It just hit me. The realization and idea of being twenty-four do not mean that I need every goal to be done. Maybe it’s a thing of this generation? We have all these dreams and goals, we have these plans and ideas and we have thoughts that we can succeed at whatever we put our mind too. I believe that. I believe you can speak things into existence. But I also believe that you have to slow down, you have to slow down and take the time to chill. Why these thoughts? There’s a whole life ahead of us to panic about goals and plans, there is so much time to do things. Goals and plans, they’re cool but do you have to revolve your life around them? Nah.
What’s this thing with five-year plans and sticking to them? If I had stuck to my five-year plan, I would still be in school and life would be very different. TThere should be room to move around and places to throw things into. I have nothing against five-year plans but when you reject certain things and avoid doing other things because it’s not in your plans, I can’t agree with them—I can’t agree with the idea of missing out or putting things off. You shouldn’t bind yourself to one idea and expect everything else in the world to wait because it’s not going to, it’s going to keep going – the sun will go up and down, the days will pass.
I have plans but I don’t hold myself to those plans. I have goals but I know they’re attainable and they’re not going to destroy me if I don’t get them done right now. It’s okay that I’m twenty-four and still trying to figure life out. If we looked back four years ago, I would be in medical school right now; I would be living a completely different life but I had to re-evaluate and changes happened. Your destination can change. If there’s something out there that is going to just pop up one day and change my life then okay, fine by me. Being twenty-four means I don’t have to have my life 100% together, I don’t have to have my mind set on one thing because I’m young and there are so many advantages of being young. There are many advantages of being older as well—you can change your final destination whenever you want.
Just chill out for a moment. Take a moment to appreciate all that you’ve done so far. Whether you’ve got a new job that you love or you graduated from school, be proud of yourself for those accomplishments when you start to think you aren’t doing anything. Remember how you got to where you are right now—in this moment you’ve encountered and overcome many things to arrive at your current destination. Every time I think I should be further in my job or doing something that I see someone else my age doing, I have to remind myself of the different paths everyone is on and that I’m where I’m at due to taking the lead in my life rather than following everything else.
My main point is that you don’t have to have everything together right now. You don’t have to have all these plans and freak out when you don’t have all these different goals accomplished. Yeah, it would be nice to have everything said and done but life doesn’t always work out how we plan. There’s going to be a few bumps in the road as you’re traveling to your destination—you might lose your map here and there or have to take a detour, either way, you don’t have to have everything done by a certain age. It’s a hard thing to grasp, I understand. I’ve sought perfection by twenty-five only to realize that life doesn’t work out that way. God has a plan and you might not know that it’s right in front of you until you stop all the planning and calculating how much time you have to do something. Chill out.
Enjoy Life
You only have one life. You have to enjoy it. You have to make the best of it. I can’t count the number of times I’ve held back doing something because I wanted something else to happen. If I were to regret anything in life, it’d be the times I passed up on something great and missed out on those chances to do something wonderful. I don’t think there’s a reason to miss out on an opportunity that presents its self out of the blue. Your friends want to take a weekend trip and randomly throw it up in the air? Go for it. Someone calls you up to catch up over some food out of the blue? Go out. Enjoy the little moments now so you can enjoy the big things later in life.
Re-evaluate Your Goals
If your goals are seriously stressing you out, re-evaluate. There is no need to punish yourself for being a minute off your goal time or you didn’t get the promotion that you were hoping for—there is still time. Implement change and see what you can do with the time you have right now and then move on to accomplishing the bigger task. Your goals aren’t bad but you shouldn’t be on the edge of pulling your hair out and flustered over things that can wait. It’s great that you have such high standards for yourself, you value yourself but you shouldn’t hate yourself if you can’t reach those standards yet. Give yourself time and work with your goals—edit up that goal into increments and small tasks. Baby steps will get you there.
Stop Comparing
Do not measure your success with someone else’s success. I think that’s the number one problem these days. People do things differently, you can’t mock someone else’s life because outcomes are always different. This is not a Sims game where you can control everything at your will and live a dream life. Your path is different from my path. We could be the same age and be on two completely different levels, that’s okay. We all have different stories. Instead of comparing, appreciate what you did to get to where you are and praise the other person on their own journey. You never know what they went through to get to their current position unless you asked. Just trust your process.
You Are Not a Superhuman
You do not have superpowers. You are not invincible. You do not need to strive for perfection, do you hear me? You are you and that is perfectly fine. You are capable of doing whatever you want but you should never limit yourself or punish yourself. You can do not need to live up to anyone’s expectations and don’t let someone try to drag you because you said you were going to do ‘this & that by so and so…’. You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone either. Stop stressing over impressing people and living up to their expectations, do you. Just chill out on yourself and life stress-free.
It’s not an easy road to travel, you’re still discovering yourself. Expect change and accept it. You’re only young once, literally. Don’t stress out over things that may seem big but are actually little. Just chill out and remember you have time. Find yourself, work on yourself, and enjoy your life.
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