The Ghoul’s Guide to Getting Your Life Together (Eventually): How to Rise From the Dead and Start Again
Colour / Reading Time 5 mins Approx
Life’s not about having it all figured out — it’s about rising from the coffin again and again until you finally stop hitting snooze on your own resurrection, because it’s never too late to rise from the dead and get your sh*t together.
Let’s be honest — getting your life together feels a lot like crawling out of a shallow grave with a hangover. You know you should be doing it, but the world keeps handing you reasons not to. Rent’s due. Your inbox is a haunted mansion. You’ve got emotional cobwebs in corners you swore you cleaned last year.
And somewhere between the existential dread and the caffeine shakes, you start to wonder:
Is it even worth trying anymore?
Spoiler alert: it is.
Because if horror movies have taught us anything, it’s that the monster who refuses to stay down, never really dies — it just gets another shot at survival and a sequel.
🧟♀️ Step 1: Admit You’ve Been a Bit… Undead
You’re not lazy. You’re not broken. You’re just… in recovery from existing in this century.
We’ve all been there: scrolling through life in zombie mode, convinced everyone else got a secret manual you missed.
But let me tell you something: even Frankenstein’s monster had to piece himself together from scraps. The trick isn’t perfection — it’s resurrection.
So before you start colour-coding your trauma in a new planner, take a moment to admit:
Yes, you’ve been a little undead lately. But that’s okay. You’re still here. You’re still breathing (mostly).
And that’s step one — acknowledging the mess without becoming it.
If you’ve been drifting, take inventory. Ask yourself: what areas of your life feel decomposed? Finances? Friendships? Motivation?
Awareness is your shovel. You can’t dig yourself out of the dirt if you don’t know where you’re buried.
Sometimes “getting your life together” isn’t about adding more. It’s about clearing away the rot.
Cancel the subscriptions you forgot about. Unfollow the energy vampires.
Give yourself permission to start again small — a cup of water, a five-minute walk, one decent night of sleep.
That’s how resurrection starts: not with fireworks, but with a single deep breath and a muttered, “Okay, let’s try again.”
🕯️ Step 2: Stop Summoning Demons That Don’t Pay Rent
Let’s talk about your mental tenants — those noisy little ghosts that whisper things like:
“You’re behind.”
“You should have figured it out by now.”
“Everyone else is doing better.”
Those voices? Not intuition. Not divine wisdom. Just freeloading fears taking up valuable psychic space.
Evict them.
Make room for something better: curiosity. That’s your new guiding spirit.
Because getting your life together doesn’t start with fixing everything — it starts with questioning the things you’re scared to let go of.
If Carrie taught us anything, it’s that repressing your power only ends in a bloodbath.
So stop dimming yourself to make others comfortable. Burn bright. Even if it gets messy.
Because the world doesn’t need another well-behaved corpse — it needs the version of you that’s alive.
🕸️ Step 3: The Horror of Half-Finished Things (And How to Escape It)
You know what’s scarier than a haunted doll?
The pile of half-finished projects sitting on your metaphorical attic floor.
That online course you started last spring?
The business idea you scribbled in a notebook three Halloweens ago?
The creative dream you keep saying you’ll “get back to when things calm down”?
Those are your ghosts. And they’re not going anywhere until you deal with them.
The trick isn’t to finish everything at once — it’s to resurrect one thing at a time.
Pick one body to reanimate, one dream to breathe life back into. Then chase it like Laurie Strode with a kitchen knife.
Forget balance. Forget perfection. Pick obsession.
If it scares you a little, good. Fear is proof that something’s alive in there.
When you stop scattering your energy across a dozen unfinished graveyards, you create momentum. And momentum, my ghoul, is witchcraft.
You don’t need to overhaul your life overnight — you just need to drag one small piece of it back from the dead.
👹 Step 3.5: The Babadook Principle — Why You Can’t Ignore the Basement Door
If you’ve ever seen The Babadook, you already know what happens when you try to ignore what’s clawing at the basement door. The more you suppress your chaos, the louder it gets. The monster doesn’t vanish — it evolves.
