« The secrets of staying (and being) in business | Main | When people are disrespectful do this »

How to stop feeling like a failure

I really wonder what’s going on in people’s heads.

Especially in young people’s heads.

One of the most asked questions online is How do I stop feeling like a failure. OrI’m 20-something years old and feel like I haven’t achieved anything in my life.

What the hell? How could anyone have achieved anything in their twenties?And why would anyone even want to achieve success in their twenties?

Your twenties are there to gain experiences. And not to collect trophies.

It’s hard to collect trophies. Just getting one lousy trophy takes most of us an entire lifetime. Some people only get their trophy once they’re dead.

Still, these kinds of questions are all over the place.

If you go on Quora and check out the category Life or anything similar you will find hundreds of similar questions. So I guess this might be a real problem of teenagers or young adults these days.

And it’s crazy. When I look back at my own life, I barely knew what I’d do the next day. Or the next week. Or the next month. Or the next year. I didn’t know anything.

All I knew back then was that I had to get one foot in front of the other.

Heck, I still don’t know what I’m going to do tomorrow. Or the day after tomorrow..

And sometimes this meant to go one step forward and then you go out drinking with friends, wake up the next moment and don’t remember anything. Congratulations. I just went back one hundred steps.

That’s how my twenties were basically like. But it didn’t matter. All that mattered was that I kept going. That I never stopped going. One foot in front of the other. Baby steps.

Until at one point I had a piece of paper that showed everyone that I was able to pass tests.

And then the next step followed. And then the next. And then the next. And one of these next steps turned into the article you’re reading right now.

The accumulation of these baby steps turned me into some sort of writer. But I never knew exactly what that next step would be. I was just making one step after another.

I never made ten steps at the same time. Always one small step. Until these small steps added up to what you’re reading right now.

Did I achieve anything in my life, yet? No, I’m just making one step after the other. And see what happens next.

I guess a really big advantage I had back then was that there was no success porn out there. I didn’t know any successful people back then. Now my niece who is only 10 years old knows who Elon Musk is. And who Steve Jobs was.

No wonder that we all feel like failures. We’re constantly exposed to a hand full of people who made it big. Really, really, really big.

And through social media, the Internet and everything else these folks and their success is way more accessible than it ever was before.

Sure, there were loads of successful people a few decades or even centuries ago. They were just not so accessible back then. They didn’t feel so close. You didn’t read about them all the time.

Back then Julius Caesar wouldn’t send you a tweet. You couldn’t follow Napoleon on Facebook. Or take a look at Gandhi’s Instagram account.

There was no real connection. And no one was talking about them. Everyone was busy minding their own business. Everyone was busy making sure their families survived.

Today we all make sure that we don’t miss the new series on Netflix. We have more time than we ever had before. You reading this piece is the best example..

And the more time you have, the more you’ll look at what your neighbor has. And the more jealous you’ll get. And the more you’ll feel like a failure..

Read More: How to really invest in your future and create your own freedom

Click Here

Twitter | | Pinterest | Facebook

+++++++++++++++++++++

++ YANN'S DAILY BLOG ++


  • Ideas on entrepreneurship, seeing & believing. Established 2013. Daily since 2015. Start here...
Email subscription form header
Please enter all required fields Click to hide
Correct invalid entries Click to hide

Search

Archives

More...

Quote Box


  • "97% of the people out there won't care about what you do. Act accordingly."

     

  • "Money is not for buying things. Things don’t make us happy. Money is for buying ourselves some freedom to do the things that make us happy."

     

  • "Being unrealistic is the most realistic thing you could do."

     

  • "You just need one person who cares about what you do. And that person is you. And no one else. It all starts with you."

     

  • "We always think we have enough time. Until we realize there's no more time left."

     

  • "The only way to stay ahead of the curve is to create your own curve."

     

  • "Be the dealer. Don't be the junkie. The dealer always wins. And the junkie always dies."

     

  • "The only person you should try to please is your 80 year old self."

     

  • "It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you keep your eyes closed.."

     

  • "Most advice doesn’t work. Because most advice comes from people who’ve never even done the things they're taking about. And that's dangerous."

     

  • "Being able to build something out of nothing is the most important skill. For what? For everything!"

     

  • "Why are people who write about millionaire habits not millionaires?"

     

  • "No one will magically find out about you."

     

  • "The things you don't want to do are usually the things you should be doing. They're almost always the things that will get you where you want to be."

     

  • "Don't let other people's reality be your reality.."

     

  • "Today it's easier to get started than ever before. That's why most people give up so easily. Because it was so easy to begin with."

     

  • "When you hate your job you'll never be able to do more than just mediocre work."

     

  • "Don't listen too all the life advice out there. It's all B.S. Just like this right here."

     

  • "No one starts as an expert. We all start from the bottom. And have to work our way to the top."

     

  • "The only thing that will ever lead to quality is quantity. To do it over and over again. That’s the only way."

     

  • "Be a Warrior, not a Worrier!"

     

  • "New ways of doing things never work. Until they do. Just like old ways of doing things always work. Until they dont."

     

  • "Constantly thinking about things won’t get you anywhere. You'll never find a solution just by thinking about it. You've gotta start doing."

     

  • "Not getting it right is part of the process of getting it right."

     

  • "How long does it take to change the world? As long as it takes to change yourself. So probably your whole life."

     

  • "Focusing on results won't get you results. Focusing on the actions that produce results will get you results."

     

  • "It's easy to forget all the things you have when all you do is to focus on the things you don't have."

     

  • "Perfection will only hold you back"

     

  • "Never listen to anyone who has never done what you're doing or want to do. Ignore your parents, your friends and pretty much everybody else."

     

  • "Trading time for money is not freedom. It’s a prison. The only way you’ll ever be able to make more money is to trade more of your time."

     

  • "The only way to beat the system is to know the system. Inside out."

     

  • "It's not what you do on your good days that will make you. It's almost always what you do on your bad days that will either make you or break you."