Life is full of traps that people fall victim to daily. It's a sad reality, and it doesn't discriminate. So after someone asked for examples, the internet delivered this list of pitfalls to avoid.
10. Staying Too Long at a Job
“Staying at the same job for too long,” shared one. “I made that mistake. Now I'm paying for it. It doesn't help your future job prospects have only one or two things to show on your resume, and it's highly specialized.” Another added, “At every job you take, you should either EARN or LEARN, preferably both.”
9. Identifying Too Strongly With Thoughts
One person said, “Identifying too strongly with your thoughts. Thoughts aren't the essence of a person. Often they're reactions to one's immediate surroundings. They're unreliable and changeable. They also trigger your entire mood and your emotions. It's a good idea to learn how to take a step back and look at what your brain spits out, as well as how it affects you.”
8. Not Working On Your Brain
“The biggest trap is not working on your brain,” one said. “People live their whole lives saying to themselves, ‘nothing is going to change. This is who I am.' Mostly out of laziness because changing for the better takes work.”
Another shared, “Your brain is more malleable than your body. So challenge yourself to change your perspective on reality daily—even just a little bit. Cognitive behavioral therapy is mind-blowing.”
7. The Life Script
“The dreaded life script: Marrying young, having 2.5 kids, a dog, and a house with a white picket fence. You can do all or none of those things and still have a happy, successful life,” one person voiced. Another added, “You can also do all those things and hate how your life turned out.”
6. Trying to Change Abusive Family Members
One person said, “To keep trying to get an abusive family to change and treat you with humanity. And others who say to stay because they're family. Nope. Safety first can mean going zero contact and actively keeping abusers away—especially abusive family members.”
5. Changing Lanes in a Traffic Jam
“In a traffic jam thinking, ‘I'm going to change lanes, this one is going faster,” stated one user. “Same with grocery store lines. I always pick the wrong one,” added another.
“If people slow down a bit and leave a four-car gap between you and the car in front of you, the jam starts moving. You're letting merging traffic and lane changers go in front of you. It stops the rubber band effect of merging traffic and hitting the brakes. People who ride bumpers are why traffic gets so bad,” a third shared.
4. Subscriptions
One user stated, “A bunch of little traps called Subscriptions. I always wondered where my money went each month until I stopped nearly all my subscription services.” “I've heard it called ‘dollaring yourself to death.' It's death by 1000 small cuts. You think, ‘Oh, that's less than ten bucks. I can do that,” but then you have a handful of them taking out a lot of money each month,” another commented.
3. Thinking You Have Plenty of Time Left
One user said, “Thinking, ‘I have plenty of time left.' But, in the worst case, you die tomorrow, no matter how old. It can be a car crash at 16 years old, a bursting aneurysm at 30, or getting shot at 55.”
“Or, not less scary, you grow old and are then too old to do the stuff you told yourself one day. Travel the world when you retire? Catch a common illness like heart disease, and nope – a thousand things you can't do or enjoy.”
Another added, “This. My dad enjoyed five good years of retirement before he got sick and eventually passed away. So do it now.” Finally, a third shared, “The flip side of this, I'm too old, or it's too late, can be just as much a trap, perhaps worse. I regularly see questions like, “I'm 25; is it too late to learn how to code in programming-related subreddits?”
“This idea of not having enough time to change jobs, relationships, travel, or learn condemns people to a limited world or unhappy situation. I graduated from college in my forties, changed jobs, and continued to teach myself many things.
2. Credit Card Debt
“Man's worst nightmare, particularly paying bills without hesitation with soaring interest rates, and don't you ever miss on paying. Or face the late fees with ridiculously high interest. Debt bondage is real,” voiced one person.
However, another argued, “Credit cards are a fantastic tool. They offer perks and safety in transactions. Moreover, they are there for you to use for free! So take advantage of all the perks and pay your bill each month.
That's the trap. My parents always used it to offset bills and Christmas and would rack up huge debts and interest. Then, finally, they got rid of their credit cards and are shocked I would use such a thing, much less have 8 of them.”
“They don't get it because I use credit cards properly. For example, every vacation I go on is free. Flights and hotels are free. In addition, my company gets reimbursed for certain services from the credit card company.”
“Poor money management is the trap. But I get how you can get into it, and I'm not judging. You worked 50-hour weeks and wanted your kids to go to summer camp or have Christmas. I get it.”
1. Relationship Inertia
Finally, a user said, “Relationship inertia, especially in your 20s, can extend relationships that should only have lasted months and stretch them into years. However, it's not necessarily for bad reasons. Many of us understand that all relationships have ups and down; moreover, we have a value system of commitment to making a relationship work.”
“That's great when a relationship has the proper foundation to be great so long as two people are willing to do the work. The problem is that, when you're younger and inexperienced, you don't know how to tell good vs. bad foundations from one another.
I'm not talking about substantial red flags like abuse, infidelity, overall mistrust, or fundamentally different value systems. I'm talking about a relationship that is functionally fine but isn't the right fit for many more minor reasons.”
“Unfortunately, many of us stay in those this is ok relationships because we don't know better. Or we feel like it will get better only to realize, in hindsight, this wasn't a great fit and never could be.
“As someone who's been in an incredibly fulfilling relationship for 20 years now, it's easy to spot all these things in hindsight. Still, it's tough to have the presence of mind to see them at the moment unless all those minor issues begin to build into a greater ball of unhappiness.”
We hope you enjoyed this Reddit picks list of life's traps that people fall victim to. Also, check out these things Americans aren't ready to hear, according to Non-Americans.
This article was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
source https://wealthofgeeks.com/biggest-traps/
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