Life brings challenges. Some of the difficulties we face are surmountable. We find a way to get through them. We learn and mature.
However, there are challenges that are much tougher and take much longer to overcome. As you constantly deal with these challenges, at the end of the day you can finish up in a mental state where you feel like you’re battling all the time. It can feel like you’re always struggling to get through the day. You’re in survival mode.
Being in survival mode basically implies that you have become unable to have a long-term or medium-term plan for your life. The only plan you really have is trying to make it through the day.
Getting through another 24 hours becomes an objective in itself.
When in survival mode
When you’re fighting to survive day after day, it may seem like you have no long-term ambitions to the outside world. People might think you’re careless or unmotivated.
Quote: I’m not lazy, unmotivated or stuck. After years of living my life in survival mode, I am exhausted. There’s a difference.
When you’re stuck in survival mode, you can feel like there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. You solely fight to get through the day. And when you accomplish that, there is another day waiting for you to navigate your way through. Again.
Managing survival mode, is not really living
Here are a couple of things you can do you to escape survival mode and regain control.
- Acknowledge it
- Stop whining
- Allow yourself to make mistakes
- Forgive yourself
- Ask for help
Asking for help is always a good idea.
Know that what others think about your situation is not necessarily the truth. What truly matters is what you think about yourself. That’s the truth.
You being exhausted, doesn’t mean you’re unmotivated. It doesn’t mean that you have no purpose in life. If you can only convince yourself that there’s a difference. There is a distinction between what people think of you and what you think of you.
The question is: what do you believe?
