Bored, filled with ennui... What to do???

LegacyUser

I am a registered user, but I'm going unregistered for this thread.

I'm 23 years old, male and to the outside world I should be happy and satisfied with my life. But I'm not. I'm not unhappy, but I'm not enthralled either. I'm firmly in a 'grey area' with it.

I have a good, well-paying job. I have my own car. I live in a house with 3 of my best friends. I have some very good friends in my life. I have everything I could ever want (nice clothes, laptop, big DVD collection, CD collection, etc. all the material bull I could ever want to own). I've never known a day in my life when I was without something I needed or wanted.

But lately, I just find myself feeling very bored and just going through the motions of life. One of the glaring omissions from my life is probably a girlfriend, but even that doesn't bother me too much. There are times obviously I'd like a girlfriend, but then my apathy takes over and I'm not 'bothered' by it. The way I've gone lately is that unless things land into my lap, I'm not going to go out looking for them.

This is totally contradictory to the way I've always led my life; I worked my arse off all my life to get a job, do well in school, to go to college, to be able to afford all the luxuries I want, etc. But now I'm just at the point where I can muddle along at this petty pace and still have the same life. I have no drive or ambition any longer.

I'm not depressed, because that is how some might interpret it. I do feel down sometimes, but who doesn't??? Generally, I'm happy. I have some brilliant friends who I love dearly, and I do enjoy my work as much as you can enjoy work. But it's just I find myself no longer able to get excited about things.

I used to travel to England a lot to watch the team I support a lot (in the 07/08 season I was at a total of 13 games in England, 08/09 it was 10, 09/10 it was 21... and since May 2010, I've been to a total of 2 games!!!). I know that seems small, but to me it's an indicator of how I've just become 'not bothered' with things that used to give me so much excitement. I also used to be a passionate follower of Dublin GAA; going to every league and championship game, but lately, I've not gone to many games... last game I was at was in 2010 too.

Part of the reason I'm bored is perhaps because I've done everything that I could want to do; I've travelled a lot, I've had the girlfriend, I've got my laser eye surgery that I've wanted since I was a kid, I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt... I know this sounds terrible, but my ambition is really shot now and I seem to be just 'happy' where I am with no ambition or drive to change it. My life could be better, but as I said... I'm 'happy' just muddling along at what I'm at, but feel that I could have so much more if I was any way driven...

unattendedbag

I see a good few of these threads these days whereby the poster is feeling down despite having everything they could ever want. I always find that having something to look forward to always keeps me going. Something like looking forward to Christmas or an exciting holiday next year. It can be short term or long term. If you've done everything you wanted to do then try to get a bit of inspiration from something you've never thought of before. Google a list of 100 things to do before you die and see if something appeals to you. Alternatively try to compete at a sport or discipline or expand on your hobbies.

Mighty_Mouse

IMO we're not designed for happiness from "having everything".
Ya gotta keep challenging yourself.
You can't just tick all your boxes & sit back expecting a glowing happiness to envelope you.

Basically, you're stopped progressing in a meaninful way.
You need to find new parts of life to interest yourself again.
Get busy living.