The secret is you are not supposed to have it all figured out.
In our mid-twenties and thirties, we start to freak out. We do not feel like we have accomplished what we wish we had, we are not jumping out of bed in the mornings, and there is no connection to our sense of purpose. The reason this early life crisis is sweeping our generation is simple.
We are too hard on ourselves.
By mid-twenties and thirties, most of our parents were married or even had children. They had jobs, and a pension set up for them. They lived in their home, and they planned to continue living there for the rest of their lives.
This is not the case for us.
Our generation is different. We are not entirely focused on getting married or having babies. We do not want a pension plan or a stagnant home for the next 40 years.
We want adventure.
We want passion.
We want purpose.
Without these, we spiral into a black hole of despair. If our lives are not fulfilling us, if we do not feel the fire within and we cannot see where we are going, life is confusing.
Adulthood does not become the easy-going, free lifestyle we thought it was. It becomes a full-time job to try to keep ourselves happy while figuring out who we are and what we want.
It does not have to be this way.
If you can accept that it is okay not to have accomplished all you wish you had, it is okay not to love your job, and it is okay to feel purposeless, everything changes.
Once your mind stops wasting time thinking, “Why are not these things happening?”, it can start thinking about “How do I make these things happen?”.
If you want to travel more, you do not have to feel like it is totally out of your reach. You must go on skyscanner.com and start looking at budget flights.
If you want to find your passion and have a career you love, you do not have to think about how great it would be to love Mondays. You must find your passion.
If you want to feel purposeful, you do not have to lay in bed and think about how pointless today was. You have to say yes to spontaneity, yes to new friendships, and yes to totally new experiences.
You are not supposed to have it all figured out.
There is a grey area tricking millennials into thinking they should have it all figured out.
This is not the case. It is your duty as a twenty or thirty something-year-old to get down and dirty in the mud of life. Do everything you have always wanted. Ring life out like a wet towel, squeezing these decades for all it is worth.
This is where you will find adventure.
This is where you will find your passion.
And this is where you will live your purpose.
