12 Funny Illustrations That Perfectly Sum Up What Adulthood Is Like

Writer Chaz Hutton created these incredibly accurate depictions of the grim realities of adult life. Using nothing more than stick figures and simple graphs, he makes the struggles of adulthood all too real.

#1: Not feeling like folding your clothes before you go to bed

We’ve all been there. Sometimes your need for sleep is greater than you care for putting clothes away.

#2: When getting up early to beat the rush sounds better than partying

Hey, who wants to stand in line, anyway?

#3: Distractions at work

We’ve all had days… or weeks… like these.

#4: When pizza beats dieting

Hey, at least you had a good time, right?

#5: Cheap flights dictate travel

Sometimes not breaking the bank sounds like a better idea than culture.

#6: The reality of directions

It doesn’t matter how many times you repeat, “go left, right, right, left” – you still manage to get lost.

#7: Being stuck in a crappy job

Sometimes our friends just get ahead of us… and more ahead, and more ahead…

#8: Putting together furniture

There’s nothing worse than spending 20 minutes putting something together only to find you screwed something up… literally.

#9: The furniture graph

What’s wrong with hand-me-downs?

#10: When excitement never goes down

You can’t tell me you wouldn’t be just as excited as this graph shows.

#11: The realities of getting a dog

First you hate ’em… then you can’t live without ’em.

#12: Cords are a nightmare

It seems like no matter how hard you try, you can never keep them organized.

Featured photo credit: Chaz Hutton via instagram.com

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Many People Get Stuck At The Third Stage Of Love - What To Do To Be The Exceptional Ones?

All romantic relationships are unique in their own way, but they also have many things in common. Most people who start a relationship want to find genuine, lasting love, whether they are in their 20s or their 60s. However, lots of relationships break down and both partners are left wondering why. They might think that they found the wrong person or that they are not ready for a long-term relationship – but the problem might be that they can’t get past Stage Three.

Jed Diamond is an author who created the five stages of love. He believes that most people think that stage three is the end of their relationship, when in reality it is the beginning of long-term love.

If you want to know how to make a relationship last, you need to understand the five stages of love.

How To Make A Relationship Last Using The Five Stages Of Love

1. Falling in Love

The first stage of love is falling in love. Falling in love feels amazing as our bodies have higher levels of dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin, estrogen and testosterone. At this point you think that the person you love is wonderful, and you tend to focus on their best traits rather than their worst traits.

While this does feel great, it can give people slightly unrealistic rose-tinted glasses, especially when you consider that people in love can also pin their hopes and dreams on their new love. If you want to find a love that will last, try to be aware that your love isn’t perfect; they have good traits and bad traits, just like anyone else.

2. Starting A Relationship

Stage Two happens when the love deepens and both people are ready to join as a couple. The couple will make some kind of commitment towards each other; maybe they will get engaged, or buy a home together, or have children. This gives the couple the chance to bond even more and learn more about each other.

The honeymoon period is now over, and the couple find their relationship emotionally fulfilling and satisfying, rather than exciting and new. This creates a sense of security that can be destroyed if the couple do not make it past Stage Three.

3. Becoming Disillusioned

If you really want to know how to make a relationship last, you and your partner must be able to move past Stage Three together. Stage Three is when both partners become disillusioned with each other, which can signal the end of the relationship or marriage. Both partners start to feel less loved, and they will start fighting and disagreeing more. This can cause both partners to feel angry and withdrawn; they may even start to feel trapped.

If you want to make your relationship last, you and your partner must both accept that this stage is natural and normal. You can choose to push each other away and become withdrawn, or you can focus on your initial love for each other and try to solve the problems that arise. If you do this, the relationship will continue and you will have a newfound love and respect for each other. Remember that the problems aren’t caused by the fact that you are with the wrong person; they are natural problems that arise in any happy, long-term relationship.

