Purpose, Meaning and Cydni Stats

What do a German walking study, Thomas Jefferson, and fake Taco Bell statistics have in common? They all show up in this heartfelt (and hilarious) conversation about purpose and meaning. Cydni and Sher explore what drives us, why it matters, and how even the smallest callings can shape a life. Throw in some quotes, a bit of sass, and a few “totally real” statistics, and you’ve got one uplifting episode. This episode is, "Purpose, Meaning and Cydni Stats" and we are so glad you are here!

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Your challenge this week is to serve someone today. Also, If you’re unsure of your purpose, journal about it for five days—you’ll start to see a pattern.

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Show Notes

Drip-Drip Drop, Words and  Music by  Matt Hoiland
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Transcript

Episode 122 - Purpose, Meaning and Cydni Stats

Cydni: . [00:00:00] Share. I'm using a lot of statistics in this one. 

Sher: Ooh, how exciting. 

Cydni: I know. And then I was thinking. How many stats are made up because How can you really know? 

Sher: I totally agree. I've sent in enough education classes to know they're just making all that crap up. They have no idea. 

Cydni: And then the person's mood, if someone asked me, Hey, do you feel like you have a purpose in life? And are you happy? There's like two weeks outta the month. I'd say, no, I'm not. I would only paused to answer as a burrito goes down my mouth, and then I would sometimes be like, I honestly feel so grateful and proud of my life. So it depends. I feel like stats are not super accurate. It doesn't matter. I'm still gonna use some. And I did ask AI how many are made up, and the answer said, 83% of statistics are made up on the spot, including this one. And I was like, okay. Little ai, funny little robots. They are taking over 

Sher: They are, 

Cydni: when they're funnier than us, it's over. 

Sher: Well, that's not hard to do when [00:01:00] it comes to us. 

Cydni: No. 50% of the people that listen to our podcast find us to be the funniest. 

Sher: You did some research on that. Yes. 

Cydni: 33% of my children agree that their mom has the best dad jokes. It's found that 75% of Taco Bell's revenue comes during a woman's period. All true stats. Yeah. Is there a job where you can make up stats? I feel like I would thrive. 

Sher: Yeah. It's called 

Cydni: politics. Yes. Welcome to the Cydni and Sher Podcast. We're so glad you're here. 

Sher: Cydni This year we have been focused on what we can do to be happier in our lives, and this month, in August, we just wanted to get back to the basics. So we decided that maybe we should talk about our purpose and meaning,

Cydni: this was a good reminder for me too, because here it is, August back to school. That's what we're doing with this podcast. We're going back to the school of our basic joy, basic happiness, basic [00:02:00] purpose and meaning, which we say basic, but it is very complicated. Because we brought up this topic in different ways several times, but it's there's so much information on it and there's so many ways to look at it as well.

Sher: I feel like it's one of those topics. The more you study it, the more you realize you don't know about it. Right. And it's hard to figure out because this is something that's personal, it's just for you. And so sometimes when it's just for you and you need to figure it out, it makes it more difficult because sometimes wanna be told what to do, although I don't ever wanna be told what to do.

Cydni: Same. And also, it's so overwhelming because you don't wanna get your purpose wrong. And then we overthink it because we're like, oh my gosh, maybe my purpose isn't this, and so I need to look for a different purpose. And then we don't do anything with our time at all.

Sher: So one of the things that I know this sounds really stupid, Cydni, but when I think of purpose and meaning, I had the same definition pop into my head. Finding your purpose and meaning it's the same definition for both of them, but I looked up [00:03:00] the definition of purpose and meaning, and the definitions are different. And then I felt silly that I am an old lady and didn't realize that they're two different meanings. 

Cydni: I also would've done the same thing. And did this was your idea to break those down. And I never had thought about it. So me as a young woman, a young lady, a little lass, if you study it, they're put together all of the time. What is your purpose and meaning? Find your purpose and meaning. It's always put together. I like how you separate, you segregated them ' 

Sher: Please choose a different word. 

