Do you feel lost, confused, overwhelmed and at a loss in your life? That happens to the best. Breaking these habits can improve your situation.
Life can be very confusing, unclear and confusing at times. One moment we think we know our path and that we are on it, but just a moment later we suddenly wonder where we want to go and how we even fit into the framework we have built around us.
When we’re in a phase where we feel like we’ve lost our sense of direction and orientation, it can help to break habits that don’t help us regain our sense of direction, and in fact tend to weaken it.
If you are lost in life, break these habits
1. Constant distraction
Social media, news of war, fashion trends, artificial intelligence and sunken submersibles, streaming services with thousands of pieces of content, with new ones being added week after week – there is so, so, so much that we can engage and disperse without putting in the slightest effort that it is sometimes difficult not to get lost in this galaxy of information and entertainment. Not a problem in itself, but if we feel lost in our lives and are hanging in the air, it can make sense to drastically reduce our personal world and to reduce what we distract ourselves with every day: limit news consumption to certain topics, limit use of Netflix, Instagram and Co. to a manageable time, make a conscious decision to let certain information pass us by.
Being less informed and not following all developments and debates may feel ignorant at first or trigger fear of missing something. But firstly, we can never catch everything anyway and secondly, sometimes we just need our capacity and attention with and for ourselves.
2. Smother spontaneous impulses
Our everyday life is often so well-established, routine and planned that we hardly have the space to pursue spontaneous ideas and impulses – and as a result we sometimes forget how to perceive and feel them at all. The problem with this: our sudden inspirations are part of our personal, emotional compass, which helps us to orientate ourselves in life and to find our way. Smothering them and training them away from us damages our sense of direction, which we need especially when our routine feels wrong or lacking in something.
By keeping free time in our week, which we design spontaneously and in which we do exactly what we feel like at the moment, we can rediscover or strengthen our sense of situational impulses. What’s more, we can rest assured that most ideas that seem to pop into our heads out of nowhere are worth pursuing—or at least observing what they do to us.
3. Procrastination
Procrastination isn’t always a bad thing. For example, it can make sense to postpone worries until later if there is no point in dealing with something very early on. It can be useful to put off unpleasant to-dos that could perhaps take care of themselves. On the other hand, what often gets us down is procrastinating on something that we definitely have to face – because the longer we put it off, the longer it takes us and the more energy it costs us. If we collect open to-dos, we can feel overwhelmed and we lose track and orientation. Our energy dwindles and our impotence increases more and more.
4. Let yourself be guided by others
If we are without ideas or orientation, other people can definitely be a source of inspiration. We are not isolated, detached entities, but social beings who learn from, are similar to and can compare with one another. But what looking at other people only shows us to a very limited extent is who we are and which path is right for us. It often becomes more difficult for us to feel and recognize ourselves, the more we deal with our fellow human beings and measure ourselves against them. Understanding that others do their thing and we do ours, and that their perspective is not or need not be ours, can therefore help to determine where we are and where we want to be. Especially if we manage to incorporate this understanding into our actions.
5. All-or-not-at-all thinking
We often find our way in life through trial and error, and gradual rapprochement, but if we generally approach things with a strict all-or-nothing attitude, we tend to try less as a result. And are less receptive to small successes and experiences. It is much more difficult to orientate ourselves and find our way when we have extremely high expectations of ourselves and our lives and when we want to stick to a line consistently and for the long term – especially when we have lost the thread.
Sources used: psychologytoday.com, hackspirit.com