4. Creating Lasting Love Together

The fourth step is creating a happy, lasting love together. Together you and your partner need to sit down and get to the core of what causes problems in your relationship. Maybe your partner had a difficult childhood, which means that they struggle to show emotion. Maybe you had a bad relationship and you often worry that your partner will treat you like you ex did.

This step is important as you both need to address and understand your emotional wounds. If you don’t, you will continue to hurt each other without understanding why. Your partner loves you, and they should be able to see you and love you for who you are.

5. Using Your Love To Influence Others

The final step is using your love to improve the lives of others. If two people can work past their problems and find happiness together, they share a powerful love. They can push this love out into the world around them; they can share it with their friends, families and co-workers to encourage them and improve their lives.

By understanding the five stages of love, you’ll be able to better understand the progression of your relationship. You’ll be able to better work things out when issues occur.

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9 Essential Things You Need to Remember To Be Mentally Strong and Successful

Mari Andrew is a talented illustrator from D.C., and her illustrations about the difficulties of life are seriously relatable. If you’ve ever felt unsure of yourself or worried about your life, you will be able to relate to these pictures.

1. Success Takes Hard Work And Determination

2. We Often Have To Make Sacrifices To Succeed

3. The Path Will Seem Difficult As You Navigate It, But It Will Be Worth The Effort

4. Something That You Dislike About Yourself Could Be One Of Your Best Traits

5. You May Worry About How To Define Yourself, But You Don’t Actually Need To Define Yourself

6. Sometimes The Problem Isn’t As Bad As We Think

7. We Often Worry About Things That Aren’t Important

8. When Our Moods Improve, We Can Feel Like A Totally Different Person

9. It Can Be Difficult To Juggle Everything In A Busy Life, But That Doesn’t Mean That You Can’t Find Happiness

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How To Make Engaging Eye Contact For A Great First Impression

We look at people every single day, but we don’t always realize how important eye contact really is. We don’t realize all that can be gathered about a person by just engaging in eye contact. Unfortunately for shy people, they are at a disadvantage because they usually have difficulty holding eye contact.

For example, when you are in the middle of a job interview or you are on a date, you want to keep your focus on the person you are trying to impress. I’m sure that you’ve heard before that first impressions are everything. Although I do not agree with that statement entirely, I do think it definitely holds some truth. Imagine being on a date with someone, you’re trying to have a conversation with them, and they are looking at everything going on around them instead of paying attention to you. You’d feel pretty ignored, right? You’d feel as if the person you’re talking to is totally disinterested in what you have to say. It’s an awful feeling, even if they aren’t doing it intentionally.

I’m talking about practicing engaging eye contact well enough so that you appear to be totally engaged, even if you aren’t. It all boils down to respect, appreciation, understanding and interest in what the other person is saying. If you’re one of those shy people who really struggles with keeping eye contact, or you’re someone who just wants some tips and techniques, we’ll teach you how to make eye contact.

4 clever tricks to make eye contact

1. Imaginary Inverted Triangle

Some people find it very awkward to stare into someone else’s eyes, so here’s a little trick to help with that. Draw an imaginary triangle on the person’s face around their mouth and eyes. While holding a conversation with someone, change your gaze to another point on the triangle. This will give off the impression that you’re interested in the conversation. Sounds a little silly but it works! Give it try.

2. Practice without leaving your couch

Probably the easiest way for anyone to do anything, ever. I mean, you don’t even need to leave your couch. This works really well for those who are shy and aren’t ready to practice on real people just yet. I always like to recommend that taking notice of a person’s eye color is a good place to start. Especially since down the road you want to be able to have reached a point where you can look someone in the eyes and not feel uncomfortable and awkward.

When you’re watching a TV show or a movie, every time a new character comes on the screen up close take notice of the color of their eyes, hair, etc. Eventually when you’ve felt like you’ve had enough practice, noticing these things on real people and making eye contact with them will come naturally.

