By: Mostafa Hesham
It’s not uncommon to suddenly get to a point in your life when you start to question everything about yourself. You can find yourself wondering, is this the job I want? Why am I still single? Why don’t I feel happy? Here’s the deal though, it’s not sudden. There are signs that lead up to this point. The problem is that you missed them and that’s why you feel like this realization took you by surprise. This article will hopefully help you recognize some of these signs so you can start working on improving and feeling better about your life.
1. You DON’T see where you will be in 5 years
You typically get asked this a lot in job interviews regardless of which phase you are in your life. Whether you’re 25 or 45, you still have no idea what you’ll be doing in 5 years. The truth is you have no idea where your life is going to take you or what you even want to do. You’re not satisfied with your job and don’t see yourself doing it for long. This doesn’t only apply to your work but to every aspect of your life; your love life, your social life and your relationship with your family. You don’t know where you’ll be in 5 years in each of those life aspects.
2. You feel lonely when you’re hanging out with others
To make it clear, being alone and being lonely are two completely different things. If you’re with people who make you feel alone then the problem is them not you; you need a change of scenery to get to know other people. People who truly care about you will never make you feel lonely. As the late Robin Williams said, “I used to think that the worst thing in life is ending up alone. It’s not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.” It’s one thing to want to spend some time alone but feeling lonely no matter what or who you see, that’s when you know you have a problem.
3. You go out because you have to, not because you want to
You have no desire to leave your house and the only reason you have to is to not upset others. You don’t want to face any drama of why you didn’t call someone or why you called off your plans at the last minute. You feel like agreeing to go out will just save you a lot of the hassle. The truth is though you’d rather stay home all by yourself.
4. You feel alive but you’re not living
You feel like all you do is get up, eat, go to work or school, go back home, eat then sleep. Then you repeat it all again the next day and the day after, and suddenly you feel like you have no idea how you reached this point in your life. Your body is alive, but your soul isn’t. You’re not doing anything to feed your soul. You just feel content with your life, but you’re not happy about it.
5. Weekends are just for sleep
While other people are out partying with friends, you on the other hand just don’t have the energy to do anything fun. Even if you want to, you lack the motivation to just get out of bed and do anything. Everyone looks forward to the weekend regardless of what they have planned, but you don’t and just think of how you’ll catch up on some sleep. This isn’t about if you need to catch up on sleep, but basically even if you’re not that tired, you just don’t have the energy to do anything.
6. You feel like you have no purpose
You have no goal in your life and you don’t know what you’re supposed to do. You can sometimes even feel invisible and that if you didn’t exist, it wouldn’t even make any difference. You don’t feel like you have any impact on anything or anyone in this world and it doesn’t feel good.
7. Feeling good doesn’t last
If you happen to have a great day and you think to yourself that this is exactly what you needed to feel better, the next day you find yourself feeling just as bad, as if the day before never happened or it happened a long time ago.
You should be happy with your life, not just satisfied. You should be passionate about your job and you should want to go out to see your friends. You should feel like you want to try new things whether it’s something so simple like going to a new restaurant or travelling to a foreign country. If people you know make you feel bad about yourself, then they don’t deserve to know you. Cut them out of your life and replace them with others who appreciate you and are willing to help you in your times of need. Hate your job? Then quit and find another one. It’s not always easy, but having a job you hate is not worth it. It can take time but most importantly, don’t be passive and go look for that dream job! Simply put, you deserve to be happy.
