Re: I'm 23 and about 4 years behind in life (Long Post)
Originally Posted by
imfineokay
I feel like I've wasted all my youth already and to be honest I think i'm having a bit of a quarter-life crisis about it. I just want so bad to be as happy as I was back when I was 18-19 but I feel like i'm not gonna be that happy again and my view on life has changed so much that I literally feel my time wasting away even now. I should probably be happy I'm trying to make a difference in my life but all I focus on is the fact that I'm 23, still haven't had my first job yet, barely go out with my friends (which is about once a month at this point), haven't been in a relationship in nearly 4 years and still live at home. Am I right to feel embarrassed and scared of the future?
Go buy The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris - you might find it helpful?
All that time is in the past. It's gone. You don't know what the future holds, None of us do. All you really have is the here and now..
When I was 18 I had collagen a plenty and body hair in all the right places. I can pine for those days or I can throw a scarf around my old lady neck, get with the hair removal cream and get on with it, you get me?
You're making the mistake of thinking that you can't possibly be happy until you get a job, or a relationship, or leave home. Trust me, that's not how life works..You're not a teenager anymore. You're a grown up. But at 23 you're still on the bottom end of grown up. You have a lot of life in front of you and a lot of potential, and I can say this with absolute conviction that just because things seem crappy now doesn't mean that it will always be the case. But I can tell you that very little changes without putting some effort in - even if it's to change our own attitudes..
Why would you feel embarrassed of a future that you don't know? Unless you have a crystal ball there? We can be embarrassed of stuff we've done in the past, for sure, but being embarrassed won't change one second of it. Far better we learn from the shit we've done, right?
I'm sorry for how long this post turned out to be, had a lot to cover in the last 4 years. any advice would really be appreciated.
By my standards this is not a long post.
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A thought is harmless unless we believe it.