13 Ways You’ll Inevitably Ruin Your Life If You Don’t Start Making Changes

1. By settling. Don’t settle for anything. Don’t settle for love, your career, your friendships, your life as a whole. Life doesn’t have to be boring – life shouldn’t be boring. Life is exciting and filled with so many wonderful adventures, don’t let those things pass you by being a zombie stuck in a routine. Break free from the chains you’ve held yourself down with for so long and start living the life you’ve always wanted.

2. By committing to things you don’t want to do. Don’t say yes to things you’d rather not do. You don’t have volunteer for everything all the time. You’re not the only option, someone else can (and should) step up to the plate. You don’t have to do it all, especially when you don’t want to. Stop saying ‘yes’ out of obligation or because you feel bad. Sometimes you have to put your own happiness first.

3. By staying in toxic relationships. Don’t stay in relationships, romantic or not, with people who drain you more than they fill you. Toxic people take and take from you, making it hard for you to be positive when they’re around. Cut those people out of your life. You don’t need them and their bullshit. Relationships are supposed to fulfill you and motivate you to be your best self, they’re not supposed to limit you to any degree.

4. By always listening to your parents. Your parents are only so wise and while they surely want what’s best for you that doesn’t necessarily mean they know what’s best. We all want our parents approval because it feels good to have them on our side incase we fuck up and everything goes to shit. Regardless or not if that happens though, do what you need to do, take the risks even if they don’t approve because you’re the only one who truly understands how you feel and what you need. Don’t let them limit your future because they always want you to be secure and stable.

5. By letting other people’s fears hold you back. The number one thing people do when you tell them you’re going to do something that’s out of the norm is try to press their fears on you. Don’t let their fears hold you back from pursing what you want. If you want to quit your job and start your own business don’t listen to Sally when she starts questioning you about how scary it is and how everything can go wrong because you already know that, but you’re not going to let it hold you back! Keep going! Because she will be the same one asking you how you did it when you’re successful and she’s still sitting at the same desk pushing pencils.

6. By not making your own life plan because society says it’s risky. Society wants you to graduate high school, graduate college, then go back to college to get your masters because now a bachelor degree is equivalent to a high school diploma. Then after that (when you’re drowning in debt) you should settle down. Find a job with good health insurance, find someone to love you, pop out 2.5 babies and find a house with a white picket fence, BOOM you’re living the dream. Don’t do that, unless, of course, that is your dream. But if you want more for yourself and your life, run like hell away from that plan. Backpack, open a start-up, write a book that doesn’t sell, fail some more, but get some great stories, learn some great lessons and then use all that shit to find your own way to be successful.

7. By not thinking for yourself. Don’t let the media brainwash you, especially with all these “alternative facts” out there these days you never know what’s true. Don’t let society brainwash you. Don’t let your friends brainwash you or your family. Don’t lose your individuality because of the other influences in your life. Be unapologetically who you are because you shouldn’t have to apologize for being the badass you truly are.

8. By playing the victim. Don’t play the victim, don’t let life destroy you because it will. Life isn’t fair and every single human on this earth has faced some type of pain and battle, it’s inevitable. Don’t play the victim anymore, stand up and fight like hell with fist flying. Make the most of what you do have.

9. By making your life harder than it has to be. Don’t intentionally make your life harder than it has to be. Don’t waste your time getting upset over the littlest things because after all they’re just the little things. If it won’t matter in a year or two from now then don’t let it ruin your mood now. It’s not worth it.

10. By always looking for someone else to blame. Don’t play the blame game. Don’t just decide that everything has to be someone else’s fault. Take responsibility for your own actions and apologize when you’re wrong. Everyone is wrong at some point, but admitting it makes you look like a better person at least.

11. By overcommitting yourself. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. You’ll end up having to spit some out and that’s just gross. While you might think you can do it all, you can’t. You can’t be in two places at once and all that will do is fast-track you to losing your damn mind. Sometimes you have to say no and there’s nothing wrong with that.

12. By pouring from an empty glass. You’ll ruin your life by continuously pouring from an empty glass. You can only give so much before you have to take a break and refuel yourself. Taking care of yourself isn’t selfish, it’s necessary.

13. By never taking risks. You can live your whole life in your comfort zone, but where is the gain from that? Where is the thrill, the adventure, the lessons? You’ll never make it big in the world if you’re always following the same rules as everyone else. Take the leap, even if you fail, at least you tried and that’s a lot more than most people can say.