Redditor bluscorp91 wanted to hear about the things we really need to financially evaluate, so they asked:
"Which everyday item do people waste too much money on?"
I waste on takeout. I can't help it. I'm me.
Go to the Fountain
Scared 30 Rock GIF by HULUGiphy"Water."
brakjeeptj
"If you have safe tap water witch most people in Europe, Australia, and US/Canada has you can save thousands on water. One gallon costs under a dollar from the tap, and one gallon from the store will cost 5 dollars or more."
mincraftpro27
Tea at Home
"Takeout coffees."
LucyVialli
"What I donāt get is how people have TIME for that in the morning."
"Thereās a coffee stand place by me that consistently has a huge line that sometimes blocks traffic. The few times I have been there on days off I have waited over 20 mins and that wasnāt even during rush hour."
"Like who has time to spend 20-40 mins before work in line getting coffee?!?"
pooponacandle
Skins
"Fortnite."
anyma6
"The skins are cool as sh*t, I'll admit it, but damn, $20 per skin? People are out here claiming it's fine because it's a free game, but $20 per skin means if you have 3 skins, you could've gotten a completely different game all together. And most kids have hundreds of skins. My coworkers son spends all of his allowance, Christmas, and birthday money on Fortnite skins."
"He's claimed that his son has spent over $1200 on Fortnite. That's f**king insane."
"My buddies are full grown men and they buy like one skin ever 4-5 days, it's crazy. They spend anywhere from $80-$120 a month on Fortnite. I literally don't understand at all. It's an entire bill to pay every month. I play it with them from time to time and only have like three skins. I still feel like I spent too much on that."
B3RS3RK_CR0W
Vroom
"Cars. I don't know how so many people can afford the mortgage on cars that cost twice the average annual salary around here. And they are legion."
"If you want to save money, you drive a 10+ year old beater. It is paid for, you will have to repair it every year for a couple of hundred bucks, but the cost per mile is a fraction of that for a new Polestar 2 or Volvo XC60."
"I'm guessing I am seeing the caste that lucked out on the housing market."
Derpygoras
For Good
Mothers Day Netflix GIF by Grace and FrankieGiphy"Netflix."
OptimumRedditor
"10 bucks a month is worth it."
RandomBloke2021
"Netflix prime Hulu, Appletv, Disney+ and all that crap that we can just find free on the internet free. Hell no I'm not paying for 100 different subscription services."
gracie4questions
There are way too many options. YouTube is cheaper.
MOOOO!!!
Stone Cold Reaction GIF by WWEGiphy"My Family spends A LOT of money on milk, since my entire family drink like 2 bottles a day total. Not with coffee or anything, just plain milk."
MonkeeBoi123
All that milk... I hope they change the flavors.
Last Call
Happy Hour Drinking GIFGiphy"Alcohol."
orbittheorb
"Buying alcohol at the bars. Seriously, downtown Chicago, 'Can I please have 2 rum & cokes and a Bud Light?'"
"'Ok that will be $35.'"
"Forget that mess."
Angel--Wonderland
A Communication Must
"Phones."
DrLycFerno
"I'm going to disagree since you left your reply so basic. Now if you buy the newest phone at launch, and repeat that every new release, yes that is wasteful. I bought a 1 year old model 4 years ago and it's still fine. If it turned into a brick tonight, I would drop like $800 on a 1 year old model and be good for several more years. That isn't wasteful."
somedude456
Need a Roof
"Rent."
abby_normally
"If our economy wasn't trash right now, I'd say buy your own place. I rented for 3 months then bought... renting is like flushing your money and any potential home equity (God I hate that word these days) down the toilet."
Runner_Girl1217
"Itās too expensive but unless youāre living outside your means the money is not wasted. Shelter is pretty important, itās right up there with food and water."
HutSutRawlson
Clean Up
Toilet Paper Poop GIF by Paper PooGiphy"Toilet paper. Wash your butt with water, and you can save tons of toilet paper."
"Never could understand what it is with toilets with nowhere to wash, and walking around with chocolate caked holes."
lefttheovenoff
Next Day Problems
"Surprised no one else has said this. Throwing away left over food instead of eating it later. I've worked in the restaurant industry for years and it's appalling the amount of food that gets thrown away that would be perfectly fine the next day. I constantly pack my leftovers and eat them for lunch."
