I Wasted My Life? | Learning How To Forgive Others & Stop Comparing Myself To Others

I feel like I've wasted my life/wasted my 20s (it's probably because of the quarter life crisis/mid 20s phase I'm going through) and it's been bothering me on a daily basis 😭
I've been feeling guilty over not doing enough or not having achieved enough in my life so I tried to forgive myself so that I could stop being so hard on myself. It's a work in progress, but I've stopped comparing myself to others so often!
Our society tells us that you need to achieve X when you're a certain age, Y when you're a certain age, and Z when you're a certain age, and if you don't have those things, you're a failure. It's absolute garbage, but a lot of us (including myself) fall victim to this narrative. 🥲
We're all on different paths, meaning there's no specific timeframe we should be doing certain things. There's no one way to live life, so why on earth are we so focused on only one path when there are an infinite amount of paths to choose from?
I'm still trying to forgive myself and feel less guilty for "wasting my 20s" and feeling behind in life and it'll take a while before I rid myself of this guilt, but I wanted to share a little bit of insight. 🥰
💫 lame ass socials 💫
✶ instagram: ariiohh
✶ tiktok: ari_ohh

[@xyzeeee]

this video really spoke to me. i and a lot of my friends who are my age have been going through the same thing, and it feels very validating to know that someone else i see as very put together and successful in their life can also face the same sort of "spiral". most of my friends told me that it was mostly bec of the pandemic hitting right when we all turned 18, and in turn claimed most if not all of our last young adult years before we fully turned 20. for me its a little of both that, as well as my struggle to live a happy life right now due to my traumatic upbringing and abusive parents that i cant move away from due to financial struggles. i wont compare our experiences of course, but i can fully relate to comparing yourself to someone your age or even younger who is much more successful and feeling SO awful about yourself because you feel like ure lagging behind. in my case, i ended up rushing into doing a lot of things when i was 18-19, just bec i thought i *had* to have done those already, otherwise i was some sort of loser of something. and ive regretted a lot of it despite it only being a year since. im doing a lot better now, but this video definitely made me feel so much better :) i am but a stranger on the internet, but i just want you to know that i think youre super cool, and that youre doing amazing!!

[@theflyingarioh]

Thank you for the support and for sharing your experience! I've been feeling restless because my mind is constantly telling me that my life is over and I'm running out of time (which is bs), but your words really comforted me and helped me feel a little bit less lonely 💞
You're absolutely not lagging behind, but I know it's hard to think that way (I struggle a lot) because we're constantly comparing all the time. /: This urge to constantly compare ourselves to the youngest and successful people we see doesn't go away easily, but I hope that you're reminding yourself that you are doing enough by being here, by being alive, by being yourself and figuring out life. Especially if you have experience with abusive parents and childhood trauma, because we have a lot of mental homework that takes a lot of time and inner work (and it's not easy)!
I'm so glad that you're doing better! :) I know it's hard to believe, but you're not running out of time and you have time to slow down and figure things out. It's never too late to start living. ❤️‍🩹

[@xyzeeee]

​@@theflyingarioh thank you so much!! i am so happy that it makes you feel comforted :> !!! and thank you for such a kindhearted and supportive reply as well. youre amazing and keep going 💖💖💖

[@suvendroseal1724]

I totally relate with what you're saying here and trust me, I'm nearing 30 and I also feel the same nagging feeling at the back of my head that I've wasted my life. I feel like since social media has magnified the successes of other people that's it's only a byproduct we all feel this now cause none of our lives is as perfect as what we see it can be as the next big success we scroll passed on Socials.

[@theflyingarioh]

Absolutely! This feeling of not being good enough and not having achieved enough in life stems from comparing ourselves with others, which is the whole concept of social media. But we often forget that social media only shows the 1% of a person's life they CHOOSE to show, which we compare to our unfiltered lives, which is pretty unfair. /: The most important thing is not what we've achieved, but our mindset, mindfulness, and happiness, but it's easier said than done.