People settle for mediocrity all the time in their lives. Whether it is relationships or jobs, we settle for less instead of putting ourselves out there to move on to bigger and better opportunities.    

It is only natural for us to be terrified of change, failure and taking risks. We are young and we think that there is nothing better out there.  Sometimes, it is far easier to settle than it is to leave our comfort zone. But at the end of the day, what’s worse -- regret or a bruised ego? 

We settle for less than satisfying relationships because we are scared to be alone, scared to lose the stability a relationship offers, or scared of not being good enough.  So we settle. We settle for waiting around for a text message.  We settle for late night hangouts instead of dates. We settle for almost being good enough to take a relationship to the next level.    

We are an impatient generation driven by technology with the ability to have virtually anything we want at our fingertips. So we tend to choose the first option thrown our way instead of taking the time and effort to find something worth having -- or putting in the effort to keep it. We settle with our first option because we don’t want to wait to find the right person to date, or challenge ourselves to begin new career paths, or search for a more rewarding job.      

We stay in our comfort zone because it is safe and we won’t get hurt and we won’t fail. We complain about the people, jobs and relationships in our lives, but we get stuck and do not know how to escape the never-ending cycle. We use the things that have happened in our past to justify why we act a certain way, or to validate our present situations. If anything, that should be our motivation to change. 

We are wasting time by settling. Life is too short to live in a way that is not fully satisfying or putting up with people who are not making us happy.