I have a pretty pessimistic view regarding life, and maybe I shouldn’t since I am pretty young. It seems to me that as I get older life gets worse. If you ask when I had the best time of my life I would say my childhood. When everything seemed fun and innocent. I would rush home after school just to play video games with friends, and going to eat my favorite food at Macdonald’s seemed exciting. I loved just getting a happy meal and seeing what new toy I would get. I mean life was great, and I had a lot of people to call my friends who would do child things with me. Now I just feel like the best part of my life is already over. I will just keep getting older and working a job for the rest of my life. I don’t find enjoyment in most things anymore but I just do them as pure distraction of life. A monotonous lifestyle where I work most days and have one or two free days also seems dull and discouraging. What is there in my life that would make it happy or worth it. It just seems that from now on my only purpose is to get through life and basically live at work, go home and lie to my mind by distracting myself with shows or games. And repeat this same thing over and over. Does it get better? Or is life really just about that after you become an adult?
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The worst part of being young and thinking about the future is that all the parts that you think will be horrible are manageable, and all the truly horrible parts aren’t even on your radar.
There’s no rule that says life has to be this or that. Life is what you make of it bud
Nah it gets easier, providing you workout, eat healthy and save some for the future. Patterns of things/social interactions tend to repeat so become more manageable
If you believe this, then yes it will.
If you take action to prevent it, that will definitely reduce the risk of it happening.
I have done :
A ton of work to improve my mental health, including counselling and being a part of a men’s group.
Spent 4 years in toastmasters to get comfortable with public speaking ( does amazing things for self confidence)
Mostly cut out fast food, processed food and sugar, besides the occasional treat. And cut alcohol consumption to once or twice a month.
I need to get back to the pool and get physically fitter.
I’m 63 and having the time of my life. You can too, if you put in the work.
I remember feeling that way at one point, but life comes at ya fast sometimes. I ended up having two serious relationships, three jobs, there was a whole pandemic, and I got married… all in the last five years.
Don’t think about it being forever. Think about what’s next. If you say “ok, what do I want life to be like six months from now, a year, 3 years” — then you start making goals that aren’t tied to the measuring stick of work achievement.
They can be related — like wanting to get promoted or whatever. But the underlying goal there is wanting to improve. Pushing past shyness led me to my wife and my career growth, for example.
Once you do that for a while, you start making plans. Because you realize nobody else knows what the fuck is going on either, so whatever.
No. Mine keeps getting better. I seem to be freer with age
Life has been better every year than the year before. I’m 54.
You just think the wrong way. You see your future life as working most days and have two free days. It’s like describing life as “growing, getting old and finally dying… that’s boring and the same for everyone”.
Life is about feeling joy everyday, which comes from the people you spend time with, which comes from the things you engage in and what you bring to it. You can have fun at work. You can get bored on vacation. It’s just what you put into it and your own ability to find joy.
Life for me has only gotten better with age.
If you’re doing it right, it gets better, consistently. If you spend today trying to make tomorrow a little better, you’ll quickly find that it is.
This world is full of opportunities and chances to learn and grow and explore, and you’re upset because it’s not as exciting as a Happy Meal? Buddy, life is so much more. Happy Meals are for kids who don’t know any better.
But, like you said, you’re young.
Woah there buddy, slow down on farming posts.
So far (47), it just gets better. Kids are awesome, marriage in order, career’s ok. Not that those never had their slumps and problems, but things are good. You also stop caring as much about other people.
It does require work from your 20s on: diet, exercise, addressing your childhood and any traumas, knowing when to put others ahead, when yourself.
The worst thing is my parents declining and bits and pieces of my body no longer working as well. Also, my energy levels have declined somewhat.
Honestly, it’s up to you. You have to choose how to view life and how you want to live.
One example is how we age physically. If you believe it’s all downhill after 30, that your back is going to hurt and your metabolism is going to slow down, and you aren’t actively taking care of yourself, your life is going to get worse. But I know people in their 40s and 60s who are fit and healthy and happy, who can compete with 20 year olds.
You can choose to let yourself fall apart and lose your ability to walk up steps, get in and out of the car, get up off the ground, and struggle to get out of a chair etc, or you can take care of yourself and mitigate those risks.
It’s the same for the rest of your life. Your mentality, your finances, your career, your relationships, friendships, passions, hobbies etc.
