well, you don't owe the world crap. your "potential" or what you're "expected to be" does not mean anything about your own value. As long as you're doing what makes you happy and not purposefully hurting anyone, nobody, not even the universe has the right to hold you to something more. life isn't a competition, there is no need to pressure yourself with such a thing as "potential". you do you, and thank yourself later.
I agree with Aeolia 100%. Ironically I feel like this constantly, but it's easier to be kind to someone else about this than it is to be kind to myself. Forget what you feel like you should be, and just focus on what makes you happy in the here and now. I don't know the details of why you feel this way, but I don't need to to know you're being unnecessarily harsh on yourself and you deserve better.
We get that message to do more from all over so it's no surprise you feel that pressure and get down on yourself. This time of the year can be hard too with seasonal depression, holiday pressures, all the ads to get fit, find love, advance career, etc etc, it's too much! Even Maslow's "hierarchy of needs" shows we should keep climbing to reach the top of the pyramid... for your full potential. There are good intentions with most of it but it's no fun to be that hard on yourself. What do you think you need to enjoy where you are in the present moment?
Ah. I was having a bad day when I wrote this thread. Personally I get a fair amount of intrusive thoughts about this. Mainly because people have directly called me a waste of potential before. So it's stuck in my head and randomly resurfaces every once in a while. It's mainly because I don't always have time to do the things I want to and I worry about not achieving my goals as a result. Such as not working on personal projects, then feeling guilty because that means not progressing as fast as I'd like. Which in turn makes me not want to work on it, making a nasty loop.
I hear you and same with the nasty intrusive thought loops for me. I have potential too that's wasted being stuck in depression and then I feel bad for that too so it's unending. Other stuff that makes me screwed and nothing much to offset the suffering so what do people keep going on for is what I often ponder.
Canterpiece.....It seems to be a human trait to remember and repeat the things that we have done wrong in our lives. The mistakes, the errors, the things that we could have done so much better but didn't. It's the old hindsight is 20/20 thing. I especially hate it when I'm going to bed and just about to go to sleep and then all the blunders that I've done come back to haunt me! It's then that I do my best to take some time and remember the things that I did right. As a teacher for 41 years, I try to remember the kids that I helped...the ones that I encouraged when they were discouraged. We can't go through life without making mistakes, but we can do our best to focus on the good things that we did. For almost all of us the good far out weights the bad! .....David
I know that feeling all too well. You want to know the best thing I've learned will combat it? Remember the following: You're alive, and that means you have potential to grow. If you see enough in yourself to understand what you've lost, then do everything you can to try and not lose any more. Act now. Don't wait. Take all your remaining potential and blaze the best trail you can! Believe me, I'm trying to live up to this concept myself, though everyone is a work in progress in some way. It's those who stop trying that make the world a more difficult and sometimes outright worse place. Also, I find it helps to remember life and love and emotion are linked in that they all have seasons, and those seasons affect the others. Sometimes the dark season settles in to one and another follows. However, that also means if we can bring light into one... you see where I'm going. Just remember that small victories count, including this thread. Give yourself a small victory each day. It might be a little uncomfortable, sometimes it might even be painful, but do something each day. A little exercise, a conversation with a friend, pushing yourself to finish or add to a personal project... all of it will accumulate, trust me! I wish you well, and I wish I could give you a hug, so how about this instead? Stay safe!
