You wake up. You go to work. You eat dinner. You sleep. The next day, you do it all over again.

At some point—you’re not really sure when—life became a loop. You went from being that young, living-in-the-moment adventurer to the person who now has schedules and to-do lists. Slowly but steadily life fell into monotonous routine.

And in those rare moments of peace when you’re not bombarded by responsibilities, a shadowy thought rises to the surface from the depths of your mind, like those creepy anglerfish:

“Is this it? Is this what my life is going to be like until I die?”

If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone. But this feeling isn’t just a passing mood, it’s a warning sign. You’re not living anymore, you’re just existing.

Why does this happen?

This creeping sense that life is slipping through your fingers usually has a few causes:

  • Your routine has become too routine. To make life manageable, we create schedules, checklists, daily habits, etc. But when your every day becomes too predictable, apathy starts to set in. The routine that once gave you control now owns you.
  • You’ve lost your sense of purpose. You do what’s expected of you—go to work, pay bills, take care of responsibilities. But deep down, it all feels… meh. Like you’re just checking boxes. Life starts to lose its meaning when you can’t find meaning in what you do.
  • You stopped doing the stuff that made you happy. When was the last time you did something just because? Like eating a bowl of your favorite sugary cereal instead of that tofu stir-fry—again. Or stepping in that puddle, watching cartoons all day, or looking at the stars?

You don’t need to flip your life upside down to start feeling alive again. You don’t need to do something extreme like Climb Mount Everest or shave your head—but you do need to wake up.

How do you break free from a passionless, uninspiring, soul-destroying loop? By breaking your pattern. Try one (or more) of these:

  • Do one thing differently every week. Try a new dish on the menu instead of your usual. Watch a movie or TV show you normally wouldn’t. Take a new route home. Change your playlist. Anything to get your brain to wake up and say, “Hey, this is different!”
  • Create more “first time” milestones. Sign up for a fun class (e.g., creative writing, improv), learn a skill (e.g., photography, sushi-making) or do something that terrifies you a little (e.g., paranormal investigations, rock climbing). The goal isn’t perfection—it’s tofeel that sense of excitement that comes with something new.
  • Stop saying “no”—within reason, of course. Say yes to an invite you’d normally turn down, start a conversation with someone new, work from a café instead of your desk, or take an unplanned day off. The tiniest detour from your usual routine can make life feel less predictable.
  • Stop waiting for the “right time.” The right time is right now. If you keep waiting, another year will pass, and you’ll be in the same place, wondering where the time went.

If you’ve read this from beginning to end, it means something inside you clicked and you’ve already felt that desire to want more out of life.

So, what are you going to do about it?

Insightfully yours,

Queen D