally.

Your story is still being written.
Choose your meaning before someone else does.