If you’re always itching to hit those milestones in life and your relationship, you might be missing out on time to stop and smell the roses. Here are 11 signs you have milestone anxiety and you need to take a deep breath and calm down.
- You plan the fourth date on the first. It’s normal to want to look ahead when you start dating someone that you actually like for once, but try not to rush through the early dating stages that are blissful. Dating’s supposed to be fun!
- You put age-related stress on yourself. Do you think you have to be married by 26 and have kids by 30, no matter what? Do you feel stressed when you think about these goals you want to reach instead of excited? That’s not cool. If you’re putting so much pressure on yourself, it’s bound to backfire and make you miserable.
- You’re denying yourself opportunities. If you’re only focused on those specific goals you have, you might be missing out on other opportunities that could present themselves – and they might be better than what you’ve been planning.
- You don’t leave room for surprises. Life isn’t always going to go according to plan, no matter how much you try to make it go the way you want. But sometimes that can be a good thing. It might open your eyes to something that you never considered and didn’t realize you actually wanted in your life.
- You self-destruct in relationships. If you rush ahead to dating milestones, like by being desperate to move in together when you shouldn’t, you can cause things to go too fast, which can actually sabotage your relationship. Don’t be afraid to slow down a bit. It will do things a load of good.
- You’re all about timelines. If you only focus on achieving a goal by a certain time or age, you’re kind of missing the whole point. What if your journey is a bit different from others? Everyone’s journey will take them to the finish line at different times, and often things happen when it’s the best time for them, not before.
- You’re sick all the time. Your body shows signs of stress, and this can occur in the form of colds and flus that strike you on a regular basis or by other physical symptoms. If you put a lot of pressure on yourself to achieve in life and hit all those milestones, the stress could be harmful. It’s just not worth doing that to yourself, because if you’re out of the game then everything will be, too.
- You’re afraid to fail. One of the biggest signs of milestone anxiety is if you feel you have to achieve your goals no matter what – failure is not an option. Although it’s good to be positive, if you’re terrified of failure then you’re totally ignoring times when failure can be a good thing – a blessing in fact!
- You ignore the blessings in disguise. Imagine you start dating a guy and want to take things further, but then he ghosts you. While you might view this as a failure on your part (even though it’s really not) and beat yourself up about why you can’t find a half-decent man, the truth is that he’s probably doing you a favor because he’s clearly a jerk. Now, if you got what you wanted, you wouldn’t have seen that – and it would’ve led to greater heartbreak down the road.
- You’re too exhausted to start. If the thought of starting a new project like writing a crime novel or going on a blind date after a five-year dating break feels more draining than delightful, it could be a sign that you have milestone anxiety. Yes, it can be overwhelming to have to inform someone new of everything about you because they have zero info, and it can be stressful to start the first page of your novel, but don’t let self-pressure cause you to miss out on the excitement of starting a new journey.
- You’re too serious for your own good. Nothing wrong with being serious, but if lots of people have said you’re gonna give yourself a heart attack by the age of 30 that’s definitely something to pay attention to. No matter what milestones you’re keen to achieve in the next three, five, or 10 years, the important thing is not to let them blind you to living your life right now before it passes you by. Because, honestly, there’s more to life than having a relationship status or CEO title.