Angel--Wonderland
We really need to evaluate our spending.
Redditor Unavalible_000 wanted to hear about all of the "tried it once" experiences we've all been affected by.
"Whatās something you tried and will never do again?"
Also, liver. No. NO. NO! Tried it, cried, never again.
Guilt
Bad Boy School GIF by Vintage 3DGiphy"Missing class on purpose. Made me feel so bad I didn't do anything for the time I was supposed to be in class."
Azuria_4
Too Fast
"Driving really fast."
RowanEragon
"Yup. Took my car to the limit once, 156 MPH on a track. Obviously not a super car, but not a family sedan, either. Things got a little squirrelly and I almost lost control. After that I was like 'yup, thatās how fast it goes, Iām happy to never try that again.'"
dirtyblueshirt
"this might be fun"
"Coke for me. I was in my post-college wtf do I do now stage of my life and a perfect target for bad decisions. It's incredible how fast I went from 'this might be fun' to 3am after a not sleeping for a week searching the floor for the tiniest speck of powder I might have dropped."
"16 years since I've seen a fleck of it and I can still remember the completely God-awful feeling of coming down and spiraling deep into that dark hole where a depression lived that was beyond anything I'd ever felt before or since."
linds360
Up. Up. UP!
"Staying up all night. Felt terrible the next day and have to sleep more to make up for it."
mysterioususer5678
"Amen. The one time I pulled an all-nighter studying for a test, the next day when I was taking it, I would answer a question, and then snap back awake, and realize I had dreamt of answering it, and then answer it again. This happened like 3 times. 0/10."
NoLifeMax
Bad Fit
Click Klm Royal Dutch Airlines GIF by KLMGiphy"Taking the middle seat on an airplane. As a 6'6" 250+lb man, it is what I imagine hell is like."
GrinAndBeerIt
Yeah that middle seat is torture. I'd rather walk to Europe next time.
Ashore...
Eat Prey Chum GIF by Shark WeekGiphy"Probably deep sea fishing. Didnāt think Iād make it back to shore alive with that sea sickness."
aRedditAlias
Sloped!
"Snowboarding. Gave it a shot, was unsurprisingly terrible, hated every minute of it. Next time I went on the mountain, I tried skiing instead. They were the better choice. My attempt at snowboarding ended sometime late morning after a particularly hard fall. I ripped the board off my feet, yelled "F**k this!" and marched down the rest of the slope. I handed my gear back in, and then went right to the bar. My fiancƩ felt a little bad, but he was also laughing his a** off at me."
I_DRINK_ANARCHY
Kaching!
"To be honest, slot machines. A couple years ago some friends took me to a casino to celebrate my birthday, and I found the experience underwhelming. I even ended up leaving with a nice amount of money, but the act of getting to that point didn't excite me at all."
mcmcsample
9 Bad Months
"Being pregnant/Giving birth. The birth actually wasn't so bad (thanks epidural!) but being pregnant sucked. I was not at all prepared for the level of exhaustion and discomfort that comes with it. Literally, everything feels off and you're not so much tired as depleted of all resources bc duh, there's basically a parasite feeding off of your body."
"I also puked every day for nine months. Yep, that's every. day. Meds only had a minimal effect on me. My kid is the coolest damn human on the planet and everything about her is fantastic, but I will never, ever, do that again."
linds360
Don't Jump
Pop Rock GIF by American TeethGiphy"Skydiving. Not because I don't want to, but because years passed since last time I went and I gained a bunch of weight."
Therearenogoodnames9
Never again...
"I cheated on my girlfriend when I was 19. Never again. Even if I never told her I still felt like complete s**t. Her suicide attempt after I told her sealed only emphasized the point."
jephistopheles
"My wife's first husband, the father of their 3 children, sat down for a coffee with her when the court case for their divorce was finally over to tell her that when he went away for work he had unprotected sex with prostitutes every time. I wonder how she ever trusted a man again."
daftvaderV2
Meh
slot machine gambling GIFGiphy"To be honest, slot machines. A couple years ago some friends took me to a casino to celebrate my birthday, and I found the experience underwhelming. I even ended up leaving with a nice amount of money, but the act of getting to that point didn't excite me at all."
