What do you do when you lose interest? I feel like when you initially hear that term, you hear the little “dum dum dum” sound effect in the back of you head. Then your mind instantly targets an assumption that it’s about a relationship.
But what happens when it’s not about a relationship, but it’s kind of on a much larger scale? What happens when you lose interest in your life? (That sounds so dramatic). Comparable to a relationship, is your career. You are taught to love and care for your career. Your career is your life. (Again, dramatic– yet eerily accurate).
We technically begin our careers at the acute age of 18. Graduating high school, most of us have a rough sketch in our heads of our future selves. Or some, like me, have an engineered-like blueprint concerning every single centimeter of our life etched out on a crisp sheet of paper stored in our brain for frequent reference. (Insert deep breath here).
That map used to be your prized possession. It gave you security and hope when it seemed like everything was going wrong. Ignoring any doubts, you continued and referred back to your map.
Planning while following the instructions on your map. You write, plan, write, and plan more. You get so caught up in what you’re doing. Eventually you start to forget what you’re doing or why you’re doing it in the first place.
Growing mindlessly, you lose passion. Losing passion, the interest drops from your once eager hands.
I have found myself stuck in a steep ditch that makes me feel drained, uninspired and uninterested in anything and everything school related. I am far from depressed or sad, in fact, I am happy (excluding academics). So, what is wrong?
At first, I broke down the obvious. I thought that it was just because this year has been long and I am getting tired because it is the bitter end of the semester. But once it came time to register for classes, I wanted to puke. Not because the registering process is difficult in itself, but because I hated my future classes and I haven’t even started them yet.
Therefore it simply boils down to interest.
I used to absolutely, hands-down love my major. The huge open range of creativity that stemmed from it drew me in instantly. So, why does the stem decide to break now? When I am so close to getting that degree, why am I thinking,
“Is this even right? Is this what I want?”
I’ve been caught in a whirlwind on getting things done. I haven’t paused to contemplate. Knowing that the school year is dwindling down, I felt withdrawn yet completely panicked.
So, after I got myself out of that sluggish daze, I decided to break it down. Here are tips that I found to be incredibly helpful: