Sooo What Now

@MoonlitSunflower

Hi there. 💙 If I'm understanding, you've been having trouble finding a job because most jobs need a car to drive to, but it feels scary to drive. You feel like in order for things to change or improve, there are certain steps/actions that are needed that only you'd be able to perform, but you have trouble bringing yourself to do those actions.

You see 7 Cups as a place that isn't necessarily all that helpful--since maybe you can express certain feelings here and feel some temporary relief from venting, but the underlying situation that's causing you stress doesn't feel like it changes very much unless if you do something.

Something else you mention is that the whole "striving for financial success" thing also feels a bit hollow also--like even if you manage to "succeed" and get the job/house, it's hard to see the point of that or how that's supposed to matter. (And sort of the same thing for life in general... if the movie is just going to turn off after ~80 years or however long, it's not clear why anything that's happening in there would really matter.)

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What you're saying reminds of some research showing that having money helps with happiness, but only up to a certain point. Once someone has enough money that they aren't stressed/worried about it, it doesn't really make them much happier beyond that point.

There's a model called Maslow's hierarchy of needs that hypothesizes something similar... like if I have enough food, food becomes less relevant. Instead, I might start noticing or focusing on other needs/desires that were previously in the background because they were less urgent.

I like to think that once I manage to finish one goal, there might be a period where I'm floating in an uncomfortable void and everything feels meaningless, but if I wait long enough something else will eventually pop up and pull in my attention.

Sometimes it's just a matter of patiently waiting for my own anxiety/dissatisfaction/self-disgust/suffering to become intense/overwhelming enough that I feel a burst of motivation/energy/desperation. Like things become so bad that I'm no longer able to ignore it and I'm forced to change something. Until that happens, I usually can't force myself to do things that I don't feel like doing, even intellectually they might seem like they're good.