2/19/20
"Being a junkie. That was no fun at all, I lost everything. That little sparkle in your eye, your ability to enjoy absolutely life. You lose your self worth and self awareness. 2/19/20 is my clean date from heroin and my life is good right now."
benders234423
"as needed"
"Xanax. I was addicted for ages, horrible withdrawals I wouldnāt wish on my worst enemy. No way Iām doing that again. F**k Xanax."
Thin-Swordfish4462
"How often? I take it 'as needed,' which is about one every two weeks or so. I try not to take it much. Curious what level is the tipping point of dependency. Every day? Multiple a day?"
riverspiv
"Franchising. Lost a lot of money figuring out whether or not they were using that business model to risk my money instead of theirs. They were. And it's not always a bad thing, but I'm never bankrolling someone else's gamble again."
Carpaltunnelsnake
All the cliche...
Amber Riley Tea GIFGiphy"Working to make someone interested romantically. All the cliche 'I had to ask your mother out a thousand times' stories aside, it's never turned out well and ends up lacking one of the major ingredients found in actual successful relationships, in my opinion."
beercancarl
No Glamp
"Camping. Flies love me way too much."
sonia72quebec
"I am allergic to nature, and yet I kept getting convinced to go camping. Hated so much of it. I'm finally in my 30s and absolutely not going again. (Cabins and 'glamping' aren't camping.)"
AtheneSchmidt"I'm 49 and I also have a lot of allergies. I'm not going anywhere without indoor plumbing now. So camping in a tent is a big no no."
sonia72quebec
From the Sea
"Sea urchin caviar, as well as any other caviar. During my culinary career, I promised myself to try everything within reason. Iāve had all three of the finer grades of caviar being Osetra, Sevugra, and Beluga, and they all just taste awful to me."
Trek1973
Thief
shoplifting GIFGiphy"Shoplifting. Was the only time I did it (when I was younger and take a bar of chocolate in a mini market), when I was about to exit the store, a security guy nicely asked me to take the bar out of my pocket and hand it to him. They caught me on CCTV. Feel so embarrassed I never had the thought of steal anything ever again."
FourLungs
Well I'm glad to know I'm not alone in the "this sounds like a bad idea" camp. No to skydiving for sure!
I stay out of any and all political conversations online these days. That is a group (mob) of people who I can't take seriously, because they have lost the thread. And it's coming from all sides.
Service Concerns
Arrested Development Do Not Want GIFGiphy"People who treat customer service like trash."
"Customer service who treat people like trash."
I AM THIS
"People that base their whole identity on one thing."
"Especially when they have no personal contribution to said thing, aka Super Fans. A person who lives and breathes for swimming or cooking or some other activity that requires skill is totally different from somebody who just obsessed over a show or Fandom or whatever bullcrap."
"I couldn't agree more. Especially if the thing their identity is based on is devotion to sports."
Behind the Curve
"Flat Earthers."
"Oh there's definitely at least 100. They have conventions and crap. But yeah still the minority. There is a very fun and interesting documentary about them called Behind the Curve which I recommend if you're interested."
The worst part?
"Anti-vaxxers, anti-masks, holocaust deniers and more recently, "gravity deniers". These people makes me lose faith in humanity sometimes. They think the force of gravity was invented, or just doesn't exist. It resonates with some flat-earthers... the concept of gravity is correlated with a spherical planetary mass with a force pulling everything to the ground (center of the mass)."
"To the earth be plane, some believe that what keeps our feet on the ground is bc this plate is always moving upwards. The worst part? I know all this freaking disgraceful bull. Somehow I lost to them by occupying my already small brain with this crap."
Question People
tinder swiping GIFGiphy"Redditors."
"At what point can someone be seen as a "redditor"? I use it a lot but I don't consider it to be a part of my identity whatsoever. It's just an app I use to pass time. I rarely talk about it to anyone."
Oh reddit. You are a quirky beast aren't you? And customer service, there is so much vitriol being thrown about, I'm opting to just stay home.
All about You!
Pick Me Season 10 GIF by RuPaul's Drag RaceGiphy"People who think that the fact they have problems negate the fact that others have problems. Shockingly, many types of problems can exist simultaneously."
Obscure Opinions People Are Fully Committing To | George Takeiās Oh Myyy
Info Wars
"People who get their news off social media. I mean more the people who will take social media as gospel. I will hear things and do research outside of social media to hear the actual information. And even then it's all from biased perspectives. So I read both lmao. Fox and CNN so I can get both sides"
"I do, but before i tell anyone about it I search for the whole article online so that I don't accidentally lie to my loved ones."
Too Extreme
"People who won't even try to think about how other people feel about things whether it be political, religious or just something petty and instead act like their world view is the correct one. Reddit can be a bit of echo chamber for any and all political/social beliefs. Some sub Reddit's get banned just because they are too right-wing or too left-wing and I'm totally against that crap people should be able to say what they want unless it's threats of violence. Reddit ain't perfect when it comes to censorship."
"Oh, must be nice"
"There's also the people you know who are always broke or in heavy debt and can't afford anything. Who always sarcastically scoff "Oh, must be nice" when you mention you went on a vacation or bought yourself something new, because they suck at finances and can't let others enjoy themselves."
For Sure!
Angry Excuse Me GIF by JinGiphy"People who are 100% sure about literally anything, and 1-uppers you know the people who always have or did or something the same as you or someone else but better somehow."
- Kusanagi8811
Preach
"People who preach one thing and practice another." ~ Bob49459
"Knowing the right thing and doing the right thing are two different things. But I don't pretend I do the right thing, I just advise it." ~ freakyjaz
"well the Bible says to be kind"
"Extremely religious people/toxic Christians. The kind who say things like "well the Bible says to be kind" and then turn around and make death threats against others. The kind who would give money to a church but throw insults/assault homeless people."'
"Those who use their God as a weapon against others. Those who would kick out a child for being gay or pregnant outside of marriage. People who say things like "Well God is punishing you for X" whenever something bad happens, or say things like "oh well that religion's fake so it doesn't count. Only my religion counts." Basically the kind who use holy books to excuse their trashy behavior."
"Also religious nutjobs who actually believe things like "credit card chips are the Mark of the Beast", "social media is evil and sending all our kids to Hell!", and "It's blasphemy to celebrate any other holiday in December besides Christmas!" Cult type stuff to like any who require complete obedience to the leader or a political party." ~ confused_enby102
We Hear You!
Angry Lets Go GIF by BrownSugarAppGiphy"People who say they are a bad *itch or alpha male. No announcement is needed if you are." ~ redpillbob69
Deep South
"First, let me say that I am actually ashamed of myself for this but I have a very hard time taking anyone with a southern drawl/accent seriously. When I hear it, I automatically assume the person is an uneducated, backwoods redneck. It's awful, I'm sorry." ~ QueenofSwords78
Type Slow
"People who can't type worth sh*t. If I have to struggle to read it because there is no punctuation then I just won't. I understand that punctuation sometimes doesn't come naturally to people, but I don't want to have to decode a paragraph to just understand what they're saying."
"So, if someone types poorly to the point where it's hard to understand I will ignore them no matter what. I've also noticed that this type of person tends to be super up and arms with whatever they're talking about too, which makes it even more of a reason to avoid talking to them." ~ magikaaaaaarrrp
Spectrum
"People who say they're empaths. Empathy is a spectrum. Some people can't or find it hard to have empathy. This includes but isn't limited to certain people on the autistic spectrum and sociopathic/psychopathic disorders. Most people outside of this feel empathy and can read a room enough to understand how others are feeling. If you go out of your way to tell me you're an empath, you're basically telling me you think you're special and use it as justification for being an a**hole to others." ~ redditstolemyshoes
Hush
"People screaming... like I don't understand how I'm speaking to you in a clam tone and you're screaming at me. Like screaming won't get it fixed and won't get anything resolved, speak right or just walk away š." ~ Expert_Geologist3888
Give me a reason...
"I will take anyone seriously until they give me reason. I was working a job over the summer between college semesters and met a big foot researcher or photographer or whatever you want to call it. Nice guy and I got curious asked if he had any actual photos."
