So when you have a sense of purpose, it will feel as if your life has meaning.
I dont understand this. Why not? What about the lives of animals? For example, couldnt you say that the meaning of the life of certain ants is to serve their queen? That is the reason that they exist. The main difference I see is that there doesnt exist an entity which we are born to serve, but many have deities that can fill that role. Some atheists instead use the collective human condition to fill that role.
You could say that, but the word "meaning" in this context is not used in a literal sense, it's expressing something closer to "purpose". The word "meaning", when used literally, applies to communications. It's the thing the communication is supposed to express. An ant's life is not a communication and therefore the word meaning does not apply in a literal sense.
But that's not helpful. There was a saying on a bench, here in vancouver to the effect, that " You can't find yourself, you need to make yourself". But I suppose making yourself on a solid foundation requires introspection. I'm not sure where you are at but, eventually you will come up with answers/non answers and then watch your life pass you by. (similar to a stream processor) here's knausgaard.
"As your perspective of the world increases not only is the pain it inflicts on you less but also its meaning. Understanding the world requires you to take a certain distance from it. Things that are too small to see with the naked eye, such as molecules and atoms, we magnify. Things that are too large, such as cloud formations, river deltas, constellations, we reduce. At length we bring it within the scope of our senses and we stabilize it with fixer. When it has been fixed we call it knowledge. Throughout our childhood and teenage years, we strive to attain the correct distance to objects and phenomena. We read, we learn, we experience, we make adjustments. Then one day we reach the point where all the necessary distances have been set, all the necessary systems have been put in place. That is when time begins to pick up speed. It no longer meets any obstacles, everything is set, time races through our lives, the days pass by in a flash and before we know what is happening were are forty, fifty, sixty . . . Meaning requires content, content requires time, time requires resistance. Knowledge is distance, knowledge is stasis and the enemy of meaning. ".
I think the answers I appreciate the most, are the ones which emphasize noticing the world and the best parts of other people.
http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/09/17/the-meanin...
XY problems cause misunderstandings and overcomplexity: what's your real question?