Recently, you were sincerely interested in other people, you enjoyed communicating, exchanging opinions, flirting. Now people have become plain to you, and you understand that no one can impress you anymore. You feel that you don’t care about what they think, talk, wear or dream about. However, even though people seem basic and boring or even annoying, deep down you know that you still need them to get some inspiration or learn something.
So, what happened? Why do people stop impressing you, to begin with? And maybe it’s not about people at all?
People Don’t Impress You Because You Are Burned Out
The most obvious reason is that you are tired or even burned out. The world turns gray to a worn-out person. They are not interested in anything, including other people. Maybe it’s time for you to take care of yourself. Do something nice for yourself, go on vacation after all. It sounds trite, but sometimes just a week of old good rest can cure misanthropy and restore the interest in others.
Some people don’t have access to their own feelings though. It means they don’t understand when to stop working and let themselves take some rest. If you’re working until you’re exhausted, don’t keep turning a blind eye to this, it can be devastating to your physical and mental health. Allow yourself to relax.
You Are Addicted to Social Media of Celebrities
Social media is flooded with content showing good-looking, vibrant, successful people. You get used to their style, so people from your real life may seem boring compared to virtual images of stars. This is a sign of addiction to social networks. When you spend too much time on celebs’ social media, you may get an obsessive need to scroll more and more often. You may find yourself looking through the feed with photos and videos of the rich and famous over and over again, involuntarily comparing yourself and your surroundings to celebs. An overdose of vivid impressions of virtual reality can make you indifferent to interactions with real people.
This may sound obvious, but people’s social media presence is not an honest description of who they are in real life. Especially when it comes to celebrities who are posting content to make others think they are perfect. No surprise, regular people don’t impress us by comparison.
You Want to Be Someone Else
Our attitude toward people depends on the attitude toward ourselves. When we make great demands on ourselves, we will eventually present them to the people around us. If people seem dull to you, it’s probably because you feel the same way about yourself. If you can’t impress yourself, then you will hardly find something remarkable in others. This might happen because you don’t accept yourself for who you are. If you understand that you keep criticizing yourself for any small mistake, comparing yourself to others, devaluing your own achievements, you should read this article on how to practice self-acceptance. Remember, you will not be excited by anyone until you learn to be excited by yourself.
You’re Way Too Smart and Creative
I can see a lot of people reading this headline and deciding it applies to them. I believe it might be true! Since you’re interested in relationship building, I’m sure, you’re a really smart, educated and extraordinary person. Perhaps too smart, educated and unusual, so it is difficult for you to communicate with other people. The more you know and understand, the more insipid the people around you seem with their everyday worries and ordinary thoughts. The poet and Nobel laureate Joseph Brodsky once said, “The better you begin to understand life, the lonelier you become.” Maybe you need to lower your expectations of people. Let them be who they are. You have something to teach them. Well, think of it as some kind of mission.
You Have High Expectations
Sometimes people don’t impress us because we have high expectations of them. Imagine, you met a writer and think that this person is supposed to be uncommon, filled with sophisticated thoughts and vivid ideas to share with you all the time. However, it doesn’t seem that they are going to surprise you with their creative mind. They act in an ordinary way, and you end up disappointed.
The more reality differs from our expectations, the bitterer the disappointment. Our expectations of others can tell a lot about us.
Keep in mind that if you set expectations of others high, it most likely means that you have high expectations of yourself. How do you cope with it? Stop being your own critic, accept your positive and negative sides, acknowledge your successes, the small accomplishments count! Learn where you have such high standards for yourself. From family? School? Figure out what you really want. Some time later, you will notice that you have begun to find interesting and beautiful sides even in almost every person.
You Project Your Bitter Experience onto People
People may seem basic or even repulsive if you project your negative past experience onto them. Have you ever met a person who resembles a yucky someone in their appearance or habits? In such a case you can’t focus on a real person, because you have already established your opinion based on the past experience with someone else. It has nothing to do with reality. Even if a person is someone else’s lookalike, it is important to ask yourself, are they really the same?
Don’t fall a victim to a mind trap. When you realize that you are looking at or talking to your own ugly past, there is a chance your new acquaintance will be able to impress you.
You Need More Space for Yourself
Another reason people don’t impress you might be that you’ve just been hanging out with them too much and now you need more space for yourself. You can get fed up with anything, even communication with the most interesting and attractive people. So, find some time for yourself. Put your phone away, relax in nature, read a book, watch a movie. Eat a cake without sharing it with anyone. In other words, do whatever you like. If it’s difficult for you to understand how to amuse yourself, make a list of things that you used to love to do as a child, mark what might bring you pleasure now, and go ahead! Do it!
Sometimes people don’t impress, and neither do things and places. This is fine. Don’t get hung up on this. At the end of the day, the most important for you is to learn how to impress yourself.
Photo by Earl Wilcox on Unsplash