"He showed me what appeared to be this little... thing that looked like a small imp or something? I don't really know what I saw, not sure if it was edited it could have been and I am going to be cautious and say it was fake. But what he showed me didn't look like a guy in a suit." ~ Outnabout3535325
Wow there are a ton of messy humans running amok. Is it any wonder why the rest of us drink? And I loathe 1-uppers. I had to say that!
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In my medium of art (film/tv/theatre/literature) the hype/flop game is the norm more times than we care to admit. Sending art to the masses is always a gamble. And every gamble has a loser.
I'll do Diet!
90s 1990s GIF by PepsiGiphy"Crystal Pepsi."
- cujokila
"Crystal Pepsi taught me that everything is a lie. If they can make Pepsi clear or whatever color they want, then what other lies have I been led to believe?"
'the thing'
"When the Segway came out I remember an expert on Good Morning America saying that they would design cities around it in the future, instead of cars. Before it was called a Segway it was referred to as 'the thing' and new information about it was treated like freaking nuclear codes."
It's a Negative....
"Google+. It stayed in invitation only phase for way too long. By the time it was open to everyone, people forgot about it and it flopped."
"They also forced you to use it if you had any other kind of google account so people naturally resisted it. What they didn't understand is that people use other social media websites if they have something unique to offer. Unfortunately now it seems like every social media site is copycatting each other."
- antivn
3D
"I still remember 3D TVs were supposed to be the next "technological leap" or something. Even the World Cup was broadcasted in 3D. Then it just died out."
"Not just TV, but that era where every movie had a 3D version in theatres. As someone who wore glasses and is nearsighted, I was never able to watch them."
Cats GIF by Kitty Is Not A CatYeah I gave up on cat toys early on, and dog toys. My dogs have never really been into stuffed animals, or squeaky balls. Thank God. And I always thought the Segway was weird and unstable.
Bad Moves
Taylor Kitsch What GIFGiphy"The Nivelle Offensive It was hyped to win WW1 for France in 48 hours. Instead it was so bad that it started a mutiny, got Nivelle fired, and had casualty numbers an order of magnitude higher than expected."
Bad Diet
"Atkins diet-esque food items at fast food restaurants in like 2008 or whatever it was. They came and they went like the wind I remember KFC tried to get in the game at the time by claiming their chicken was healthy because it was low in carbs. That went down like a lead balloon."
Senseless...
"Juicero. The ultimate culmination of unicorn companies that make no sense."
"It was partially bankrolled by GOOGLE and I heard that people speculated that the DRM thing it had was so Google could harvest user data. That's gotta be the dumbest way to do that ever why would Google care about people's organic glorified juice box preferences."
"Ooooh. When I read that word, it rang a bell so I looked it up. I remember seeing advertisements for that thing. I think I remember seeing a video of someone opening up their packets and showing it was just... A mush. That you pressed to get a drink out of."
Not so Slender...
"The 2018 Slender Man movie... I remember before it came out it had like a 92% want to see on rotten tomatoes after it came out it got a 17% liked it."
"Honestly the movie shouldn't have been PG13. An R rating (which as far as I know was actually the original focus) would've been much better, as then the movie would've been more like the creepypasta and not like a child's fanfiction. It sucks the R rating was cut but "wOUlD sOMeOnE tHiNK oF tHE ChIlDrEN?????????????"
Foreigners Explain Which Parts Of American Culture Seem Strange | George Takeiās Oh Myyy
America, land of the free... and oversized portions and cars. That's how the saying goes, right? There are some baffling quirks about the United States. That...The Hunt
geraldo rivera man GIF by South Park Giphy"Geraldo Rivera's special Mystery of Al Capone's vault in the 1980s. š©"
He Lies
"That David Copperfield special where he "made the statue of liberty disappear." Forget that crap."
"The one thing I'll never forget from that: they interviewed some older women and she said, "I've never seen a Statue of Liberty disappear like that one did!"
"If I remember correctly, the camera and the bleachers with the audience were on a stabilized platform. They just trucked both a few feet to the side until the statue was out of camera shot, then pulled back the curtain."
Universal Fail
"The dark universe (the mummy)."