Getting your life together isn’t about locking away your fears; it’s about opening the door, sitting with them, and saying, “Alright, let’s co-exist.”
You don’t banish The Babadook — you learn to live with it. That’s emotional intelligence, horror edition.
And here’s the real kicker: once you stop running from your monsters, they start running for you. Fear becomes fuel. Shadow becomes strategy.
🧛 Step 4: Make Peace With the Monster
You can’t “get your life together” while pretending your shadow doesn’t exist.
We all have that inner monster — the one that binge-watches chaos, thrives on self-doubt, and whispers that it’s safer to stay miserable than to risk changing.
But here’s the secret: the monster isn’t your enemy. It’s your misunderstood ally.
Like Dr. Jekyll’s dark half, it’s a part of you that wants control, not destruction.
So instead of banishing it, learn to negotiate with it.
Give it something to do — channel it into art, workouts, side hustles, or late-night journaling that reads like an exorcism transcript.
The monster wants to move. Let it.
Just make sure you’re the one holding the leash.
🎃 Step 5: Build a Life That’s More “Addams Family,” Less “Corporate Hellscape”
We’ve all been there — performing “normal” under fluorescent lights, trying to smile through soul rot.
But you? You’re not built for beige. You’re built for candlelight and chaos.
Stop contorting yourself into someone else’s version of success.
Ask yourself what version of life would make you feel alive — not approved of.
Maybe it’s starting a weird side business. Maybe it’s painting at 2 AM. Maybe it’s ditching the “safe” relationship that’s turned into a morgue.
Success isn’t about neatness — it’s about nerve.
The Addams Family didn’t need to fit in — they built their own mansion.
That’s your mission: create a life that fits you, even if it freaks out the neighbours.
So if you want to get your life together, stop chasing normal. Start chasing alive.
Ask yourself:
What would make me feel electrified again?
What would I do if I didn’t need anyone’s permission?
What version of me is waiting to rise from the grave?
That’s where your resurrection begins.
🪞 Step 6: Give Yourself Permission to Be a Work in Progress
Even monsters need downtime. You’re allowed to rebuild slowly, stumble awkwardly, and cry on your bathroom floor in between rebirths.
Progress isn’t glamorous — it’s grotesque. It’s messy and inconvenient and full of plot twists.
But like every good horror arc, transformation comes from persistence.
You’re not behind — you’re in a scene cut most people skip: the part where the hero gets up again.
Take the pressure off. You don’t need to glow up — you just need to show up.
⚡ Step 7: You’re Not Starting From Scratch — You’re Starting From Experience
Every version of you that failed, freaked out, and face-planted? They didn’t disappear — they built the backbone of the person you’re becoming.
The ghoul who’s survived heartbreak, burnout, and a couple of career corpses? That’s your final form. You’re battle-tested. You’ve been through emotional exorcisms and still showed up to brunch.
So light the candle. Dust off the cobwebs. Your life doesn’t need a miracle — it needs movement.
Start where you are. With what you’ve got.
And if all else fails, just remember: Even the undead rise again.
🪦 Final Words: The Resurrection Is Yours
You don’t have to have it all figured out. You just have to refuse to stay buried.
Because in the end, getting your life together isn’t about becoming perfect. It’s about becoming persistent.
And if anyone knows how to rise from the dead and keep going — it’s you, my ghoul friend.
Now go haunt something beautifully.
IN ODD WE TRUST Presents
A FIELD NOTES FROM THE DARK Production
Starring YOU, the protagonist in your own psychological thriller
Produced by A LIFETIME OF QUESTIONABLE DECISIONS
Directed by EXISTENTIAL DREAD Story by DEAD INSIDE, DOING FINE
Costume Design RISE LIKE THE UNDEAD Tee Music by DISSONANT SYNTH and REGRET
Feeling seen? You Belong with us, Join THE CULT OF ODD Your backstage pass to PSYCHOLOGICAL
SURVIVAL GUIDES, HORROR COPING RITUALS and EMOTIONALLY UNSTABLE T-SHIRTS
