The fear of missing out is a recent phenomenon that is described as the feeling of insecurity and envy that you experience essentially when you others having a good time without you. This can present itself as one of your good friends seeing your favorite band in concert while you’re stuck at home or perhaps a former classmate having a prestigious dinner with high profile people. However you experience it, FOMO can be good or bad, depending on your perception.

Understanding FOMO

The fear of missing out, or FOMO, is really amplified by the prevalence of social media. I’m sure you’ve felt it before—often times people will see friends and family members on social media platforms posting about the latest and greatest goings on in their lives. Sure, you should be happy for them, but sometimes when we see great things happen to other people when we seem to be at a standstill in our own lives, the green-eyed monster of envy can rear its ugly head.

Turn Negatives into Positives

The fear of missing out doesn’t have to be a bad thing, though most people channel this energy into feeling negatively about themselves. Most times may end up looking at the lives of others and think, “I wish I could have that much fun” or “I wish I could make that much money”, as we look discontentedly at the things that are going wrong in our lives.

However, you’ll soon realize that feeling negatively about someone else’s happiness isn’t helping you. If you are experiencing FOMO negatively, you should try your best to change how you react to the positivity in other people’s lives. In order for you to get around the debilitating feelings of FOMO, you should find the positives that are going on in your life. Feeling genuinely happy for someone else actually comes out of a genuine happiness and contentment with your own life. If you have trouble doing this, now is the time to use FOMO to build yourself up. If you are feeling depressed or down, do something to change your life.

How FOMO Can Help

Fear of missing out can be beneficial to your life depending on your point of view. FOMO doesn’t always have to mean envy—it can be a genuine realization that life won’t last forever and that you should take advantage of every second that you have.

The fear of missing out on doing what you actually want to do in life is the right kind of motivation. Finding your life’s purpose and living it every single day will not only lead to contentment in your own life, but also will lead to contentment and positivity in life for others.