“Small” Ways You’re Undermining Your Daily Zest For Life

The term “zest for life” refers to a state of being where the world around you seems magical, appealing, exciting and interesting — and where you can’t wait to jump out of bed each morning and to throw yourself into whatever activities and experiences the day might hold.

When you’re feeling a great degree of zest for life, your sense of wellbeing is dramatically elevated, you are more likely to be highly motivated and outgoing, and you will also very likely experience a lot more fascination and wonder as you go about your everyday life.

Unfortunately, there are a variety of different challenges that can put a damper on anyone’s sense of enthusiasm, ranging from accidents that may require a consultation with injury attorneys, to tiring and monotonous projects at work.

At the same time, though, there are many ways in which we are all susceptible to undermining out own daily sense of zest for life — ways which often seem “small” at first glance, but which can end up having a disproportionately significant and negative impact.

Here are just a few examples of some of those “small” ways in which you might be undermining your zest for life, on a daily basis.

Sleeping just a bit less than you need

The wording of this point may seem strange, because — surely — being seriously sleep deprived would be a lot worse for your sense of zest of life than being just a bit sleep deprived, wouldn’t it?

The answer to this is clearly “yes,” but moderate sleep deprivation is — in many ways — more insidious than serious sleep deprivation.

When all is said and done, virtually everyone is aware that something is really wrong after pulling an all-nighter, and that you can’t do that consistently without breaking yourself down.

But huge numbers of people do operate in a constant state of ongoing moderate-level sleep deprivation.

But according to researchers such as Matthew Walker, who specialises in sleep, even just getting an hour or two less sleep than you really need each night can have very serious repercussions. It can impair your blood sugar control to the extent that you’d be classed “prediabetic” if tested in that condition, and it damages your memory, while making you more negative, paranoid, and pessimistic in your dealings with others, too.

By simply making a point to get your eight hours of sleep a night — or more if you need it — and by sleeping at consistent times each night, you may end up experiencing a lot more zest for life than you otherwise would.

Not setting yourself exciting and motivating goals to work towards

Have you ever noticed how fun, exciting and engaging life can seem when you’re got a clear sense of direction and purpose?

This sense of direction and purpose doesn’t even need to be a big picture goal. It could simply be a clear and engaging outline for what you’ll be doing on a given day — something like meeting a deadline by a particular time, meeting friends to see a film in the evening, and catching a flight somewhere the next morning.

Without motivating goals — whether implicit or explicit — we can all too easily end up wandering and meandering from day to day, feeling jaded and unfocused.

Although we all need some relaxation in life, simply spending your everyday existence drifting aimlessly without a sense of direction is very likely to ruin your sense of wellbeing and to rob you of your sense of zest for life.

Come up with goals and targets that motivate you. Both for the short-term, and also for the longer term.

Being too cynical in how you view things, and belittling the achievements of others

Virtually everyone is susceptible to being overly cynical when they’re in an irritable mood, and especially if they’re frustrated at some particular event or situation in their lives.

Often, this cynicism manifests itself in making fun of and belittling others, and features of society or the world at large that don’t warrant that level of negativity. If you find, for example, that you’re constantly talking down about everyone who shows up on your TV — from athletes to musicians — you’re directly feeding into this kind of a cynical outlook.

But when you let yourself be overly cynical in this way, you naturally prevent yourself from spotting and appreciating a lot of the good and beauty that’s present in the world. You also create a mental framework where you discourage yourself from taking action and trying new things, as you’ve convinced yourself that virtually everything is “pointless” or “overrated,” or that everyone who participates in those things “is terrible.”