Most of life is about making choices. You will choose a career, relationships, and other everyday requirements like what you eat and how (and if) you exercise. These daily choices can either make or break your success and happiness in life.

While some options are obviously bad, that doesn’t mean every single decision you make will be. It takes mindfulness, awareness, and a deep understanding of yourself to see the warning signs to change your bad habits.

Here are five signs you’re making the wrong choices in life.

Increased Anxiety and Emotions

While some anxiety and emotions are natural when you do the things you love, they shouldn’t be overwhelming or hard to control. If you are constantly feeling overwhelmed, sad, or depressed, something in your life needs to change. First, make sure it is nothing related to your health.

If it’s not about your health, then you need to stop and evaluate exactly what you want and need from life to feel better. Then, create a way to recognize the moment the feelings come around to see if your actions or inactions are responsible. For example, maybe you feel down because you told your boss no when you wanted more responsibility.

Unexplained Fatigue

Beyond mental, physical, or health reasons, fatigue can also be a sign of not being happy or content with your choices. Stress and high emotions are draining and don’t make sleeping easier. This means you will always be running on empty until you can solve the underlining problem.

Lack of Self-Awareness and Evaluation

Ignoring red flags and gut feelings, or thoughts such as “I should be doing this instead,” are signs of lack of self-awareness or evaluation. These factors are critical to the decision-making process. Ignoring these thoughts or red flags means you are not taking the time to get to know yourself and what you want. Just because others are going after certain things doesn’t mean you have to. If you feel this way, you need to stop and evaluate yourself, your goals, and what you want from life.

You Have Become a Master Procrastinator

Have you started pushing off important tasks until the last second? Developing this habit spontaneously can mean something is out of place or missing in your life. It can also highlight that the work or hobby you chose to do is no longer fulfilling – meaning it is time to make a change.

Unclear Goals or Sense of Purpose

No deadlines and a lack of direction or a sense of purpose in daily life are also clear warning signs that your choices or lack thereof affect your overall enjoyment in life. Conversely, creating goals provides direction and motivation essential to enjoyment and purpose for most people.

Being aware of these five signs can help you change your bad habits before they consume your life and prevent success. Making the right choices in life is about understanding who you are, what you want from life, and creating clear goals to get there. In other words, when you make the right choices, you will feel happier, inspired, motivated, and fulfilled.

How to Find What's Meaningful in Your Life

When you have more meaning in your life, you have a deeper connection with yourself and the people you surround yourself. It feels like you are more fulfilled, have purpose, and have more positive energy. If you are looking to find what is more meaningful in your life, here are some tips.

Signs of Having a Meaningful Life

Not sure if you are living a meaningful life? Here are some things to keep an eye out for. Sometimes you get so used to your daily routine, you don’t actually know how much purpose you have.

Some common signs of having a meaningful life include:

Being productive without trying
Having continued self-confidence and a high self-esteem
Feeling high, positive energy radiating through you
Being able to handle challenges and setbacks without missing a beat
Having a healthy lifestyle, both mentally and physically
Feeling more than content with your life, but overjoyed

Having a meaningful life isn’t about a perfect life or being positive all the time, but a feeling of contentment, where you know it is going to work out. You feel like you are on the right track and have a purpose, and that makes you feels o much better than if you don’t feel like you have enough meaning in your life.

Be More Self-Aware of What Makes You Happy

You might assume you know what makes you happy, but many times, that is actually what makes other people happy or what you think you should be happy about. But being more self-aware can help you figure out what truly makes YOU happy and brings more meaning into your life.

An easy way to do this is to start writing in a journal, and writing down how you feel after different types of activities. It can be anything, including work, sleep, hanging out with friends, going for a walk or hike, playing with your kids, doing a creative project, reading, really anything you tend to do on a regular basis.

If you try a new activity, become more self-aware of your feelings and thoughts during and after it, to see if it is something that brings you joy and passion.

Find Your Purpose in Life

Different people find their sense of purpose through different things. Some people get it through finding their passions and creative spark, while others simply want relaxing days with people they love to spend time with. You might find your purpose through work and accomplishments, or by helping others and becoming a philanthropist. There are no wrong answers!

Again, a journal is a great way to start finding your purpose. Daily journal entries of stream of consciousness, where you just write what comes to mind and let your thoughts flow naturally, is what will give you the most clarity.