"I saw that movie with absolutely no idea they were trying to start this off and was so frigging confused when Dr Jekyll turns up out of nowhere for no reason."
"The cast that did that photo shoot before they even had one successful film is pretty cringe to see. The marketing for the failed universe is more entertaining than the actual movies."
Bad Pitch
"Ouya."
"To this day I cannot believe it even got that much hype and money during the kickstarter campaign. Even in the initial pitch it didn't seem that impressive or interesting so thankfully, I decided to wait until it was out. Never ended up buying one, obviously."
coke cola dancing GIFLet me see...
"I remember google glasses were supposed to be the next big thing but let me tell you I haven't seen a single pair out in the wild."
"I think Google got a big whiff of the vast majority of the population being really mad that people could film with the glasses without anyone ever knowing. I think it scared them off. People did not want this, and there were many people who seemed ready to fight people who wore these glasses."
Keep your baby...
"TY beanie babies. Everyone thought they were going to be rich when I was in high school."
- NXTsec
"I put a new coat of some all-weather sealant on this lady's playground set for her little kids. I was 13, it was summer, got, and she asked my dad if I could help her out. 6 hours later, she pays me with one single beanie baby. "This is gonna be worth a lot of money one day. Your afternoon of work has made you rich as an adult." Freaking bullcrap."
- boydboyd
"Is anything happening?"
"The end of the world in 2012."
"My cousin texted my the day that we were all supposed to die. She said "is anything happening?" And I was like "what do you mean? No. Nothing is happening" she really said "oh, well you live in a time zone ahead of us by 2 hours. I thought stuff would happen over there on the east coast first." I freaking died. The thought of the world imploding on itself but still following time zones is fantastic."
Disaster
"Quibi. That streaming service with nothing over 10 minutes. Launched about 3 weeks after the world shutdown."
"Did anyone other than the company hype up Quibi? That thing had disaster written all over it the moment it was announced and everyone seemed in agreement about that."
- MumrikDK
Oh Garth
Country Music 2018 Cmas GIF by CMA AwardsGiphy"In the life of Chris Gaines. The project where Garth Brooks created a grunge icon that would premiere in a movie."
Flames
"Fyre Festival is the ultimate "hyped but flopped". It's a cautionary tale of what NOT to do when organizing and/or promoting something."
"It's really just a cautionary tale not to scam people. It's organization and promotion worked totally efficiently, but it was a scam from start to end. Otherwise it wouldn't have worked and we wouldn't be talking about it today."
Well on paper they all sounded like good ideas. Maybe the issue lies in the execution. Try again perhaps? Except Slender Man and Geraldo. No, just no.
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Reddit answered in the most Reddit way possible - existential dread and gallows humor. The consistency with this site is just magnificent, honestly.
But then, something kind of magic started to kick in. That other dependable thing Reddit does - where complete strangers show up with insight and have your back ... it's so weird and so wonderful.
I'm getting ahead of myself, though. First existential dread and gallows humor.
Having Multiple
selma blair what GIF by Team CocoGiphy"Sclerosis. I have multiple." - BonnieZoom
"As a person who also has too many sclerosis this made me cackle" - rkspm
"Have you thought about exchanging them for a single large sclerosis?" - vandergrif
"My father always said, it's better to whole @ss one sclerosis than to half @ss multiple sclerosis" - confoundedvariable
Get On My Level
Shocked Squirrel GIFGiphy"My gmail inbox currently has 99,491 unopened emails. I don't open them and don't delete them. It's been over 9 years. Get on my level." - Zachincool
"Are you gonna have a celebration for 100K?" - silent_thinker
"I apparently missed my own celebration, then. Currently sitting at 119,712. I just leave them unopened if it's an ad, and I have too many things where I've subscribed or ordered something and they keep sending offersā¦" - pokitgiraffe
"I have 500k š³" - rareusernamebro
Too Much $h!t
Prepping Work From Home GIF by 60 Second DocsGiphy"Unused Items and gifts that I have that take up space in my apartment. I just have too much sh*t." - LordOfDescension
"Yeah. And my family insists on giving me more on my birthday and at Christmas. Apparently, the fact that I live in a small apartment means nothing to them." - epsdelta74
"I think 95% of the items my mom gave us for Christmas went directly to the donation bin. I can't get her to understand that I don't need more stuff, but I don't have to fill my house with things I don't need and won't use." - sewmuchmorethanmom
"I Second And Third..."
homer simpson donuts GIFGiphy"Fat" - Dapper_Interest_8914
"I 2nd and 3rd this." - JCrave321
"Seconds and thirds are how some of us got into this mess." - DerekWhatsHisName
"I know four fat people and I am three of them" - maddieforgotpassword
Gallows humor and commiserating are all well and good. But sometimes something a little different happens.
