15 Uncomfortable Signs You're Succeeding At Life — Even If It Doesn't Feel Like It
Forget what everyone says. You have your life together.
SchraderStock, abcdefghij__mnopqrstuvwxyz, and filadendron / Getty Images via Canva As you get older and start comparing your life to those around you, it's easy to get a little frustrated with where you're at.
It seems like every day now, another friend posts an engagement or pregnancy photo on Facebook. Meanwhile, you might still be living at home or swiping left on the majority of guys on Tinder.
Don't let this get in the way of your journey towards happiness. Chances are, you're doing way better than you think.
Here are 15 uncomfortable signs you're succeeding in life, even if it doesn't feel like it.
1. You're struggling to have a decent job.
Right now you're broke, jobless, or stuck in the job that you hate. You want to be financially independent, yet it’s extremely hard for you to get that dream job. You're struggling to choose between following your passion or just getting a job that will pay your bills.
But, despite all the struggles and despairs you still work hard because you totally understand that being a success story requires hard work. So you promise yourself you won’t give up and believe that someday you’ll get the job which you’ve always wanted.
2. You don’t know what you really want in your life.
You feel lost, confused, and feel like you don’t have any purpose in life. The truth is when you feel lost along the way; it means that you're questioning your own existence.
You’re realizing that your life needs to be more than just existing and you need to re-navigate your life into something meaningful. Not many people have realized that they are lost, so when you feel lost, congratulations — it means you're looking for meanings behind your own existence.
3. You feel like you don’t make any difference in this world.
The feeling of being worthless, useless, and powerless within the world where you live are actually signs that you care about your surroundings. Those are feelings that prove you have empathy and feel the need to make other people’s lives better.
When you feel like you can’t change the world, be proud of yourself because it means that you want to do something good for others while also being realistic at the same time.
4. Your circle of friends gets smaller each day.
You know your life is a mess if you’ve lost many friends and your loved ones. You grew apart, and you started to be familiar with the feeling of separation. Letting people go is not a new lesson for you, and now your circle of friends is getting smaller as it’s not easy for you to trust people anymore.
As time goes by, you realize that friendship is more about quality over quantity and you focus on maintaining relationships only with the people who accept you for who you are. This time, you have no time with toxic people.
5. You have failed in many things and countless times.
Failure only means that you’ve given your best effort to get something in your life. Failure isn’t going define your success or who you really are, but it defines that you're a hard worker. A failure is a proof that you’ve tried to confront a difficult challenge so you could live your life better.
When you’re desperate because of those failures, cheer up. Those failures will make your life a mess, but they will also make you feel more alive than those people who never even tried anything at all.
6. You find yourself wanting to escape from your life.
When you can’t stand your life at this exact moment, you could say that your life is a mess because a good life will never make you want to escape. But it is also a good sign because it means that you refuse to settle for a life that doesn’t satisfy your well-being.
Your willingness to escape is actually your inner self telling you that you’re living a life that doesn’t make you happy. Don’t ever settle when you hate your life; move on and make changes.
7. You don’t see love as your main reason to be happy.
Right now, you're at the point in your life where you believe that love requires effort and it is not always your main source of happiness. You know exactly that being happy is not when you have a significant other as you understand that happiness comes from within.
You start to prioritize self-love and become realistic when it comes to love. Your love life might be a mess, but actually, you’re starting to understand the true meaning of love.
8. Your friends’ lives look better than yours.
But you know exactly that nobody’s life is as perfect as their Instagram stories. You also understand that comparison will get you nowhere and the only thing you need to do is to work harder than before.
You understand that everybody is struggling with their own difficulties and no one’s life is better or worse than the other. So those comparisons you make with other people will only make you stand up once again and try harder to be better than yesterday.
9. You feel like you can’t control your life.
When your life is a mess, you will feel like you don’t have any control over what’s going to happen next in your life. You just want to go with the flow because you realize the only thing you can control is your response.
But deciding to go with the flow of life is actually an accomplishment since not many people can do that. When you realize that you can’t control your life, it means that you stop obsessing about things and start to enjoy life as it is. And that’s the true definition of living your life to the fullest.
10. You always find yourself re-evaluating your life.
You know your life is a mess when you keep reminding yourself that you need to start over and get it together. And it’s a good realization because it means that you know that you deserve a much better life than you have.
Having a messy life is a sign that you're learning the art of being alive. You're progressing and being messy is only a sign that you need to keep on going.
11. You tend to embrace failure.
Failing is always going to be difficult, but when you learn to embrace failure (even when it's uncomfortable) you know you're growing as a person. When you grow as a person, you grow in life.
You start doing things differently and eventually succeed. You no longer regret your actions because you were scared of failing; now, you do them and hope for failure. Because no matter how scary it can be to grow, you're learning and becoming a better person.
12. Your world is becoming bigger.
You don't see the world in a way where it revolves around you anymore. You're not the center of the universe in your own eyes and you understand that the world is a bigger thing than you.
You look at the bigger picture and work toward what is good for everyone, not just what is good for you. That takes a lot of discipline and respect.
13. You're not controlled by your income.
Having your income be the one thing that controls your life can throw things off-course, so now you don't let it. Sure, you may have splurged a little too much on going out, but you have to enjoy life and collect experiences that help make up who you are.
You don't let the fact that you bring home a certain amount of money stop you from actually living life. That is being successful at your core.
14. You don't seek out praise.
You do your work for the simple satisfaction it gives you. You don't pine over praise or pats on the back every time you do something good.
You know you did an excellent job, and that fact alone makes you happy. There's no need for frivolous validation.
15. You ask for help.
Asking for help is like being thrown off a cliff, but now you have realized that asking for help doesn't mean you're a failure nor that you're a burden; rather, it means that you know when a helping hand is more effective.
You may still feel uncomfortable when you do this, but you do it more often because you're growing as a person and succeeding in life. You can sacrifice your pride for the task to be done correctly.
In the end, the messier your life is, the more lessons you learn, and unconsciously, you're becoming an expert in life.
Rayi Noormega is a writer whose bylines have been featured on Thought Catalog, Elite Daily, Magdalene, The Huffington Post, The Jakarta Post, among many others.