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Life Is Not an Emergency
What older people know about ambition that young people don’t
There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who do too little to accomplish their dreams and those who do too much.
Usually, self-help talks to the former. “Your dreams are urgent! Who knows how long you’ll have? Don’t wait! Start now! Go, go, go!”
I know because I have written many of those posts. I wrote these articles because “Go, go, go!” was the message I needed to hear to finally start on my own journey.
It took me 23 years to realize no one was coming to save me. That I had to build what I wanted with my own hands. That only I could give meaning to my life.
I know 23 is quite young, and I’m grateful to have “gotten the joke” this early, but it still feels like a long time, and so trying to get other people’s butt in gear is both my way of paying it forward and of making myself feel better about a period of time in which I didn’t do everything I could have to live my best life.
I think many self-help writers feel the same, and that’s why “take action” is the dominating slogan in the industry. At some point, someone helped them realize they had to take life into their own hands, and so the message they received is the one they are now spreading.