3. Take notice of their other features

I’ll be honest, it can be extremely intimidating when looking into a person’s eyes, especially if they’re someone of authority. I have always struggled with eye contact myself. It makes me nervous. I have found that it helps to pay close attention to their features. I take notice of freckles on their face, the color of their hair, the way their mouth moves, etc. Although you aren’t looking directly into their eyes, you’re looking in that general region so you avoid giving off the impression that you aren’t paying attention to them.

4. Focus on one eye at a time

In reality, you can’t actually look at two eyes at the same time. If you try, you end up looking very laser-like. Subconsciously you most likely already have one eye, whether it be the left or right, that you typically focus on. However, it’s still recommended that you switch looking from one eye to another while having a conversation. Truthfully, it looks much more natural and shows more attention and interest.

As a general rule, direct eye contact ranging from 30% to 60% of the time during a conversation – more when you are listening, less when you are speaking – should make for a comfortable productive atmosphere.

As with anything, practice makes perfect and over time you’ll become much more comfortable with maintaining eye contact with someone. It’s not just about how to make eye contact with someone, it’s what you do once you have.

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Can't Stop Hitting The Snooze Button? Ask Yourself These 3 Questions In The Morning To Lead A Meaningful Life

We often associate hitting our snooze button with not getting enough sleep throughout the night. However, if you take a deeper look into it, you may begin to realize that it’s probably because you’re just not looking forward to a new day and all that it has to offer you. That’s why you opt to hit that snooze button a couple more times in the morning. We recommend asking yourself these three questions to get yourself in the right mindset each day.

1. Who can I help today?

By default, we can often be fairly selfish human beings. We often look at situations when it comes to helping people and think, “What’s in it for me?” or, “I scratch your back, you scratch mine.” Truthfully, that is an extremely unhealthy way to look at the world, and it breeds selfish and unhappy people. When you are constantly seeking a reward for a simple act of kindness, you’re ruining yourself spiritually. Today we sadly live a dog eat dog world. If you want someone to help you move up the ladder you have to do something for them as well.

There is something so satisfying about helping someone else out and making them feel good; it’s like a natural high. By waking up every day you should ask yourself how you can help another person. It could be as simple as helping someone carry groceries when their hands are full, or helping a friend through a difficult time. It costs nothing to be a good person and the world could always use more genuine and selfless people.

2. How can I become a better me today?

Sometimes I think that we rush to complete large tasks and/or goals because by nature we crave instant gratification. Or there is a lot of pressure on us to get these large tasks done quickly which can lead to mountains and mountains of stress. This can cause us to want to sleep in and press the snooze several times because we just want to procrastinate and “forget” about all that needs to be done for just a little while longer.

I believe that sometimes we set very big goals for ourselves. Although the big goal is very important, setting smaller, more attainable goals until you reach your end goal is just as, if not more important. Smaller goals allow you to keep your focus while working towards the bigger picture. I strongly suggest celebrating your smaller goals, not just the big ones.

3. How can I create value for my job or my life today?

Creating value is something that increases the chances that another person will achieve what they want to achieve. If you take away your job title, the amount of money you make and the size of your organization, you have one extremely important job. That job is to add value to your both your job and your life.

Every day you have to ask yourself what you can do to create value for others while delivering it as well. You have to have a serious and committed drive to create and deliver value each and every day. What your role is where you work does not matter. What does matter is that that you are able to step back from your work activities and ask yourself what you can do that would be of greater value for those that you work with.

By creating this new mindset, you’ll be more likely to start the day on the right foot and find life more enjoyable in general.

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Milaidhoo Island, MaldivesLuxury and laid-back island living...

Milaidhoo Island, Maldives

Luxury and laid-back island living blend seamlessly at Milaidhoo Island Maldives.

Located in the archipelago’s UNESCO-protected Baa Atoll, this boutique island resort pampers couples with bespoke experiences, soothing spa treatments, as well as stunning land and overwater accommodations.

All villas come with deluxe amenities, private sundecks with freshwater pools, and serene interiors decked out with stylish, contemporary furnishings. Dining options include three restaurants and two bars - all celebrating the local flavors in one way or another.

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