Sometimes we grow, and we are there for each other.
Sometimes Reddit is ... nice?
An Ode To The Unfinished
Season 3 Projects GIF by The SimpsonsGiphy"I have way too many unfinished projects." - notz_zton
"I have thoughts about this."
"I'm in my 40s and for most of my life I had an unending series of unfinished projects that I felt guilty about. Today, I am able to finish some stuff, including some pretty large, hard projects. Better, I don't feel guilty about the stuff I don't finish."
"The trick for me is to be deliberate and mindful about why I'm embarking on a particular project."
"If it's because I want to feel good by:"
- "Sharing something with others."
- "Accomplishing a difficult, challenging task."
- "Proving to myself that I can do something."
- "Getting the social cachet of being a creative, productive person. (Maybe this is shallow, but who doesn't like to feel impressive in the eyes of their peers?)"
"Then the goal of the project is the product it and I focus my attention and discipline on it. I try to have as few of these as possibleālike only one at a timeāso that my willpower is not diluted."
"If it's because I want to feel good by:"
- "Improving a skill."
- "Exploring an unfamiliar domain or learning something new."
- "Relaxing by tinkering on something I like."
"Then the goal of the project is the process and I don't feel bad about not finishing."
"The real treasure is all the stuff I learned and did along the way and there is no real destination. I can have as many of these as I want because there's no real failure mode here. They're all recreation."
"Once I got more honest and clear with myself about my goals for each project, I started to be able to finish the ones where that mattered and stopped feeling bad about the ones where it doesn't." - mumnificent
Regrets
Season 5 Ron GIF by Parks and RecreationGiphy"Regrets" - IntoTheMystic1
"When I was 14 my friend's older sister told me never to have regrets because whatever decision you made (at the time) was for a reason. I f*cking live by that."
"The choice I make is done with a limited number of options and resources. Good or bad I accept them and the consequences."
"Except for whatever bs drunk me did - that b*tch can kick rocks. I accept no responsibility for whatever she did. Luckily I pumped the brakes on drinking and kicked drunk me to the curb."
"Anyway f*ck regrets (unless you're a murder or something crazy)." - 4550955
"I used to say the same thing. Then one day my dad called me out of the blue."
"I was busy, and didn't really feel like talking, so I just let the call go. He died later that week, and not a day goes by that I don't sincerely regret not taking that call. Now if family calls, I answer unless I literally can't." - Secret_Bees
"I know your feeling. The night before my brother killed himself 2 months ago I was moody from a rough day."
"My brother was talking on the phone and kept pacing back and forth in front of the TV. I became visibly upset and just gave him a cold look every time he passed by."
"The next morning at work I got the news that he had hanged myself. My brother was calling people to say goodbye in his own way."
"And my last interaction with him was me being upset that he was interfering with my TV time. It f*cking kills me every day." - RonanTheAccused
"I feel you."
"My dad popped by my bedroom to say goodnight (which he NEVER did), and I blew a raspberry at him. I guess because I was too cool to say anything kind back."
"I woke up the next morning to my mom screaming that my dad wasn't moving. He had a heart attack in his sleep."
"That was my goodbye to him. So much regret."
"I think we have to focus on the sum of our good interactions. I hope my dad knew how much I loved him." - ook_the_bla
Overall I think we've learned that Reddit, strangely, can be an amazing and supportive place full of humans who hate it here just as much as you do.
And who have too many sclerosis.
If you or someone you know is struggling, you can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255).
To find help outside the United States, the International Association for Suicide Prevention has resources available at https://www.iasp.info/resources/Crisis_Centres/