This is Optimal Living Daily Episode 1532. If you don't like your life, you can change it.

By Jen Granaman of IntrovertDeer.com, and I'm just a molecule very own personal narrator.

Welcome to Optimal Living Daily, OLD for short, where I narrate the best blogs I can get permission from,

covering productivity, minimalism, personal development, all that fun stuff.

And today's article comes from a new author for this show, Jen of IntrovertDeer.com.

I'll tell you more about her after the reading, so for now let's get right to our very first

post from her, and start optimizing your life.

If you don't like your life, you can change it. By Jen Granaman of IntrovertDeer.com.

Not so long ago, life was something that happened to me. I dated almost anyone who took an interest in

me, regardless of my interest in them. I took almost any job offered to me because who was I

to dream of something better. I let friends choose me, regardless of whether they were toxic and

draining. As a result, I spent many years in an unhappy marriage doing work that exhausted me,

and living in a city that depressed me. I was overweight, stressed out, and taking medication

for both depression and insomnia. Subconsciously, I told myself that the problem was me. There was

nothing I could do about my life. I was the one who had to adapt. Anytime I wasn't adapting,

I saw it as a sign of weakness. If I could just work out everything internally, I would be fine.

I never crossed my mind that I could change the things in my life that made me unhappy.

I don't remember the first time this simple revelation dawn on me, but it was some time in my mid-20s

when I got divorced, moved, and left a fanatical, near-cult-like church. This left me with few

friends. The pastors told my former friends they couldn't talk to me anymore. I lived in my

parents' basement, fighting loneliness, and despair. Today, this introvert's life is very different.

I'm living in a city I like, in a relationship with a partner I truly enjoy,

...