You’re over school. You’re over people. You’re over life. You’re stressed, worried, and feeling inadequate. We’ve all been there. And if this sounds like you, dear reader, things are going to work out.
I know you have a billion thoughts running through your head and I know that you might not be able to verbalize what’s bothering you, and that’s okay. But sitting there and thinking isn’t going to do you any good. You have an ideal life that you want to be living, and there honestly isn’t much stopping you from getting there.
So what’s standing between you and that life you want? First and foremost, you don’t think you “deserve” what you say you want. You may not be the best at believing in yourself. If you don’t believe that you are good enough for whatever aspirations you have, why would you ever earn it? But the thing is you can earn it. Your thoughts and energy spent on doubts rather than proving to the world that yes, you do deserve it, creates a brick wall that’s stopping you from getting to where you want to be. As Randy Pausch once said, “The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something.” I know that you want whatever goals you have for yourself—you just can’t let the brick walls stop you.
Second, others often influence you—especially the ones that you love. You work around their goals and what they want because life is filled with compromise. Your parents might want you to pursue a completely different career, or your significant other might want to move somewhere different from where you wanted. Whatever it is, you can’t always get what you want, but that doesn’t mean you should always take “no” as your final answer. Take a step back, and figure out a different game plan. And if plan B doesn’t work, there are 24 more letters in the alphabet for you to try again and try harder later.
Lastly, sometimes you don’t want to bother because you think it’s going to be taken away from you. People always say that good things don’t last forever, and I’m not going to deny that it can be true. You might have experienced classes, jobs, or relationships that started out great and then backfired, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try again. Sure, there’s always the possibility that you might fail at first, but it’s all a part of taking risks and building the experiences that become your life. You grow, you learn, and you take away something from every experience you have. You’re young and have a life full of potential, and you can’t let these things hinder you from living the life you want to live.