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110 Examples of Real Life

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Real life is life as it truly exists. Generally speaking, life doesn't always conform to our expectations of it. As such, "real life" is often used to express a sense of disillusionment with life or to set the expectation that life is hard.
Definition of Real Life
Life as it truly exists.
The term real life is also used to denote the things that really matter in life or that are most connected to external things such as people and places. The following are common examples of real life and its various meanings.
All (116)
Everyday Life (5)
Challenges (42)
Action (16)
Successes (29)
Experiences (24)
Accidents
Addiction
Adventures
Asking For Help or Advice
Bad Habits
Biases & Discrimination
Breakups
Bullying & Insults
Business Failure
Business Successes
Buying a Home
Career Changes
Career Setbacks
Commuting to Work
Competition
Completing Projects
Complicated Emotions
Concerts
Cooking Dinner
Cost of Living
Creative Experiences
Cultural Experiences
Dating
Debate
Debt
Difficult Jobs
Difficult People
Disputes
Divorce
Emergencies
Entrepreneurial Experiences
Facing Criticism
Facing Difficult Truths
Falling Out With Friends
Family Activities
Family Issues
Festivals
Financial Struggles
Forgiveness
Getting Married
Getting a Good Job
Getting a Promotion
Graduating With a Degree
Grandparenting
Grit & Resilience
Grocery Shopping
Health Issues
Helping Others
Hobbies
Immigration Challenges
Introspection
Job Loss
Jumping Through Hoops
Keeping Your Word
Lack of Direction
Leading Others
Learning a Language
Legal Issues
Lifelong Learning
Lifestyle Changes
Limited Resources
Loneliness
Loss of Loved Ones
Love & Understanding
Making Friends
Mistakes
Moments of Wonder
Music Experiences
Nightlife
Office Politics
Overcoming Adversity
Overcoming Fears
Overcoming a Limitation
Parenting
Parenting Challenges
Parenting Successes
Parties
Paying Bills
Performance Art
Personal Failures
Personal Reflection
Planning
Poor Working Conditions
Poverty
Practicing a Talent
Pragmatism
Prioritizing
Publishing Research
Quitting a Bad Habit
Recognizing and Accepting Failures
Recreation
Regret
Regularly Exercising
Rejection
Relationship Issues
Respect & Trust
Risk-Taking
Rites of Passage
Road Trips
Rumors
Saving
Self-discipline
Social Exclusion
Social Experiences
Solving a Problem
Sports
Standing In Line
Starting a Business
Studying
Supporting a Family Member
Sustaining Relationships
Tax Burden
Traveling
Volunteering
Work Experiences
Working Hard
Keep in mind that the list above includes five distinct meanings of real life: everyday life, real life challenges, real action, real successes and real experiences.

Everyday Life

The sense that real life are those everyday scenes in our lives that are repeated over and over again such that they can begin to feel bland and uninspired. This is unfortunate because these are often things that take up much of our time such as our routine, commute, job or sleeping.
Viewing large parts of our time as a kind of filler probably isn't a completely positive view of life. The solution here can be to continually change your life to defeat bland routine. This isn't always practical, so another approach is to appreciate the little things in life such that life doesn't have to be dramatic to be wonderful. For example, focusing on what you are doing in the moment to find joy in doing humble things well.

Challenges

People often use "real life" to express some type of disillusionment with the sense that life isn't what they expect. The root of this is that we have little influence over the universe and it isn't likely to bend to our ideas for it. Life is also just fundamentally filled with adversity, problems and failures that can be hard to accept and overcome.

Action

The sense that real life is taking action and doing real things to sideline challenges and thrive. Here real things are things that can work given the external realities of the world. For example, if you want to be a musician, the real world may view you as talented or not. There is much that you can do to influence this such as practicing or seeking inspiration -- these are real actions.
Still, the real world isn't always going to meet your expectations even where you are taking plenty of realistic steps to make this happen. As such, an important element of this is the pragmatism to adapt to real world feedback.

Successes

There is much sense that real life is about tangible or social results such that you achieve the things that humans commonly want and need.

Experiences

The sense that real life is about experience, particularly experiences that are deeply meaningful or fulfilling.

Imperfection

The philosophy that real life is imperfect but that this imperfection actually makes life more perfect. This involves some sense that failure and success, sadness and joy, need and fulfillment are complements whereby one wouldn't be meaningful without the other.

Summary

The term real life is commonly used to denote a sense of disillusionment whereby life is harder or more challenging than expected. It is also used to denote things that are viewed as important in life such as taking action, achieving things and having meaningful experiences.
Next: Real World Problems

Real Life

This is the complete list of articles we have written about real life.
Adversity
Common Problems
Human Needs
Life
Life Things
Pragmatism
Real Life
Real World
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