Have you ever felt as though you’re wandering through life like a dream? It’s kind of like walking on a moving sidewalk or a treadmill. It’s not going anywhere, yet you’re moving nonstop, and feeling fatigued after a while. This sleepwalking leaves you feeling dissatisfied with life, but if you shake yourself awake you will start to feel more focused, less alienated, detached, and fearful of life.
Think about how you feel as you wake up, it’s usually a gradual process as you let go of your dream and that world slips away from you as you face the real world once again. You’re not awake and you’ve shaken off the dream (whether it was a lottery win or recapturing an old love) and you realize that’s gone and you’re back in the room. That’s essentially how many of us operate on a daily basis, except we’re not truly waking up.
Stop & Start
- Stop operating on autopilot and start noticing what is happening around you.
- Stop having the same conversations with friends and start tackling the subject from a different angle.
- Stop listening to the same songs and start broadening your horizons and challenging your mind.
- Stop eating the exact same breakfast, the exact same lunch, and the exact same dinner. Tantalize your taste buds with a wide range of foods.
If you feel bored by your life and have to force yourself to get out of bed every morning it’s because of all the choices you make each day. You’ve fallen into a habit where you make the same choices each day and your life becomes a literal Groundhog Day. It’s just a loop that you repeat day after day and you lose interest and slip into the sleepwalk.
Break The Cycle
Think about it like this – what’s your favorite movie in the entire world? Imagine how bored you would get of it if you played it on a constant loop, day after day? Repetition will drive you to boredom, exhaustion, and drive you crazy. It’s important to find hobbies, activities, and jobs that jolt you awake and fill you with energy.
That doesn’t mean that you have to march in and quit your job tomorrow and move to a new country. It doesn’t mean you have to book a vacation and go explore the rainforest. It doesn’t mean that you need to flip your life upside down and create a new one. It simply means that your life needs a few helpful tweaks to bring you contentment.
Start small by adding a new album to your playlist, book tickets to see a band you only kind of like, find a recipe for your favorite meal and cook it from scratch, meet your friends at a new lunch spot, invite your friends to go rock climbing, go wine tasting, go hiking, do something. You don’t need to share old memories with your friends when you can make new memories with them instead.
Go out of your way to find out what’s happening locally and attend them. Invite your friends over for drinks and a game night, have a dinner party, find a hobby that excites you, volunteer to contribute to your community. When you are forced to drag yourself out of bed every morning what you don’t realize is that you’re still asleep and you have been for who knows how long.
You’re just doing the bare minimum to exist and get by… your entire day revolves around getting back to bed. You can be thankful for the evening and that the day is over, but only if you’re equally as thankful in the morning for what your day may hold in store.
One of the biggest reasons you’re still sleepwalking is because you haven’t found a way to be thankful and show gratitude for everything you do have and you have achieved. Start there to wake yourself up.
Do you know sometimes you’re walking through life, sleep walking?
