Why Our Lives Today are Awful, Boring and Unfulfilling

Most people’s lives suck these days.

Some of them suck for obvious reasons and some suck for less obvious ones.

Many people today feel a deeply rooted level of dissatisfaction with their lives and they don’t know why.

In working to make my own life more and more interesting I have learned to identify some of the reasons that this is.

Here are some major ones:

1. Diet

Most people have awful diets. They eat too much sugar, too much salt, bad fats, hormones and tons of other crap.

Most people don’t get the right kinds of protein, healthy fats, useful carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other useful nutrients.

Our diets affect the chemistry inside our bodies. The chemistry inside our bodies affects our energy level, mood, mental clarity and overall health.

We are drowning our brains in toxic chemicals and wonder why we don’t feel good.

The simplest thing you can do is eat real whole foods. Avoid processed foods and avoid as much sugar as you can. Sugar is the devil. It is cheap to produce and easy to sell.

The cleaner your diet the better you’ll feel and the more you’ll accomplish.

It’s a self perpetuating cycle of success.

2. Gender Roles

For a much more detailed analysis of this see my previous article found here: Gender Roles

Now I’m a modern thinking guy. Some people are born gay, lesbian, transgender, etc.

Some guys are more sensitive than others. Some women are naturally more of the Tomboy type and this is fine. Be who you really are.

The problem is that hormones in our food, societal beliefs and other factors push many people away from their true selves.

Men are emasculated unnaturally and made to feel bad for exhibiting masculine traits.

Women are taught to dominate men in ways that aren’t natural and don’t lead to increased satisfaction.

Be who you are without apologies (as long as you aren’t outright hurting other people and by “hurting” I don’t mean not living up to the expectations of other people).

3. Entitlement

Many people born in more developed countries feel like the world owes them everything.

This is especially true in the United States.

People avoid hard work. They don’t seek to improve themselves. They seek to only consume things.

People consume bad food, entertainment, and products bought in stores and online.

Fewer people build and produce. When they are forced to produce they usually do it grudgingly in the form of work at some crappy job.

The world owes you nothing. It especially owes you nothing if you are out of shape, have a bad personality, have little knowledge inside your head, are lazy, boring and don’t contribute anything to the world around you.

Feeling entitled without any good reasons leads to dissatisfaction and an even worse attitude.

4. Smartphone Addiction

Smartphones are a drug.

Neurologists have found that we look to our smartphones throughout our day in order to get releases of feel-good chemicals in our brains.

Ever increasing portions of the world are becoming smartphone addicts.

This is especially true of the younger generations.

I was lucky to have just graduated college around when smartphones really started to take off.

Don’t get me wrong. I love smart phones. I love the internet. I love GPS. These are some of my favorite inventions of all time and I am incredibly thankful to have them in my life…

I do think it is a problem when people live their life THROUGH their phone screens.

Smartphones should be a tool and not a proxy for real life.

I see it all the time at bars and clubs. Women especially spend a whole night taking pictures to put on social media sites (usually two, three or four sites at a time). They are spending less and less time actually interacting with the real people around them. They are addicted to getting “likes”, “views”, “thumbs up” and comments.

Men certainly get addicted to their phones too, but to a much lesser degree than these poor phone-addict women that you can see everywhere you go.

I repeat: A phone is a tool and should not be a distraction from the real world around you.

5. Lack of Purpose

What did you want to be as a child? What would you want your life to be like today if you could be and do anything?

Does your life now reflect either of those things?

Why do you wake up in the morning?

Do you wake up to follow your passion, whatever that may be deep inside your heart?

Or do you wake up grudgingly to go to a job that you hate or doesn’t excite you?

Not having purpose and passion in your life is a sure way to have an unsatisfying life.

Find out what you truly want and then find out how to get it. After you know what to do, do the work needed to get it.

6. Laziness

Most people have come to equate the word “work” with something to be minimized and avoided.

Left to their own devices most people would love a life of leisure sitting on a couch, watching television and eating large amounts of whichever foods that taste the best in their mouth.

What people don’t realize is that there are many different types of work.

a) There is work that makes you sweat. It may feel bad if you’re not used to it. It may even feel bad if you are used to it, but afterwards it makes you feel great. It makes your body firm and healthy. It improves nearly every aspect of your life.

b) There is other work that makes you feel passionate and successful. It is work that feels automatic. Hours pass without you getting tired. You become absorbed in it because you are building something that you love. You are engaged and while some people may call it “work” it feels like something else. Maybe it’s obsession, but in a good way.

c) The other type of work is the work that pretty much everyone hates. It is when you are forced to do something you hate for various reasons including possibly survival or to pay the bills. This is not the type of work you want to be doing for 10, 20, 30, 40 years or your whole life. This is the type of work you are thankful for when it is over. You are thankful to be given a break. You are thankful to finish it for the day, week or before vacation. Unfortunately this is the work that takes up most people’s lives.

Good hard work of the first two types mentioned above brings satisfaction in life. Laziness and the third type do not.

7. Lack of Social Connection

Many people these days stop building social interactions after high school or college.

This tends to be especially true after people get married.

Social connections make life more rich and satisfying.

Humans are social animals. Going home watching television, staring at your smartphone and always staying home alone or with a spouse does not lead to satisfaction in life.

8. Lack of Connection to Nature

I’m no hippy by any means, but humans are meant to interact with nature.

Most people feel a deep level of tranquility and/or satisfaction by visiting a park, going on a hike, going camping or interacting with nature in one of many other ways.

Maybe it’s spiritual, maybe it’s psychological, maybe it works through a pathway that we don’t yet understand, but one thing is clear: Interacting with nature improves how we feel about our lives.

Just like how people are addicted to their smartphones, people also drive cars around everywhere, they prefer to watch their televisions or just don’t make the time to enjoy a little bit of nature.

Find the time.

We naturally need nature in our lives.

9. Lack of any Spiritual Beliefs/Habits

This one is optional since if you truly don’t believe in any spirituality then you shouldn’t force it.

I will say though that most spiritually minded people that i know are much happier, relaxed and seem to have a greater level of overall satisfaction in their lives.

I’ll just leave that one at that.

Okay, that’s nine major reasons why so many people have awful, boring and dissatisfying lives.

The bad news is that so many people have awful, boring and dissatisfying lives.

The good news is that all nine of the things I listed above are under our control and can be fixed.