Are You Wishing Your Life Away?

Forget the daydreams and start living in the real world

Photo by Court Cook on Unsplash

We all do it — daydream about how much better our lives would be if only …

Typically, the mental exercise is a fun, relaxing past-time. Until we realize most of those daydreams may never come true. 

And instead of bringing a sense of excitement or possibility, we’re left feeling anxious and uncertain by a lack of results.

Still, our active imaginations wander, creating wishes and fantasies in our minds as we picture how happy we’d be if only we could change some aspect of our life and make it different, better, more meaningful.

Here are a few common aspirations you may have thought about, hoping they’d come true all by themselves:

“I wish I were thinner. I’d get more dates if I lost thirty pounds.”

“I wish I could lift heavier weights like the other guys in the gym so I don’t look so weak.”

“I wish I had a better job so I could make more money.”

And that’s when our “wish list” begins to take shape and grow. Fueled by rationalizations that our lives would be perfect if circumstances, people, or opportunities were different, we romanticize about how our little corner of the world would blossom and congeal into a perfect mix of success and happiness.

But there’s a hitch in this thought process.