Evaluating your choices

Whenever you feel the urge to lie down, think for a moment where your life is going, evaluate the life choices you have made and consider if this is the path you really want to take, ask yourself, what is all this even for? What is the point of you doing things, and what do you really want out of it, that will help you figure things out faster.

On occasions those questions can be just as hard to answer as the original question. For example, you don't always have the answer to the question of what this is all about, and what you really want. In such a scenario, surround yourself with negative questions to narrow down the possibilities enough so that positive questions can be helpful. Here's an example: say you want to find out what you want to do in the next five years, but have no idea, literally no idea what you want to do and where you want to be. Begin by asking what you definitely don't want and where you definitely don't want to be. Do you want to be an astronaut? Do you want to be a youtube celebrity? Do you want to be a deep-sea diver? Do you want to be an accountant. Once you have narrowed down your options enough, start asking more pointed questions. Imagine for a moment that you are, like I am, a more computer-oriented computer person. In such a case, ask yourself, do I want to keep doing this for the next five years? Do I want to die doing this in the next five years? Is this what I want to be known for? What if I made no money for doing this, would I still be doing this? What if someone paid me ten times as much the money for doing the same job, would it be the same? What would be the same, what would be different? What would be the direction from what you are doing right now that would put you on a slightly better path to happiness? Start with the direction of less stress. Happiness is not obvious, stress is. Move from the path of more stress to less stress, and eventually you shall find true happiness.

Figuring out what kind of people you want to be around and spend time with is even easier. Ask yourself, does spending time with this person make me tired or rejuvenated. Do I feel anxious after, or do I feel positive towards life? Having long conversations about life, the universe and everything with this person, is this something I'd rather do when I have something better to do, or do I hang out with this person  only because there is nothing else happening in my life. If this person stopped making an effort to keep in touch with me and moved away from my life forever without any fault or intention of their own, how much of an effort would I put towards keeping in touch with them, being in their lives, talking to them etcetera, or would I rather just give up, because they are just persons of convenience. Such questions are often quite easy and obvious to answer, and they will open the path to lesser stress and greater friendships, honesty and self-appraisal quicker. They'll do you better, and the ones around you will have a greater experience also.