Cydni: I like how you allowed them to grow in their own little garden and let them blossom to who they really are. And they both have space to be who they are, 

Sher: Thank you for fixing that. So just to put it really simple, purpose is your mission or what you're doing. Meaning on the other hand is why it matters to you. But let's dive into it just a little bit more. Let's start with purpose. The definition of purpose is it's the reason you do [00:04:00] something. It's your goals, your intentions, or what drives your actions. This is the important part. The focus is outward. What you aim to achieve, build or contribute. So an example in my life is, my purpose today is to teach my students to love history. That truly was my purpose you know, I'm teaching eighth and ninth grade most of my career, and I knew that they probably wouldn't remember one darn thing from my class, but they would remember if they liked or loved history or not. And so if I could get 'em just to love history. I succeeded so on the other hand, meaning the definition is , the significance you assign to life experiences, it's how you interpret events, relationships, or your existence. But the focus for this one is inward. It's how you understand value, interpret your life and its events. So an example in my life again, would be teaching gives my life meaning because I see my students grow, which is true.

And I really thought this [00:05:00] was interesting when I thought of purpose and meaning like this because I can't even tell you how many teachers I have heard over the years, whether they're religious or not, that doesn't even matter, that have referred to teaching as their calling.

So many teachers feel like in the universe or in my case, God called me into teaching. That is my mission. That is my purpose, it does give meaning to my life. When my students actually understood concepts, like there's something about teaching.

When you see that little light go on in their heads, you can see it, their whole face kind of lights up when they get something. It's such an adrenaline rush. It, never got old And so that's something that was just put into my soul and so many teachers feel that way that, , this truly is their calling. And I know that there are so many other careers that feel the same way. And God puts these different ambitions and callings and purposes in your life. Life gets life is insane, but individuals can find happiness by answering their calling and finding their [00:06:00] purpose and meaning in it.

Cydni: While you were talking, I did think it's so easy to say those things, but it feels really difficult to sometimes accept that is your calling. It's really easy to doubt. You've been called to something probably with self-worth issues of who am I to be called to do That is something that comes to mind.

Sher: I think sometimes we undersell it, for example, teaching. I felt called to do that, but. We look at it and say, well, that's stupid. Like, I'm not really doing anything great. I'm not making a lot of money. I'm never gonna be famous in any way, shape, or form. And so then we downplay it. earlier, Cydni, you were talking about being a stay at home mom, which is the most important job. In the world, but we so often as a society look down on that when really it's the building blocks of society, that's something that's so important and you feel called to do it. But in our brain, we're like, well, it's really not that big of a deal. This is really lame. And then you get used to doing the same thing over and over again. It gets boring, and then you're like, this is stupid. Why am I doing it? so we ourselves tear that [00:07:00] apart and we're like, this is the dumbest calling. I don't wanna do it anymore. 

Cydni: I'm so glad you brought that up because this was exactly what was on my mind as well as I've studied this, every example speakers use, it's always someone who has accomplished something major. It is the next person I'm gonna talk to about has Started a business when they were seven years old and sold it for $18 billion and now they're an actress and an activist and they travel the world. It's always somebody who has done something magnificent and exciting and flashy, and that really is incredible and inspiring.

Sher: I totally agree because one of the people I listen to. He dropped out of high school. His parents made him get his GED, but by the time he was 16, he had a full blown business. I'm just a teacher teaching naughty kids. We cannot compare then I feel like a loser. 

Cydni: Well, 77% of people in our hometown here say, you're not a loser. Oh, thanks. My family has the 

Sher: 30%. That's where they're like, oh, no loser. Only 23%. [00:08:00] But, 

Cydni: But it is true. It feels like what we feel called to do oftentimes doesn't feel exciting enough to share. Or like, maybe we're not striving to be bigger and better and flashier. And with the example of being a mother that stays home, it is true that it feels like it's not appreciated, but it's so important. And I remember really struggling with this when the kids were because that just was so draining. You're just literally feeding. Putting them to bed, helping them not fight over blocks on repeat for like 20 hours at a time. And so it's really easy to say, what am I doing with my life And it came to me that, of course, Satan would take the most important callings and make them feel so insignificant. He would take things that matter. The absolute most and make it sound like it's not good enough. And I think to myself, who in my life has impacted me the most? They are people that nobody else really knows. They're my grandpa, my grandparents, a teacher who has said something [00:09:00] to me or has made me feel loved and made me feel important.

Those people have impacted my life more than anybody famous or well known. And somehow we think that. Our calling isn't good enough or it's not exciting enough to share. And again, of course, things of most importance would feel insignificant. And I've had an interesting experience with this lately because I've always dreamt of being famous. That was like my generation, we all wanted to be on the cover of magazines . And so when you find out that five foot two and not willing to get dressed every day doesn't cut it. it could be a hard pill to swallow. 

But recently. In my prayers, I have been praying to use my time wisely. And again, as I've said before, our surrender podcasts have just helped me so much to surrender my time and my wants to God. And how do you want me to use my time? Every time I sincerely have prayed? How do you use my time in the best way? The impressions that have come to me after those prayers have always [00:10:00] been, reach out to this person, do this for somebody. It has been a one-on-one interaction. Spend time with this child. They need a little bit of extra love. It's always been a very simple one-on-one individual. This person needs extra love and I have found that to be very humbling. 

Sher: And it's interesting that's been your answer because we have learned over and over. The secret ingredient to happiness is service, God wants us to use our time wisely, and that really should be our purpose and meaning for all of us, is to follow the plan God has for us.

Cydni: Yes. Service is a significant part of the happiness route, but also our purpose is to serve those who are around us, to love our neighbor, to love God, to serve.

Sher: Don't forget about serving the people closest to you. That is important the people that you see every single day. Don't take 'em for granted. Don't forget to serve them. 

Cydni: Ben just sent me a meme that had Christ's teaching on a mountain and the people are saying in a little thought bubble. Lord, but who [00:11:00] is my neighbor? And then it has Jesus saying, whoever you don't want me to say right now is who your neighbor is. 

Sher: Speaking of. Using our time wisely though. Thomas Jefferson wrote in a letter to his daughter, Martha Jefferson. He said, determine never to be idle. No person will have occasion to complain of the want of time, who never loses any. It is wonderful how much may done if we are always doing Thomas Jefferson found so much purpose and meaning in his life by using his time wisely Study Jefferson. That dude, I don't know how he did everything he did during the day, but he was always using his time wisely. That was his calling when I read this, it actually reminded me of my parents. That's exactly how they were. They were always busy doing their purpose and calling was to show us how to work hard and never to waste time. They were constantly doing something productive. That is what gave them joy is being able to do that. 

Cydni: That's significant with actual real [00:12:00] statistics that I found because recent studies. These are real ones. Can we note that since I've lied 15 times so far? This was a real one. Done. This is the real thing. This was a real survey done. In the us they found that in 20 21, 70 5%. Of the people surveyed lacked purpose and meaning 75%. 

Sher: Oh man. 

Cydni: And then they did a study also in the UK that was 89% lacked purpose and meaning, and then X, formerly known as Twitter, they pulled together the. Data and they found that a high number of the tweets use phrases to represent life such as soul crushing and pointless. And I've heard before that the worst part of life is not dying. The worst part of life is living with no purpose. And that is what's happening. People are living without a purpose and without meaning, and I cannot imagine trying to get through every day. With no idea of why we are here, what is the [00:13:00] point of all of this? Because there's a lot of suffering in this world. We go through terrible things and we do terrible things to each other. I can't even imagine trying to get throughout our days and our weeks and our years without understanding any point to this life that is so dark and dreary. 

Sher: That really is sad. Those statistics explain why so many people have depression and anxiety and things like that, that people are really suffering. And honestly, we've all been there. I feel that, we all have our peaks and valleys and lows and highs, and we are gonna have those moments where we doubt and are like, what is the point? But this is why being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and having faith in Christ, it pulls me back up and I am so grateful for that. To have a knowledge and understanding that there is more to this life than just suffering and misery.

Cydni: I'm glad you brought religion into it because I've always thought it was so interesting that some very popular motivational speakers, they talk [00:14:00] about if you want to have a happy life, you need to know who you are. You need to understand why you are here and you need to serve others.