Now, this doesn’t mean it will be easy, but it’s honestly worth effort.
And you don’t have to work a typical 9-5 M-F job, you can figure out a way to have more freedom. And I think the 9-5 is both literal and metaphorical, it can stand in for any aspect of your life you haven’t consciously decided on.
You have to determine what your values are and create boundaries around them.
And the last thing is your perspective. If you’re negative, bitter, judgmental, and certain, you’re gonna have a bad time. But if you can learn to be open-minded, curious and experience gratitude for daily experiences like washing the dishes, you’ll be so much happier and fulfilled.
Generally, research shows as you get older happiness increase. Of course, is all dependent if you have stability etc.
Opposite. I’m in my 50’s and loving life. Wouldn’t go back to my 20’s for anything.
What!? No man it gets better so long as you take care of yourself.
Life’s about overcoming struggle, literally. The fun stuff is just nice, you don’t learn much from it. Do some acid or dmt or something and challenge your perspective on why you’re here and what’s important in the short time you have.
When you are a child, somebody provides your life for you, some good and some bad. Teenagers and young adults are frustrated and unhappy with this arrangement, so they leave it. As you mature, you get better at living, and your life gets better for it. It may take a while, or you might do it quickly, but eventually, if you keep trying, you’ll get where you want to be. Unfortunately, a lot of people do give up and get stuck along the way. But, that’s their business. I know it’s cliché, but seriously, believe in yourself. You may not even know what you really want yet. You’ll be fine.
37 now. It’s a cliché but life is what you make it and the people who are around you.
I definitely enjoyed my teen life playing games, eating junk, spending time with friends and even when I got my first job most of my friends worked there too so it wasn’t so bad.
Some say your time at university are your best years but I kind of hated mine. I’ve had a few jobs over the years some I didn’t mind and some I hated. I’ve had quite a few 1 to 4 year relationships some good, some not. In the last 8 years I’ve lived in 4 different cities. If there’s something in your life that isn’t making you happy you need to change it. Sure sometimes circumstances push those changes but it’s you who needs to work through them. A 9 to 5 has never really been for me. But if it was a job I didn’t hate it wouldn’t be so bad. Currently a contractor and I pretty much chose how many hours in work. Although that’s going to change now since I’ve relocated. For the most part I feel my life now is pretty good, I’m married and my wife is my best friend..we live a simple but very happy life.
For me at least, it’s got better as I age.
I had a shitty childhood full of trauma.
Now I have my own family and my own home. I choose how I spend my time.
Yes there are events coming that will be awful. Deal with them when they come, don’t waste your time worrying about them now.
Worse? It’s a matter of perspective. Problems are eternal in life, and as we get older, we trade childhood issues for adult ones. When we’re kids, what other kids think of us feels critical, and its hard to be ourselves. As an adult, I could care less what people think. But things like money and occupation concerns become important. Relationships matter more (or less, depending on you and the person), and time becomes more of a precious commodity. But you’re able to grow, change, and learn more about your life and try new things that you couldn’t before. Feel new feelings. Be a new person than you were yesterday.
Life is full of issues that you’ll encounter with age, but it also has a lot of beauty and enjoyment. You just have to engage it.
Not really, but it depends on the person. A normal progression would be playing a lot as a kid, then growing pains in school until you get used to it, then growing pains as you start work, until you get used to it. Eventually work just becomes routine and the pain is gone. It can be replaced with monotony if you end up in a job you don’t like but you know that’s only 13 of your day 5 days a week on average so you have plenty of time for yourself.
The other side of the coin is through experience you actually learn what you like. You become a connoisseur of your own interests and take genuine joy in exploring them. You don’t want to play like you did when you were a kid because it’s trivial and boring and no longer engaging for your much more complex mind.
Humans are built to adapt, it’s not so bad getting older. Just get a decent amount of exercise and build a social network of trusted friends and you’ll be perfectly fine.
When you are young, if you consistently think about your future self and prepare for success, I believe life improves as you age.
For me, I think it gets better with age (so far anyway!). I do think that when you’re younger, the highs are higher and the lows are lower but as time goes on you are more content.
I’m entering my 30s soon so maybe my 3 decades are not enough data…. however, I feel each stage of life offered me something different but wouldn’t really say either one was better or worse in of itself. I’m of the belief you’re only as happy as you make up your mind to be and I’ll be damned if I will let myself be miserable as time rages on.