We have all heard the phrase, “Do something that makes you happy in life.” It’s repeated to us constantly, no matter what stage of life we’re in.

As children, we’re encouraged to go out and enjoy ourselves. As we hit our teen years, we are forced to think about what our futures may hold, and are encouraged to take classes that make us happy and look for colleges that will help us achieve our dreams. When we get to college, we take classes to help us get a job that will make us happy. We look to be involved in our communities to feel that sense of happiness.

And once we are in the working world, it continues, this endless search for happiness. When we reach the end of our working years, we retire, to be happy, and to do other things with our lives that make us happy.

And at the end, when we are on our death beds, we ponder: Were we happy?

I have a better question: Were you fulfilled?

Every life has a purpose, a reason for being on this beautiful earth. And the great thing about it is you get to choose what that purpose is. You learn what drives you, what motivates you, what makes you feel amazing and proud and helpful and…fulfilled.

It’s a difficult concept, though, because fulfillment is so much deeper than happiness. Happiness is a fleeting emotion, something we can accomplish every day. Fulfillment is a lasting goal that cannot be achieved by a simple action.

Fulfillment brings into question our motives, our deepest desires, the primitive instincts inside that drive each and every one of us towards greater purpose in our lives. Fulfillment requires you to move toward doing something that truly matters, not just something that makes you feel a fleeting sense of enjoyment.

So, ask yourself now, are you fulfilled in your life? What is it, deep down inside you, that really makes you feel a tingling, warm, sensation deep within your core, something so much deeper than the normal definition of happy can encompass?

It’s probably not a job, but it may be a service you perform in that job that makes it matter to you. For instance, being a nurse certainly isn’t something that’s glamorous, and most days on the job probably won’t bring you all that much fulfillment, but when you save a child’s life and tell the worried parents their baby is going to be okay, you may feel that deep sense of fulfillment that you’ve been craving.

You’ve achieved your life’s purpose.

I encourage you to think about what it is that truly drives you. Not the socially acceptable answers. Not the logical answers. Not the rehearsed response you give every time someone asks you what your major is and why you chose it. Truly realize what it is that makes you want to throw away everything else in life and plunge headfirst into an adventure that takes your breath away.

It may be life altering, disappointing, eye opening, even embarrassing, and that’s okay – you don’t have to tell anyone what it is that makes you feel fulfilled. But you have to acknowledge what it is.

Because one day, you’re going to be asking yourself if what you did in your life mattered.

And trust me, you want that answer to be “yes, it did.”