And , as a young child who always soaked up, motivational speakers, I thought it was so interesting that the faith I believe in answers those questions and I know that I am. God's child I know that I'm here to become more like him and our whole culture is about service.

So it answers these things and it kind of helps, but so many people don't have it. In fact, another statistic for you, which is not that happy, but I thought that this might be connected. So I looked up the decline in religion because a lot of people find purpose in their faith. But what we're finding is a lot of people are losing faith and they're losing a connection with God. They said that in America anyway, that 40% of Americans belong to a religious group.

This is down from 70% in 1999. That is a huge drop. There was another one that said something along the lines of there was [00:15:00] 18% of people who put their names with a religious organization. That's different than being spiritual, but only 18% will say they're with a specific organization. I did look up and tried to research why are the numbers falling so much in America specifically? And the answers I'm finding are because of urbanization, education, internet access. 

Sher: Oh, sure. Always blame it on the teachers and education.

Cydni: So what it really said was it was 90% of the teacher's fault, especially the history teachers apparently. But I thought I don't know any religion that doesn't have some questionable history in it. And sometimes that's really hard to swallow, to be like, okay, that guy did what? Excuse me, I don't understand this. And so I feel like we live in a time where there's so much information. That it's almost detrimental. I'm not saying we shouldn't know what the truth is, but what I was learning is that the echo chambers is a huge part of why people are falling away from religion.[00:16:00] 

It's because. Instead of finding something that you're uncomfortable with and you don't understand and then trying to work your way through it they just join groups where everybody hates it and they decide to be done with it. it's tricky and it's sensitive because there are things that don't make sense.

But instead of people doing work to find the truth and instead of going to God. With, Hey, I have some questions and doubts and fears, and I'm not sure about this. People are going to the internet and they're just finding answers that way. And it's proving to show that people's happiness levels are going down and their purpose is getting lost and their meaning is lost.

So I just find that really interesting and they just said that distraction and access too. Information, and again, echo chambers were a big part of it because they're finding that it's more acceptable for an atheist or a skeptic to share what they feel than a believer that a believer, if they shared they would be more attacked than an atheist. That's just the data. I'm just the messenger. 

Sher: and I also think that as a believer, I [00:17:00] have been. Trained, unfortunately, to keep my mouth shut so that I don't offend anybody. But it's okay for them to offend me, and that's acceptable.

I think that I have trained myself to be politically correct by keeping my mouth shut, and that's unfortunate. And one more comment about what you said, Cydni I always think it's interesting that it's so easy to do research and find the flaws in people that have done good.

They've done good things in life, but they have made mistakes because they're human. We all have good and bad in us. And that's no exception for anybody. A religious leader or a founding father. choose your topic. Everybody has made poor decisions. And they've also made awesome decisions.

Cydni: Yeah. Immediately I think of Saul, who becomes Paul. Mm-hmm. His history is horrific. Right. It's so bad it would not fly today. No. He would be canceled, but he becomes Paul. And then obviously Kanye West. Oh gosh. I mean, he's got some great albums out there. Please stop. Please stop. And then what happens? So, you know, [00:18:00] obviously those two come to mind immediately. Well, there was a study. just loving your study. So 

Sher: smart. You're so academic. 

Cydni: I recently researched a study that was published in 2009 in Germany. We've talked about this one before and many people are familiar with this study, but I've never done a deep dive into it to learn exactly what went on in the study.

 The study was to find out if people who are lost walk in circles, there was a group of six people who were dropped off in a forest, they had not been in this forest before and everyone had GPS trackers on them, four were dropped off on cloudy days and two on sunny days.

This is important. And then three people were dropped off in the desert. Two of them during the day, one during the night, and then there was a group of 15 who were just straight up blindfolded in a field. Everybody had the same purpose given to them to walk in a straight line, I can't walk in a straight line I'm not even intoxicated. I'm just like, I can't do it. I'm not blindfolded. There's no alcohol, and I [00:19:00] stumble. So I thought, good for these people so almost all of them said they were sure and confident that they had walked in a straight line and they did not what was really fun about this is that the days where there were cloudy days or the moon was covered, those walkers. They did the worst. Walking on cloudy days. They consistently veered off course. And the night walkers in the desert. That's so honest, know, scary. The lady of the Knights, oh, you were think scary and I was thinking prostitution. 

