[...] I've waited this long and now you are going to tell me that i was wrong the whole time? That this is what "life" is? I was brought into this world for what? this? [...]
Depending on what's bringing you down, you could try a few different things (separately or simultaneously):
1. Exercise, eat healthy, and get a full night's sleep. Having a little extra energy goes a long way. Don't forget to get up-to-date on your doctor check-ups. Some slumps can be related to undiagnosed physical problems like diabetes or thyroid conditions. Sound mind, sound body.
2. Create some adventures in your life so that you wake up looking forward to something in your day. Take a scuba class or a sky diving class. Flirt a little bit with the secretary at your workplace. Join a bowling league. The thread on Positive Psychology has lots of great ideas for bringing balance and happiness to your life by taking some new initiatives in your daily routine:
http://personalitycafe.com/articles/18241-positive-psychology-strategies.html
3. Sometimes INFPs (and just about anyone else) get bogged down in life by clutter: unfinished projects, too many obligations to other people, falling behind at work, etc., and it becomes impossible to create any new adventures for fear of just creating one more unfinished project or obligation. If that's the case, I would suggest something like the book "Shed Your Stuff, Change Your Life" by Julie Morgenstern. Ms. Morgenstern recommends chucking out 80 percent of your a) physical belongings, b) time commitments, and c) personal habits. It may sound like a religious approach (shed your life and go to a monastery and pray), but Ms. Morgenstern is actually a time management consultant for CEOs and managers of companies.
Even if an INFP doesn't plan on following all the steps, it's still worth a read. INFPs like to inventory their lives, and this book applies a new spin on things: The disposability of our daily lives from a corporate ESTJ perspective. It'll definitely provoke some thinking on the part of INFPs. :laughing:
4. Finally, if your workplace sucks and your coworkers suck and there's nothing you can do about it: Try looking at things a little differently. Take one aspect of your workplace and play with it. Make your workplace an adventure itself: Take a chance and throw yourself into the lion's den and see what happens.
For example: Take the coworker you hate most in your workplace, and make a project of them by courting them. Nothing extreme, just comment on the weather with them when you see them, try to do a little small talk with them occasionally, compliment them on their participation in a meeting, etc. I've gotten great results from this. Some of my longest-lasting and most interesting friends in the workplace started out as people I detested.
Same with the boss: If you hate him and avoid him, then do an about-face and ask him if you can have 5-10 minutes of his time every day or couple days to review progress on you projects with him. After all, you have to do the work anyway; so why not try something new and give him input and try it his way. I'm not promising that it will go well, but I guarantee that at a minimum it will be an adventure and a learning experience and shake up your day.
roud:
And so on: Find something to shake up about your workspace, your homespace, your relations with others. Pretend you're a sleuth and question your coworkers and learn everything you can about them--their birthdays, their backgrounds, their families, etc. And take notes--really find out who they are; don't just pay lip service to small talk. Or google some articles on sales or organization or time management and apply one principle that you learn to your own workplace. It may seem foreign to you, but that's what you need: To shake things up and bring some novelty to your life.
In a way, I'm just repeating in detail with Han said:
Sometimes the unrealistic dreaming can make me feel like less of a real person. Whilst the fantasies can make me happy, they are also capable of making me feel really down because they're unattainable.
Recently, I've found that taking more time to look at the real world, and trying to appreciate the good parts more can be helpful when I'm struggling. I guess that's something a lot of people just do automatically...but ah well. [...]
Han's absolutely right: Connecting and interacting with the real world is probably the best solution of all. Tackle some aspect of your workplace and the people around you and make a mystery or an adventure of them. And when you've exhausted that one project, pick up another.
Get more proactive; show a little initiative about seeking mystery and adventure in the mundane life around you, and that should help bridge the gap between your expectations and real life. Your expectations may lower a bit, but you'll also find that real life is more interesting than you initially thought.
