Have you ever felt like you were falling behind? Like all of your friends are moving further ahead in life at a faster pace than you are? That’s ok, you’re not alone.
So many people these days, including myself, feel an obligation to get successful as early in life as possible. When we see our friends, family members, and classmates doing big things, we start to feel like we just aren’t doing enough. This, of course, is not true. There is no race to success. Every individual person has their own things they need to work on, and everyone works at different paces. This pressure to ‘race to success’ against everyone is quite possibly a big result of social media and the way we tend to view other people’s lives through it. Online everyone has perfected their own utopian-esque lives. We post only the good things, the successes. We don’t often show the people online the struggles and obstacles we face.
This online facade we see people putting up brainwashes us into thinking that while all these people are racing ahead, we are only falling behind. The truth is, no one’s life is perfect, and no one has it figured out this early. For every success we see people post online, we can safely assume that they faced many trials and errors before they finally succeeded. The point is that it’s ok to fail, and it’s ok to do things at your own pace. You are not obligated to keep up with other people as they succeed. Everyone is working on their own things along their own timeline, and that’s ok! The only time you should worry about falling behind is if you catch yourself not doing anything. As long as you continue to keep working towards your goals you will never be behind.
Another thing you should not worry about is how quick you become successful. Life may be short, but there’s plenty of time to do everything you’re meant to do. When you feel like you’re getting old, and will never be successful, keep in mind that many well-known successful people didn’t get there until after their 20’s.
J. K. Rowling was 41 when she published the first volume of the Harry Potter series.
Martha Stewart and Vera Wang were both 41 when their careers really kicked off. Stewart’s began with her book entertaining, and Wang’s with the opening of her own fashion boutique.
Alan Rickman was 42 when he landed his role in Die Hard, launching his career in 1988.
Stan Lee was 43 when he began drawing his legendary superheroes.
Samuel L. Jackson was 45 when he landed his breakthrough role in the cult classic Pulp Fiction.
Colonel Sanders was well over the ripe age of 60 when he became successful with KFC.
So you can take heart in knowing that you’ve got plenty of time to accomplish all the things you’re destined for. It might take a lot of patience, and it certainly won’t happen overnight, but you will get to where you need to be in due time.