Sher: Completely opposite directions there. Those night walkers, 

Cydni: they, when the clouds covered the moon, they. Almost returned exactly to the starting point. Oh gosh. And the blindfolded group, they 100%, they walked in very small circles. It wasn't even large. It was small circles over and over and over. When the sun or the moon was visible, they did the best they could do, walking in a straight line. And it said these [00:20:00] celestial bodies served as an external reference points to recalibrate their sense of direction. I love this because one I love, they used the word recalibrate because let's bring Saul back into this. He. Needed to recalibrate a little bit, but I love that it wasn't like they walked a perfect straight line, but it was, you could adjust, you could fix it, you could straighten out a little bit, and then you had a guiding light. They used the sun and it guided them, and they did the best that they could do. When there was darkness, they were completely lost, but they felt like they weren't. And I think that's really fascinating. I love the idea that we need light and we need the sun to guide us. 

Sher: There's a lot of symbolism there. President Nelson, has a quote that explains this. He said, when the focus of our lives is on God's plan of salvation and Jesus Christ and his gospel, we can feel joy regardless of what is happening or not happening in our lives. So sometimes we may feel like [00:21:00] we're going in a straight line when. We're walking in a circle and when we realize it, we're probably not too pleased with ourselves in the decisions that we've made. And sometimes we may feel called to do something and feel so strongly about it, and. It might not work out or it might not happen right away, but if we focus on God's plan of salvation and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the Son guiding us and leading us in the direction we need to go, we can still feel hope and joy and He will help us figure out our purpose and our meaning in life as God's children. This is the divine plan for all of us. And remember, this is individualized for each of us. And this is what makes it so darn hard, is we can't just copy somebody else. Exactly. It might be similar, but God has it tailor made just for us, we have to figure out our own purpose and our own meaning. because we are here to learn and grow and this is all to help us get back home to our Heavenly Father and our Savior.

Cydni: One thing I feel like has helped us a [00:22:00] lot, at least me, is we are trying to be very intentional with every episode of the purpose of this. Is to illustrate this one sentence, and that's really helped us to walk in circles a little bit less because that's kind of been my thing. 

Sher: Yeah, we're good at walking in circles.

Cydni: So we're trying to be more intentional and our intention with this one is to Inspired the idea that you have an important purpose and a meaning in life, and it is worth pausing your busy life and your busy routine and considering what that is. Even thinking about it every day has been a suggestion from several TED Talks and podcasts and books where they say your purpose is so vital that you should consider what it is every single day. And if you don't know what it is. Journal about it. Do it for a few days and you will see a pattern, which I have done. Did you do it? She, you were supposed to. I already know you didn't. I'm just calling you out. 

Sher: I forgot Cindy even text me and said, Hey, don't forget to do this. And I said, okay. And then I still forgot until you just brought it up just now. So 

Cydni: [00:23:00] it's terrifying to do it. It's terrifying for me because I did see a pattern after a few days of things I feel called to do and I haven't done them. And that is terrifying because i'm not a spring chicken. And so to recognize that you might, in your heart. Know that you have a calling and maybe you're not doing it as much as you should, is terrifying. 

Sher: That is terrifying. And I think all of us fit into that category that maybe we're not quite. Upping our game where it needs to be. 

Cydni: Yeah. It's such a fine line between, hey, you don't have to go out and be the newest pop star to You're enough as you are to, you could do more though. that's, it's really complicated juggling. That is, but what we are seeing according to all these stats is that if you want to live a happier life, then you need to understand your purpose, and you need to have meaning to your life.

But as Sher said, the idea is to embrace your small purposes, your purpose doesn't need to be grand. Helping one person or mastering one skill can be enough and because this has been our focus as [00:24:00] we've studied the last few weeks, I have seen the difference of people who are living with purpose or my days with purpose versus not. One of my children had a friend over and she was just a young teen and she was just like the most darling girl ever. she was very open and she was talking to me about some things that happened in her life and some of the quotes she was saying in the book, she had mentioned, I thought, there's no way this young girl is reading this book for no reason.

