Do you feel like you are wasting your life? We have all felt this way at some point in our life, and it’s nothing to be ashamed of. In fact, it seems to be what most people are experiencing right now, especially within individuals who are going through an awakening.
Having a purpose in life is essential to personal happiness. We all need to feel like we are contributing to something larger than ourselves, and we all want to live a life we can be proud of. But in reality, it’s not that easy. Wasting life is essential to making a life, or so we think. Bills have to be paid. The kids have to be picked up and dropped off, groceries cost a fortune each month, and working 9-5 seems like the only viable option.
Or may you are in your early twenties like myself, and you are still in college or even high-school and feel overwhelmed with depression and sadness because your life seems so meaningless. Whatever your specific situation may be, this article will be worth reading for you.
Here are 3 symptoms that you are wasting your life. After we review these symptoms, we will look at solutions to each of them:
1) You constantly feel bored, unfulfilled, and spiritless
You feel as though you have nothing to be excited for. Life has lost its magic for you, and you don’t see a point to anything anymore. Because of this deep-rooted sense of boredom, you rely on things like social gatherings and outings, Netflix, your cell phone, and addictive behaviours to fill in the void. You spend money on things you don’t really care about. You spend too much time doing things you know you shouldn’t be doing, and you know this. One of the most common signs you are wasting your life is that your life simply feels like it lacks real meaning.
Solution: Stop searching for meaning outside of yourself. If you are waiting for perfect circumstances to come along and fulfill you, then you are putting the keys to your happiness in the hands of something outside of you. Find meaning internally, through your relationship to yourself, your soul, and God. If your life is not spiritually enriching, then you will ALWAYS feel like you are wasting your life, even if you have the lifestyle you think you want.
Fulfillment comes from inside you. Start practicing Yoga, meditation, and spend a lot more time in nature practicing being still and contemplating the mysteries of life. You have to nurture your soul. All sense of purpose, happiness, and fulfillment ultimately stems from your spirit, and if your spirit is being neglected, then you will always come up feeling empty.
2) You feel worthless
You feel like you aren’t adding value to anything or anyone. Your life feels as though it has no real worth to it, because you don’t think you are using your life to its greatest capacity. The number 1 sign that you are wasting your life is that you feel like you have absolutely no purpose.
Solution: Are you adding more value to the world be sulking and being consumed by self-pity, or by being happy and willing to offer a hand? To feel like you have a purpose, you don’t have to create dozens of companies and reach millions of people. You can have a purpose in the world be enhancing the lives of everyone you come into contact with each day.
Call someone you know needs an ear to listen to them. Hangout with someone you know is alone. Give some of your lunch to the homeless man who is sitting on the corner down the street. Babysit for a friend or family member. Turn off the television and clean the house for your parents or play with your kids. Let someone take your seat on the bus when it is full. Wait a few seconds to hold the door open for the person behind you. Volunteer a few days a week.
These are little micro-changes you can do right away and will dramatically improve your sense of self-worth by adding immediate enhancement to other people’s lives. If you are not making someone else’s life better in some way, you will always feel like you are wasting your life.
Your sense of worth and purpose doesn’t have to come from your career. Society likes to tell us that our purpose and worth comes from our bank accounts, of job titles, and the size of our house. Rather than fuss about not living up to societies standards of success, understand that your sense of purpose and worth comes from how you choose to interact with the world each day and each moment. After all, you only ever have this moment.
3) You complain, gossip, and have very negative self-talk
You like to spend your time thinking about what is wrong with the world and others around you. It somehow fulfills you to bring other people down, because it makes you feel like you are worth more if you can convince yourself of other people’s shortcomings. By complaining and gossiping, you are attempting to neutralize any guilt you may have from not living your life the way you want to. Not only is excessive complaining and gossiping a symptom of someone who is wasting their life, it is in itself a waste of life to complain and gossip.
Solution: Stop worrying about what others are doing, and start worrying about why you are worrying about what they are doing. The key here is to forgive yourself for the past. Be compassionate on yourself for not spending your life in the best of ways. Take time to really digest the guilt and let it come over you. Accept the guilt, and accept yourself. Once you do this, utilize any remaining feelings of guilt you may have as inspiration to start living a more fulfilling and purposeful life for yourself.
So to summarize, if you feel like you are wasting your life, here are 3 good places to start:
- Practice spirituality, nurture your soul, and develop a relationship with your self. This alone will fulfill you.
- Go out of your way to enhance the lives of others. Add value to this moment and the people around you by doing the little things. The big things can come later if they need to, but start by taking life one moment at a time.
- Forgive yourself, accept yourself, and love yourself, even if you feel you have wasted a period of your life. This will heal you, rejuvenate you, and inspire you to step into a more fulfilling life.
The truth is, we have all felt like we are wasting our life away. When you are doing what you can each day to make others happy and add value (even in little ways), when you are spending time practicing spirituality and soul-seeking, and when you forgive and accept yourself entirely, you are ready to step into a bright new future of possibilities.
