What to Do When You Are Tired of the Mundane
The Weary Heart #33
There comes a point in every life when nothing feels dramatically wrong, yet nothing feels deeply right either. You are not collapsing. You are not depressed. Not even in crisis. But at the same time, you are not fully alive.
Your life works, yet it doesn’t move you.
The days look the same, the routines feel deja-vu, even your prayers feel familiar to the point of numbness (scary).
You wake up every day, perform, survive the hours, try to sleep, then restart the loop.
I know this feeling because I lived months in that grey zone - spread out across the last two decades. This was during moments when I was still serving, still building businesses, writing books, still speaking, and showing up publicly.
On paper, everything looked great. In reality, I was slowly dissolving into a version of myself that was functioning instead of feeling. And here is the uncomfortable truth I learned:
Nothing was wrong, and that was the problem.
We are trained to fix life only when it breaks. But what do you fix when nothing is broken… just boring?
When life is painful, you scream.
When life is chaotic, you seek help.
But when life becomes dulled by predictability, there is NO alarm.
There is only fatigue you cannot justify nor explain.
When routine becomes autopilot
The mundane is not the enemy. Autopilot is.
There was a period I led multiple organisations and projects at once, and every task became a checkbox. I remember writing a book while planning events, managing staff, solving crises, and rushing home to be a father. I kept going, going, going.
The danger was not burnout.
The danger was that I became excellent at doing life without living life.
This is the kind of emptiness we do not talk about.
Why the mundane hurts more than hardship sometimes
Most people think hardship is the hardest test.
I disagree.
Some of the most intense spiritual awakenings in my life came during moments of pain. When I lost opportunities. When plans collapsed. When trust was broken. When relationships were strained. Those moments pushed me closer to God. They shook me awake.
BUT when everything was stable and predictable, that was when I slowly drifted. No storm. No urgency. No shock that forces longer self-reflections. It was just a quiet emotional flatline.
So here is a counterintuitive truth I personally discovered:
Ease can be more spiritually dangerous than hardship.
Not because ease is bad, but because ease requires maturity to stay awake inside comfort.
Why “take a break” is not always the answer
I know I wrote about that in the last post. But it’s probably not for everyone. If it’s not what you want to hear, then it’s probably what you need. But if the advice didn’t move you, then it’s probably because more breaks made you even more emotionally “dead”.
Sometimes rest is needed. But sometimes rest quietly reinforces the numbness.
When I took a long break from hosting big events, I thought I needed rest. It was relief for a while. But after some time, I realised something uncomfortable:
I didn’t need more rest. I needed more meaning.
The problem wasn’t exhaustion.
The problem was stagnation.
What most people call rest today is actually → escaping life instead of engaging life.
Rest does not fix the mundane.
Purpose does.
What actually brought meaning back
Not a holiday.
Not time off.
Not sleeping more.
What woke me up was growth. This was what worked for me throughout my twenties - and this seems to be the same fuel I need now entering into my forties.
Learning again.
Failing again.
Creating something new again.
Working on something I believed in.
Doing something that scared me just enough to make me feel alive again.
My energy didn’t return after I rested.
My energy returned after I cared.
Three practical ways to revive meaning when life feels grey
Not dramatic changes.
Just movements that wake the heart.
1. Add novelty that stretches you, not entertains you.
Not another Netflix series. Not endless scrolling.
Something that makes you learn or grow. There are plenty of apps that allow you to learn, videos that help you pick up a new skill, try some of those out until one of them sticks. Or maybe engage someone who can revive your love for the deen, perhaps that’s what’s missing.
2. Insert meaning into what already exists.
You don’t need a new life. You need new presence. You may already have a lot on your plate right now, try being more conscious while you’re actively working on something in your fixed routines and schedule.
3. Set one exciting goal again.
Something that has a heartbeat. Something to look forward to!
And anchor the soul through remembrance:
فَاذْكُرُونِي أَذْكُرْكُمْ
“Remember Me and I will remember you.”
— Surah Al-Baqarah 2:152
Friends, please know that the heart does not wake up when life becomes EXTRA-ORDINARY. The heart wakes up when the ordinary becomes meaningful.
The question that now guides me
Whenever my life feels dull, I ask myself:
If everything stays exactly the same for the next five years, will I be proud of who I become?
If the answer is yes, I continue.
If the answer is no, I change something.
Not everything.
Just something.
A habit. A project. A prayer routine. A learning journey. A new hobby. A new path that stretches me instead of numbing me.
Not to escape life.
To reawaken life.
So, it may be that you are not tired of life at all.
Instead, you are simply tired of living it without meaning.
Therefore, do not wait for tragedy to wake you up (may Allah protect us).
Choose to wake up while life is calm.
The mundane is not a prison.
It is an invitation to evolve.
And if Allah is opening that invitation for you now, there is a reason.
God bless,
MW