It hits you out of nowhere—time is passing, and there’s nothing you can do to slow it down. You start measuring your days differently, asking yourself: Am I doing enough? Am I making the most of my life? And instead of feeling motivated, you feel anxious. Like no matter what you do, it will never be enough.
For you, the realization that life is finite doesn’t just bring clarity—it brings pressure. The pressure to do more, to be more, to not waste a single moment. But instead of feeling inspired, this urgency starts to feel suffocating. You analyze every choice, overthink every decision, and suddenly, even the small moments don’t feel like they count unless they’re big enough.
The irony? The more you try to maximize life, the less you actually live it. Every moment starts to feel like a test—Is this meaningful enough? Should I be doing something better?—until the present slips through your fingers. You’re so focused on not wasting time that you end up feeling like you’re never truly in it. And as this anxiety builds, it doesn’t push you toward joy—it pushes you toward exhaustion.
This week in therapy, a client shared: “I can’t stop thinking about how short life actually is. Every time I have a quiet moment, my brain starts spinning it’s wheels: “Do something! Make it count! Stop wasting time!” But the more I try to live at full speed, the more I feel like I’m missing something but I don’t know what.”
As we unpacked this, it became clear that the pressure to maximize life had replaced the ability to experience it. Instead of being present, they were constantly scanning for a better, bigger, more meaningful moment.
Through therapy, we worked on shifting from pressure to presence—recognizing that living fully doesn’t mean squeezing meaning out of every second, but actually being in those moments.
We practiced grounding techniques that brought their focus back to the present, like noticing small joys instead of chasing grand experiences. They also started redefining what mattered to them—not based on external standards, but based on what truly made them feel connected to their life.
And slowly, they started feeling something they hadn’t felt in a long time: relief. Because the weight of having to make life count was finally being replaced by the ability to just live it.
If your anxiety about how short life is has made you feel like you’re constantly racing but never arriving, you’re not alone. In my 1:1 therapy sessions, we’ll work together to help you step out of the pressure loop and into your actual life—fully, deeply, and in a way that feels right for you.
