Each and every one of us Pandas face so many problems in our daily lives. From the pressure to do well in our work and studies to worrying about loans and feeling deeply anxious about the smallest things (that totally throw our entire day out of whack, that’s for sure).

The bad news is, most people deal with the same problems. The good news? Most people deal with the same problems! And it’s a great feeling knowing that you’re not alone in this chaotic but beautiful journey that we call life.

The Average People Problems Instagram page, created and managed by writer, editor, and new mom Samantha Matt, is full to the brim with issues—small and large—that are as hilarious as they are intimately relatable, especially for us average adults. Scroll down for the best of the best, and remember to upvote your fave posts, dear Pandas. When you’re done enjoying this list, you’re welcome to drop by the comment section and tell us all about what problems you’re dealing with right now.

Bored Panda reached out to Samantha and she was kind enough to tell us all about the inspiration and history behind the Average People Problems project, her creative process for coming up with engaging content, as well as her book. The Boston-based creator told us that the project saw a bit of a metamorphosis. Scroll down for the full interview, Pandas!

More info: Instagram (APP) | Instagram (Samantha) | Website | Book | TikTok | Twitter

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Samantha, from Massachusetts, detailed the roots of Average People Problems. “The @AveragePeopleProblems Instagram originally started as @20SomethingProblems. It began as the Instagram account for the online magazine ForeverTwentySomethings.com, which I founded in 2011 and ran for nearly a decade,” she told Bored Panda.

“As I, along with many of my readers and followers, aged out of being 20-somethings, I knew I had to change the page handle to widen the audience and make everyone feel welcome—because after all, we all related to so many of the same ‘problems,’ no matter what our age was. Why? Because we all feel average sometimes (or most of the time, to be honest). So, before my book, ‘Average is the New Awesome,’ was published, I changed the Instagram handle to @AveragePeopleProblems! “

The founder of APP, Samantha, opened up to Bored Panda that she uses her everyday experiences as inspiration for the content that she posts. She said that she tries to reference the experiences that she has had that others will probably relate to. However, not everyone is as open about these experiences. And that’s where APP comes in, giving voice to all those problems.

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“The difficulty or ease in coming up with this content is usually based on my life at the moment. There was a point where I was pretty much only coming up with jokes about going to Starbucks and I realized, wow, I should probably start doing more with my life than just… going to Starbucks,” Samantha was candid with us.

“When I’m feeling uninspired, that’s a good push to get myself off the couch and back into the world, although there are many mundane experiences and struggles we likely all have while sitting on the couch doing absolutely nothing, too. And, you can write about nostalgia always.”

She told us that she targets a wide audience of people by striking a balance in her content. “A lot of memes and tweets have such wide appeal that anyone from a celebrity to a college student can relate, but other times, something can be specific to niche demographics, like moms, people who graduated from high school in the mid-2000s, or adults who are struggling to buy homes in today’s housing market—all things of which I am,” she explained.

However, there are times when the content doesn’t hit its mark. Sometimes, the problems are very individual. “There are also many times when people don’t relate to content like I thought they would, making me realize I’m alone in these few thoughts, but the more memes and tweets I throw out there, the more likely people are to relate to a good number of them.”

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Samantha told Bored Panda that she works full-time in digital media, alongside being a mom and running the Average People Problems account. She also opened up about her book, ‘Average is the New Awesome’ which Seal Press/Hachette Book Group published two years ago, in January 2020.

“The book is based on many stories I wrote for my website, ForeverTwentySomethings.com. ‘Average is the New Awesome’ exists to help people feel better about wherever they are in life. There is such a stigma around the word ‘average.’ People are afraid to be normal and are terrified to be happy with anything less than what they’ve defined as exceptional,” Samantha said.

“But lack of major success, as defined by one person—because everyone looks at this word differently—doesn’t mean failure. We need to be able to celebrate small victories and be happy about how far we’ve come, even if we’re not where we ideally want to be yet—and this book helps people come to terms with this and embrace their own average.”

