2024 is a year I’m claiming as my own, but it is also a year I sense I will experience the greatest feelings of loneliness and not for the reason of never being around people but for smaller nuanced reasons that play a big part in how we as humans feel connected to one another.

Like many people in their 20’s it’s really a time for self investment and exploration so that we can carve out a niche for ourselves in this ever expanding world that is always full of new things to discover. For me that has led me down several different rabbit holes and has allowed me to create many small and large goals for myself.

The thing with goals though, is that depending on what they are, it’s very possible to be working on many at one time and find difficulty to prioritise which at the right time. Up until recently that has been my biggest struggle.  Fortunately I’ve managed to shape my lifestyle to not stop working on most of them but this year I’m really going to harmer a few out.

When one works on many goals though, it can be hard to make time for developing relationships with people whether that be romantic or not. This can allow for feelings of loneliness to settle in because we can be so distracted by our pursuit of goals that we forget what I believe is the main reason for pursuing them in the first place- not only to achieve something meaningful and great but to hopefully in that pursuit connect longterm with people.

Knowing that it’s not likely or possible to give up on goals sometimes, for me I’ve tried to develop ways to continually motivate myself in order to keep going and push through. I understand that there are going to be seasons in life that are more lonely than others. I hope these methods I’m using will help you get through difficult seasons in your life.

One thing I’ve learned that can be really helpful to stay motivated even when you don’t feel like doing something is by listening to motivational playlists and there are different kinds of these.  Motivational playlists is a list of things you can listen to or watch to help motivate you to either stay positive or get things done or to not do things you know you shouldn’t. 

I have a motivational playlist on YouTube of my favourite speeches from renowned public speakers who cover a variety of topics but most for me deal with goal setting and doing what you actually set out to do.  Some of these playlists are actually just motivation to help remind me of my reason for doing things which are really important. When I’m feeling lonely or like an outcast I have to ask myself why that is, if the reason is meaningful and worth it to feel that way for a season and if so, then that can help me keep moving forward.

Another type of playlist I’ve made is in Apple Music and it’s a playlist mainly composed of my favourite movie original soundtrack titles. This one is really important to me because it’s not only easily accessible to me as I have it all downloaded but I can use this playlist when I’m running errands, doing things around the house, studying or even writing content for this youtube video. It gives me energy and inspiration but doesn’t distract me from my work or tasks with many lyrics. Music with lyrics is fine too but when I need to write things down or focus solely on a particular thought or get into a certain flow I often opt for this playlist without any lyrical tracks.

I honestly believe that taking a nice good hot minute to make these playlists can really improve your overall outlook on your situation or just help you get through to another day with a little more hope for the future.  With people I know I feel like I overshare but on the interwebs I dunno, it’s a different jungle. But with things that I know that will take place this year related to work and personal development I know that my playlists are going to continue to come in handy when I don’t have people around to distract me from all of this stuff.