And so I asked her, I How did you start going about some of these books and these philosophies? I'm a little surprised, and she said, I had a very traumatizing childhood and my mom tried to get me help and put me in a mental facility, and it made it worse. And she said when I left I thought to myself. I have a choice. I could either not be anymore, which sounds pretty nice, or I could give a purpose to what I've gone through. And she's so young her soul was so beautiful and , she said she's studying on her own psychology and understanding mental health because she will go to [00:25:00] college and she will help the mental facilities because she doesn't want anyone else to go through what she went through.

I thought of, of course, Viktor Frankl, who if you Google anything about meaning and purpose and happiness, his name pops up over and over and it's because he taught the lesson that you must find purpose in your suffering. When I read Man's Search for Meaning, one thing that stuck out immediately because I thought to myself, why was he taking so much note of everything I didn't know it was because he had already written a manuscript for a book and he wanted to publish it. That was his most prized possession outside of his family. and he lost both. He lost his family and his manuscript, but every single day he watched people because he knew that he was meant to release a manuscript he knew he needed to express to people The compassion and the beauty he saw in the suffering.

 He felt called to release this manuscript. And so because of that, he watched people's interactions. He watched people who gave their last piece of bread to [00:26:00] somebody and serve somebody else knowing they would die. He watched people who prayed and people who gave up. He watched people have their last cigarettes and lay in bed and not wanna do anything else, and then they would die.

 And I thought it's so interesting that here as a young teen. Who already has come up with this idea that you have to find purpose in your suffering. And those people that Viktor Frankl was around that found purpose are the ones who were more likely to survive, and their purpose wasn't very big. Again, it was a small purpose. It was my purpose is I wanna see my family again. When there was such a simple purpose. It gave people the will to survive. And my takeaway from all of this is that we have a choice. We could choose to live blindfolded and walk in circles and think we're doing all right, or we can take the blindfolds off and we could seek the light, we could seek God and we could seek our purpose.

Sher: Sydney, I love that. One of the things that happens when you find your purpose and your meaning in life is it makes us so that we can [00:27:00] act we are acting and we are not acted upon. It gives us power and not victimhood. It's us taking control of our situation and choosing to power through, and that power comes through obedience to God. So when we are obedient to God, He will help us find our purpose and He will help us find our meaning. He's promised us that He will do that for us, but the key is, again, that we're going to make good and wise choices and choose to be obedient to Him. 

Cydni: I'm glad you said that because actually, Sher, in 2021, a millennial survey showed that 75%. Felt more purpose when they had agency over their decisions. That one's real too. I'll do some other lies later. 

Sher: It's true though. I mean, really it does. When you are using your agency to follow your calling, it gives you so much , power and control over your life. 

Cydni: Our challenge this week is to serve someone right now. Today. We also challenge you if you do not have a clear vision of your own purpose to [00:28:00] journal about your purpose for five days in a row, you're going to see a pattern. If you do it, Sher, 50% of us did it.

Sher: that's a true stat right there. This brings us to our final thoughts. Getting back to the basics of purpose and meaning helps us remember who we are and why we're here. Purpose is our mission. What we do each day, while meaning is why it matters to us deep inside. So many people feel called to their work as if God placed that ambition in their hearts. President Nelson promised that when we focus on God's plan of salvation and Jesus Christ, we can feel joy. No matter what happens in life. We may not always reach our goals right away, but we can find purpose, meaning, and deep joy as we strive to follow God's individualized plan for each of us. It's all designed to help us grow. Build stronger relationships and return home to Him. This is our prayer 

Cydni: from Cydni and Sher. We're a hundred percent glad that you were here. [00:29:00] and then we start talking, and then that's usually what happens. I push record and now you talk. 

