Life

You might simply be tired

1 min read

“What do I do when I don't know what I want anymore?”

A person who has been carrying a great deal for a long time will eventually report a loss of desire. No strong preferences. No pull toward anything. A flat, grey competence.

This is frequently diagnosed as a crisis of meaning. Sometimes it is. Very often it is depletion, and depletion is not a philosophical condition.

Wanting requires surplus

Desire needs a small amount of spare capacity. When everything is being spent on getting through, the part of you that reaches for things goes quiet — sensibly, to conserve.

Which means major life decisions taken from inside exhaustion are unreliable. Everything looks like too much, because everything is currently too much.

Rest first, then ask again

Not a weekend. Long enough that a Tuesday feels different. Then see whether the wanting comes back. Frequently it does, in small forms first — curiosity about something useless, an appetite for a conversation.

And if you have genuinely rested and still want nothing, that is real information, and a different conversation. But do not skip the boring explanation to get to the profound one.

If you are at the point where you don’t need another article, you need someone to think through the situation with you. That is the work I do.

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