How to Navigate FOMO When Everyone’s Posting Couple Content

If you’re single, you probably know exactly what I’m talking about already. Everywhere you turn, it seems like all of your friends, your family, every celebrity, the mailman…literally everyone is finding love, having babies, and getting married…except you.

Navigating this can be a challenge, especially when it feels like it’s everywhere, even when you’re not trying to seek it out.

Today, I want to offer a few thoughts, words of encouragement, and some navigational guidance to help you get through this season of your life.

Highlight reels are not real

See that creative pun, there? Sorry, sometimes I am way too amused. Anyways, back to what is a really important point here. And before I make this point, I want to be clear about something. This point is not to make you think this is all in your head. Your feelings and what you are seeing are real, but I think it’s important to put things into perspective.

No one posts on social media when things are going wrong. Do you regularly make posts about how much you don’t like being single? Probably not (I’d hope at least). The point is that people only post online when things are going great. In other words, all you are seeing is their highlight reel, and not a real interpretation of how their life is going.

And what is social media as a whole? It’s literally everyone’s highlight reels in one place on display.

The takeaway is this. Don’t ever think this is the reality of how it’s going for everyone. It’s so easy to see a handful of friends or family posting about their relationships and that quickly spirals in your mind to “everybody”.

Again, what you are seeing is real and I am not trying to discount that. I just want you to make sure you’re consuming it in perspective.

It’s okay to turn off the social media

While we’re on the topic of social media, here’s something simple that will immediately help to make things feel better. You can turn off the social media. You can take the apps off your phone. You can pause your accounts.

And guess what? When you do that, nothing bad is going to happen. Social media will always be there if you want to go back when you’re in a different season. You may feel like you’re missing out on what people are posting, but this will open up time for you to go and live your life! Once you get over the initial feelings of missing out on the social media, I can tell you it’s going to feel nothing shy of liberating.

This is the best way to get the heart of the problem to stop pretty quickly.

Remembering that it’s not a race

I want to heavily encourage you not to overlook this section and or quickly file it under “yea, I’ve heard that before.” Why? Because it’s important.

Here’s what it is. Finding a romantic partner is not a race where you are competing against your friends and family. When you start falling into the comparison trap, the FOMO and all the bad feelings that come with it start pouring in.

Everyone has their own journey. Everyone has their own timeline. When you start thinking that just because “everyone” else is finding love, you should be too…that’s where it all falls apart.

Try your best to be genuinely happy for your friends and family, but don’t let that be the barometer you use to measure your success.

This is not going to be the easiest of mental transitions, but when you successfully pull it off, it’s everything. Focus on it one step at a time, and remember that consistent baby steps in the right direction will compound into massive progress.

I could talk for days about how to do this, but I’ll save that for another post. What I do want to share, though, is the single best tip to get started here. When you feel your mind starting to go down the path of comparing and feeling FOMO, stop it in its tracks. Focus on something else. Do something else. Have phrases you can say or read to yourself that bring you back to remembering it’s not a competition.

A closing word of encouragement

The last thing I want to leave you with is a word of encouragement. You will get there. And it will happen in the timeframe it’s supposed to, as long as you’re doing the right things to help get it there. When you can break yourself free from the comparison trap in both this issue and everything in life, life suddenly becomes a whole lot happier across the board.

If you need assistance in making sure you’re doing the right things, make sure you check out some of our other posts here designed to help.