ABSTRACT
Meaning-making is an existential premise for individuals’ self-understanding and for social interactions. In this chapter, the author explains the concept of ‘meaning’, which he has long considered one of the most essential theoretical components of third-generation coaching. He examines the concept from an etymological perspective in order to discover how meaning-making has come to play such an important role in our life: where does the term come from, and what are the most important related concepts? A search for meaning, which always involves a focus on values, is a search for a personal existential foundation and whatever makes our lives and our actions meaningful. Transformative and fruitful dialogues inspired by third-generation coaching, play an important role in our search for and discovery of meaning. Coaching was closely associated with sport and performance optimization. In the systemic and social-constructionist universe, the understanding of meaning is removed from the individual’s life universe.
