You’re doing it right now. Without acknowledging the act, somewhere deep in your subconscious, you’re harming yourself. You’re creating a monster within your own mind. How? Through toxic thoughts, mind-numbing financial concerns, self-judgment – the list is endless.

You’re telling yourself that your happiness is irrelevant. You’ve given up control of the driver’s seat, losing it to an intangible entity with a destructible goal: to ruin you.

You may feel like you’re alone. You might no one could possibly feel the way you do at this very moment. Perhaps you’ve crawled far down into that hole you dug for yourself; a hole you have no way of surviving. A hole you can’t begin to climb out of.

And yet, you aren’t alone.

People of all backgrounds go through this exact issue daily. Some get to the point where these feelings completely envelope their ambitions; suffocate their passions. Others get to the point of no return. They wind up in a place so dark they feel they can never bounce back – or so they think.

3 Definite Signs You’re Harming Yourself

Maybe you’re one of those destroying yourself from the inside out. Are you wondering if you’re harming yourself? Check out these signs to find out.

1) You’ve lost yourself to your job.

You may need the money. Perhaps you love your job. The effort it took to get that promotion may have been hefty. But if you’ve lost yourself to better cater to your job, you’re suffering. Plain and simple.

It may not hurt with obvious signs. Yet it’s still just as harmful as a leg injury.

Are you feeling stressed? Have you lost sight of what truly matters? Have you lost your own personal zest for life?

If you’re too busy working to care for yourself, there’s a problem. Obviously, we all need jobs to survive. But the key thing to remember is the worth of the job. If you’re spending too many nights at the office to wrap up project after project, you may want to reconsider your options. If your average workday is detrimental to your well-being, changing venues may be in your best interest.

Bottom line: jobs are worthwhile until they force you from yourself. Once you hit the point where you dread waking up each morning and your heart drops at the sound of that time clock, there’s a problem.

Remember – your first priority should always be yourself.

2) Toxic thoughts have coated your mind.

Too much toxicity is harmful – not only to the mind, but to your health.

Toxic thoughts enter our lives through words, experiences, and consequences. Often, they fall into a place you can’t touch for days. Things out of our control enter our lives. And sure, we deal with it as best we can. But toxicity lingers in the form of self-loathing, worry, and anxiety riddled with a drop in confidence.

The power of toxicity rests on you.

You can choose to let it thrive. You can allow yourself to be tormented each day by an intangible notion you have the power to abolish. Or, you can opt to control it, weakening its power to the point of no return.

Ultimately, the choice is yours. But just know you have the guts and the power to claim your soul from toxicity, if only you give yourself the chance.

3) You’ve dropped a passion due to one failure.

Not all passions are meant to be. But giving up because of one failure is impractical. The best things in life require patience.

For a dream to fully morph into reality, it must first undergo life’s tests.

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Depending on your natural abilities and the dream you crave, the number of tests may vary. But remember – it’s not the number of tests, but the experiences that matter. And yes, you will fail. It happens. But that doesn’t make your dream impossible. That doesn’t mean your passion isn’t worth pursuing.

Don’t let one failure prevent you from chasing your dreams. Don’t stop because one experience didn’t end with the most likeable outcome.

Your passions matter. And if you want to pursue them, you must persevere. Failure is only a roadblock on the way to something greater.

Stop Harming Yourself

You won’t get far if you continue harming yourself. At this rate, you’ll wind up a displeased professional with a lack of passion so dense a knife couldn’t slice it.

You will never be the best. You may have to leave a high-paying job to care for your own self-worth. Your passions will take time to develop. But the less harm you place on yourself, the better you’ll feel; the happier you’ll be.

For most, the journey of life is a personal decision – the way it should be. Why allow yourself the opportunity to sabotage it?

Quit harming yourself. You’ll notice a lift in happiness sooner than you think.