Okay. I think we're really getting this down. I think we're getting the basics of podcasting down. I think I have never liked working. I wanna do what I wanna do. You know,

I feel like if someone tells me when to be on time and stuff, I just feel automatic dislike for them. Like 5% of our children aren't gonna be okay in their life. 4% of my children are gonna thrive as adults, but 97% of them are gonna be funny. Therapy is gonna be a hundred percent expensive for them. I'll do anything to not have a nine to five. If I take a shower, nobody's gonna get lunch. And then what? I'm gonna get fired. I've turned in my two weeks so many times doesn't, and nobody's taking me serious. No one takes it serious. I'm sorry. Like I'm [00:30:00] legitimately quitting. Find a replacement, 

Sher: that's a lot of emotions right there. It was all coming in hot all at the same time. Yeah, it was 50% a joke. 

Cydni: And if I do, then we work with that. You know, just don't overthink it.

Sher: I didn't understand any of that. 

Cydni: Maybe that part can take out, I even, things are so funny in my head and I'm like, I, you know, funny. And then I, 50% of us don't get it. 

Sher: when really that is the building block blocks of our foun of foun building blocks of. What is the word building? Oh, it's the building blocks. 

Cydni: if it's important, it'll come back. Okay. Actually, it did come back. 'Cause we went a little off. Yeah, we did. We went like 70% off. 

Sher: We got a little fight share. 

Cydni: 80% knows how to put her headphones on. my caffeine is 90% gone. That one's true, but I'll a hundred percent refill it later. Oh, that's actually v mur significant. I'll just say this, we'll just lie. 

Sher: Have a good week. Bye.

Annotated Works Cited

Frankl, Viktor E. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

A Holocaust survivor and psychiatrist, Frankl explores how finding meaning in suffering 

is essential for survival and fulfillment. His observations in concentration camps have 

become foundational in the study of purpose and resilience. Referenced in the episode

 as a key influence on the idea that meaning can be drawn even from extreme suffering

.

Gallup. “Faith in Religious Institutions.” Gallup Poll, 2021.

This data is referenced to show the decline in religious affiliation in the U.S., noting a 

drop from 70% in 1999 to 40% in 2021. The episode connects this decline with a loss of 

purpose and meaning in modern life.

Jefferson, Thomas. “Letter to Martha Jefferson.” The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, 1787.

Quoted in the episode for his advice to "never be idle," highlighting the value of purpose 

and productivity in everyday life. Used to underscore how using time wisely adds 

meaning.

Nelson, Russell M. “Joy and Spiritual Survival.” General Conference of The Church of Jesus 

Christ of Latter-day Saints, Oct. 2016.

President Nelson is quoted emphasizing that focusing on Christ and God’s plan brings 

joy, regardless of life’s circumstances. The episode uses this quote to reinforce how faith 

offers direction and purpose.

Newport, Frank. “Religion and Spirituality.” Gallup, 2021.

Supports statistics in the episode about the decline of formal religious affiliation and its 

correlation with a sense of purposelessness. Referenced during a discussion about 

modern disconnection from spiritual foundations.

Sommer, Julia M., et al. “Purpose and Meaning in Life and Mental Health: Findings from a 

National Study.” Journal of Positive Psychology, vol. 14, no. 6, 2019, pp. 684–690.

Though not directly named, this type of research is reflected in the cited stat that 75% of 

U.S. citizens reported a lack of purpose and meaning. The episode discusses the mental 

health implications of this societal trend.

Souman, Jan L., et al. “Walking in Circles.” Current Biology, vol. 19, no. 18, 2009, pp. 

1538–1542.

Referenced in the episode through the German study where blindfolded participants 

unknowingly walked in circles. The metaphor is used to illustrate how people need an 

external reference point (like faith or purpose) to avoid becoming lost in life.

Statista Research Department. “Millennials’ Purpose and Agency.” Statista, 2021.

Referenced in the episode where a survey indicated that 75% of millennials felt more 

purposeful when they had agency over their choices, reinforcing the link between 

autonomy and a meaningful life.

X (formerly Twitter). Public Sentiment Analysis.

Cited informally in the episode to show how many social media users describe life as 

“pointless” or “soul-crushing,” reflecting a cultural atmosphere of disconnection from 

meaning.