11 Toxic Mindsets That Will Ruin Your Life

“Thinking that you need to be at a certain point at a certain age in your life. As long as you have a goal and you are working towards it, you are fine. Don’t fall into stress, anxiety, or depression over an imaginary race.” — sunflowersuger

“Thinking that potential is in any way important. You don’t get points for half-finished projects, and ideas are cheap. Things you have the potential to do are meaningless unless and until you actually do them, and until you actually do them you don’t get to brag. The guy sitting in Starbucks on his Macbook, writing the same opening ten pages of his novel over and over again without ever making it to page eleven is kidding himself. Don’t be that guy. Actually finish things, then either move onto the next project or try and edit the last one to make it better.” — vofar13597

“Trying to get abusive family to change and treat you with humanity. And when you finally make the hardest decision in a life, to walk away from abusive family members…. and then have others who say to stay because they’re family. Nope. Safety first can mean going zero contact and to actively keep abusers away, especially abusive family.” — throwaway12buckle

“Feeling pressured to have children because they’re sold the fantasy that motherhood is beautiful and relationships improve after children. The amount of people I’ve watched whose lives have fallen apart after having children to bring fulfillment to their lives, fix their relationships or just because ‘they’re getting older’ and it’s what ‘life is about’ is insane. Children are expensive, huge financial and time drains, and are not for everyone. People who have kids for the wrong reasons end up disappointed and the kids suffer.” — ohpanik

“Thinking I have plenty of time left. In the worst case, you die tomorrow, no matter how old you are. Can be a car crash at 16 years old, bursting aneurism at 30, or getting shot at 55. Or, not less scary, you grow old, and are then too old to do the stuff you told yourself you would do one day. Travel the world when you retire? Catch a common illness like heart deseases etc. and nope – a thousand things you can´t really do or enjoy.” — voxeyeb727

“The sunk cost fallacy. The idea that you shouldn’t give up, that you should stick with it because you’ve already put in so much work and would be throwing it away. Sometimes, you need to cut your losses and move on, and most people struggle with accepting that.” — MyNameIsRay

“Staying at the same job for too long. I made that mistake, now I’m paying for it. It doesn’t help your future job prospects having only one or two things to show on your resume and it’s extremely specialized.” — Milnoc

“Getting into relationships with people they’re not compatible with, just because they are lonely or because everyone else is doing it, or because they don’t think they can ever do better.” — JaronK

“The biggest trap is not working on your brain. People live their whole lives saying to themselves ‘nothing’s going to change, this is who I am.’ Mostly out of laziness because changing for the better takes work.” — pimepa8971

“Consumerism. Allowing themselves to be manipulated by advertising and marketing into thinking that they’re just one product short of happiness.” — pafadig616

“Keeping up with the Joneses. You’re not your neighbors, don’t go into debt trying to keep up. Let them go into debt trying to prove they’re better than you.” — stu-padidiot