The author feels “extremely passionate” about helping people feel good about their lives and making them laugh. “This is my mission in all the content I create, and I can only hope it continues resonating with people.” Now that’s a mission that we, and anyone who’s a fan of wholesome comedy, can get behind.

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The Average People Problems social media project is a celebration of ordinary awesomeness. It’s a bittersweet acknowledgment of the fact that even though we were told that we could do and be pretty much anything we wanted to, reality had different plans.

Real-life kind of just…happened to us and here we are, surrounded by a small heap of anxieties and problems that are, at the same time, very personal and incredibly universal.

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Samantha, the founder of APP, wrote a book about mediocrity called ‘Average is the New Awesome: A Manifesto for the Rest of Us’ that deals with the idea that ‘good enough’ really is good enough. And that we can define greatness even if we don’t end up as astronauts and billionaires.

The APP project currently has just over 87k eager followers over on Instagram with many more to come.

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One incredibly relatable problem that many of us Pandas deal with is overthinking. Suzanne Degges-White, a Licensed Counselor, Professor, and Chair at the Department of Counseling and Higher Education at Northern Illinois University, recently explained to Bored Panda why we overthink and how it’s related to perfectionism and anxiety.

“One of the primary negative consequences of overthinking is that you end up missing opportunities! Overthinking can lead to procrastination as you try to examine choices or circumstances too closely and for too long,” Professor Degges-White told Bored Panda.

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“Overthinking can also lead to paralysis and not moving forward or taking a chance as the overthinking creates stress and anxiety as you spend too much time focusing on the ‘What can go wrong?’ versus the ‘What Ifs’ in life,” she warned that overthinking leads to a lot of missed opportunities.

“Overthinking and anxiety have something of a ‘chicken and the egg’ relationship—if we’re prone to anxiety, the more likely we are to engage in overthinking, and the more we overthink something, the more anxious we tend to become.”

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Like a lot of other tendencies, overthinking exists on a spectrum. It isn’t a binary situation where you’re either an overthinker or you aren’t. “Some of us overthink things, but still commit to something before the metaphorical bell rings. Others, including those who tend towards obsessive compulsiveness, get so locked into overthinking that they can’t move forward,” the professor pointed out to Bored Panda.

Performance anxiety, making wrong choices, or our past experiences can make us more prone to overthink things because we’re more anxious about the future. Meanwhile, some folks are simply born and raised to over-analyze things.

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“Perfectionists are definitely overthinkers as they worry about minor flaws and what they can do to avoid them. Perfectionists can get tripped up by their need to achieve perfection and focus on the minor details and be unable to fully commit to something, whether it’s turning in a project at school or work or committing to a relationship if they feel it or they or their partner isn’t ‘perfect.'”

Like in most areas of life, the first step to fighting back against a problem is recognizing that there is a problem. “Once you realize you are overthinking things, it’s time to tell yourself that ‘enough is enough.’ Our minds will go where it’s comfortable for them to go—and for whatever reason, our brains seem to enjoy worrying a bit.”

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Professor Degges-White had some advice on how to stop overthinking. “Replace the worries of ‘what can go wrong’ with thoughts about ‘what could go well.’ Rather than wasting mental energy on negative thinking—especially when it’s cyclical and going nowhere—intentionally remind yourself to focus on the positive possibilities,” she said.

“Accept that your best effort is enough and that perfection in most things isn’t achievable. And that’s okay,” the professor continued. “When trying to make a decision, practice going with the first response that comes to mind. Most of us do know what we want to do, but let our heads get tangled up in knots by overthinking the possibilities—just follow your gut and see what happens.”

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She added: “Set a time for thinking about a problem. When you contain the “space” for overthinking, you give yourself parameters and lose less time in overthinking and deliberating. Some people begin to stop the overthinking well before the timer goes off—they learn that it’s not productive.”

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Source: boredpanda.com