Recently I had a conversation with a friend of mine around how fulfilled I am.

I left work last year (without another job) and so I have more time and thanks to this, my life is less full but more fulfilled.

I am less focused on the things that fill my life and more focused on the things that fulfill my life. 

There is a huge difference between what fills our lives and what fulfills our lives.

The definition of full is ‘Full (of something) containing or holding as much or as many as possible; having no empty space’ while the definition of fulfilled is ‘Fulfilled – feeling happy and satisfied that you are doing something useful with your life, satisfied or happy because of fully developing one’s abilities or character.

What definition do you prefer ‘full or fulfilled’?

Let’s go deeper into fulfillment, 

Fulfilling is defined as ‘causing somebody to feel satisfied and useful, making someone satisfied or happy through allowing their character or abilities to develop fully.

Unfulfilled is defined as  ‘(of a need, wish, etc.) that has not been satisfied or achieved. if a person feels unfulfilled, they feel that they could achieve more in their life or work, ​not causing somebody to feel satisfied and useful’

What definition do you prefer ‘fullfilling or unfulfilled’?

As a writer, I’m obsessed with words and there’s no better way to understand words than through synonyms. Synonyms are a word, or phrase that means exactly or nearly the same as another word. Sometimes we may not relate to a word but when we read the synonyms we can relate more easily to the meaning behind them.

How do the below synonyms for full/unfulfilled/unfulfilling make you feel? 

Would you like this to be a description of your life? 

Full: adequate, big, chock-full, complete, crowded, entire, intact, packed, stocked, sufficient, burdened, bursting, crammed, gorged, imbued, jammed, laden, lavish, loaded, overflowing, padded, replete, sated, satiated, satisfied, saturated, stuffed, choc a block, jam packed, plentiful, running over.  

Unfulfilled: Discontented, annoyed, begrudging, bothered, complaining, disaffected, disappointed, disgruntled, displeased, fretting, frustrated, grudging, grumbling, oended, unhappy, vexed, critical, envious, faultfinding, fed up, grumpy, insatiable, jealous, not happy, not satisfied,  

Unfulfilling: Depressing, disconcerting, discouraging, disheartening, distasteful, frustrating, mediocre, unpleasant, unsatisfying, bitter, displeasing, failing, lame, disagreeable, falling short, inadequate, ineffective, inferior, insufficient, unhappy

How do the below synonyms for fulfilling/fulfilled make you feel? 

Would you like this to be a description of your life? 

Fulfilling: Effective, accomplishing, achieving, adequate, binding, capable, conclusive, decisive, determinate, effecting, efficient, lawful, powerful, productive, qualified, sound, strong, successful, telling , useful

Fulfilled: Realised, satisfied, accomplished, achieved, actualised, attained, compassed, concluded, delighted, finished, gratified, matured, obtained, perfected, performed, pleased, reached, brought about.

How full is your life? 

How full do you want your life to be?

How fulfilled is your life?

How fulfilled do you want your life to be?

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Thanks for reading,

Siobhain

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