640
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by required@lemmy.world to c/nostupidquestions@lemmy.world

In the last year or so I started to see so many people of my age that have done truly incredible things and still doing more.
For the vast majority of my life my only goals were gettimg academic satisfaction and doing unproductive stuff in the free time to get temporary pleasure. No end goal whatsoever.
I kind of don't know what I've been doing in the last 17 years while someone gets a patent on solar systems, other invents a new recyclable plastic, and another found a successful startup. I mean, they all find what they're supposed to be doing with their lives and excel in them.
I feel overwhelmed for trying to pace up with these kind of people. Yet I don't like the way the things are and I can't do anything but envy those people.
Anyone with experience in this regard? How did you deal with this? Did you eventually "pace up" with these people or was it too late or an unattainable goal?
Edit: Whoops, I didn't expect so many replies! Thanks, I'll look into them all

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] required@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

if you don’t do them all before you’re 30 then you’re old and wasted your life and that could not be further from the truth.

I think they're actually right. I just look around, older people don't want to move an inch from their comfort zone. It's almost always what they do in their youth that defined who they are. If they are still doing good things in their life still, they were usually not sleeping around in their youth either. I think there is something about getting old that makes you less flexible in general, psychologically.

I'm definitely not where I want to be. I look at my last year, last 2 years, last 4 years, last 6 years etc. and it's as if I never done anything right with exceptions (something something broken clock). And when I try to do something today, many times I struggle because I didn't start early, or I just straight up can't. I can give so many examples to this today. Me sleeping around only hurts me in the future.

[-] TheSnugglyElephant@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

Regardless of your age, you are a result of the daily choices you make. Coming from someone who is going on 30, I don’t feel like my life is defined by anything from when I was 17 and below. In fact, I don’t feel like I really started getting my shit together until well after college. And I’m honestly glad for that, I was a different person when I was 17 than I am today and I’ve grown a lot. 17 year old me would not recognize the person I’ve become today in a very very good way. You have so much ahead of you that’s really hard to see right now but it definitely gets better.

You don’t have to be where you want to be right now, but you can make a conscious decision to make small daily choices to get you to where you want to be. You’re focusing so much on what you haven’t done and not enough on what you could do in the future. What’s already happened doesn’t really matter, what matters is what you do tomorrow.

[-] RobotBoudicca@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

As someone who just turned 30, every year brings growth and change to my life. I'm not the same person I was at 17, or 24, or even 28. Every day I strive to better myself, or do better. Am I more set in my ways than I was 15 years ago? Maybe. But I don't really think so. I choose everyday to try to level up myself in some way, some days I succeed. But often I fail. And that's okay. Failure is a part of life - and an integral one. Struggling and failing is how you learn. It's also a cliche, but I find it to be true that success is all the sweeter when it comes after a series of failures. All you can do is pick up and try again. Because when you let failure stop you, that's the only way to ensure you'll never succeed.

You're young. You don't need to have accomplished anything at this point, you don't need to know what you want to accomplish later in life. Even if you never accomplish anything of note it won't make your life, or your happiness, less important or meaningful. Your goals don't have to be grand, as long as they matter to you.

Also I noticed specifically you mentioned sleeping around here. I'm not sure why you think sleeping around would hurt you in the future, or why you are beating yourself up so much over that specifically. But you should stop shaming yourself for it. "Sleeping around" is a perfectly normal part of life, at any age. As long as you're doing it safely, and with care for your own mental health. It's nothing to be ashamed of. It won't prohibit you from settling down in the future if that's what you want.

[-] required@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I don't mean "sleeping around" literally, I just didn't know what phrase to use to describe just kind of not doing any out-of-box activity and missing opportunities around you in general.
I did this too much it kind of affects some of my personal life negatively atm.
Context: I'm hope-to-be international student
I'm whining I have so little time to prepare for college admissions but... I could literally start preparing 2 years ago but I didn't know I could study abroad at the time. Which is, kind of the dumbest assumption I made in my life. Have I never seen a single international student? Why would they not let you enroll? Why I decided I couldn't study abroad for some reason? Why I took the words of the principal or family for a topic like that, they literally can't speak English? Worse, I got really upset for not being able to study abroad for two years bc it was like my dream - this combined with some others factors made a few years of high school a mental hell for me
I could attend an international high school that would help with the process but I (literally this time) slept around instead of researching high schools.
I didn't learn German even though I set that myself as a goal before, now I can't apply to German universities, which would be free so I wouldn't be stressed for getting scholarships right now
My examples are academic only but similar stuff exist in my social life as well, or like any other area
And time passes so fast I feel the pressure on my shoulders to not sleep around at least because I know I'll regret that later on

this post was submitted on 09 Jul 2023
640 points (96.6% liked)

No Stupid Questions

35305 readers
894 users here now

No such thing. Ask away!

!nostupidquestions is a community dedicated to being helpful and answering each others' questions on various topics.

The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:

Rules (interactive)


Rule 1- All posts must be legitimate questions. All post titles must include a question.

All posts must be legitimate questions, and all post titles must include a question. Questions that are joke or trolling questions, memes, song lyrics as title, etc. are not allowed here. See Rule 6 for all exceptions.



Rule 2- Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material.

Your question subject cannot be illegal or NSFW material. You will be warned first, banned second.



Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.

Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.



Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.

That's it.



Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.

Questions which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.



Rule 6- Regarding META posts and joke questions.

Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-question posts using the [META] tag on your post title.

On fridays, you are allowed to post meme and troll questions, on the condition that it's in text format only, and conforms with our other rules. These posts MUST include the [NSQ Friday] tag in their title.

If you post a serious question on friday and are looking only for legitimate answers, then please include the [Serious] tag on your post. Irrelevant replies will then be removed by moderators.



Rule 7- You can't intentionally annoy, mock, or harass other members.

If you intentionally annoy, mock, harass, or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.

Likewise, if you are a member, sympathiser or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people, and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.



Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.



Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.

Let everyone have their own content.



Rule 10- Majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.



Credits

Our breathtaking icon was bestowed upon us by @Cevilia!

The greatest banner of all time: by @TheOneWithTheHair!

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS