Not Bad, Not Great
How often have you experienced days that aren’t terrible, but also not joyful? They are just… bland. A flatline of feeling. Not enough pain to complain, not enough joy to celebrate. Just an endless loop of okay.
The coffee tastes fine, but not satisfying.
The conversations are polite, but forgettable.
The job that pays the bills but stirs no fire.
The relationships that don’t hurt, but don’t grow.
Nothing is burning, but nothing is blazing either.
The calendar moves forward, but you don’t feel like you’re going anywhere.
You are not unhappy, but you are not fulfilled either.
We tend to think that change begins at rock bottom, when something breaks so loudly we have no choice but to respond. But the truth is, we more often get stuck in the in-between. That strange place where life is “okay.” Over time, this state of life may culminate into outbreaks of mid-life crisis. Yes, I’m in my 30’s, and I experience episodic breakdowns of existential crisis.
So what do we do with that?
How do we exit the fog of almost-okay? How do we leave the gray space of quiet discontent, without detonating our life? How do we trade bland for passion, without burning down everything we’ve built?
There’s a part of us that craves the dramatic reset. Quit the job. Leave the city. Reinvent everything. Sometimes that’s the right move. But most of the time, running away and restarting is not realistic. Learning to manage these feelings of inadequacy and dissatisfaction and bringing awareness to these feelings is the first step toward meaningful change.
Then it’s calibrated rebellion. Small, intentional acts that get you out of your routine. Start with one honest conversation you’ve been avoiding. Take one small risk that reintroduces you to your own pulse. Say no to something that drains you, and yes to something that quietly excites you, even if it scares you a little.
The point isn’t to go big, it’s to go authentic. To be you. Because life doesn’t need to be extraordinary to be meaningful. But it does need to be yours.
So no, you don’t have to leap off a cliff to feel alive. But maybe you do need to step off autopilot. To ask, What’s one small thing I could do today that makes me feel just a little more awake?