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
I stopped accusing those people to be privileged. Some are, but there are many people from backgrounds similar to me, if not even worse. I met them. They aren’t special. They just act with their minds and make some good decisions. I could perfectly be in a position similar to them if I made the right decisions.
If they were from backgrounds like you they would be you. Your decisions didn’t come from a vacuum. We are a complex mix of our genetics and environment. You really also have no idea how they will deal with things in the future. There are concepts like peaked in high school and previous gifted children and youth that ended up not doing a lot with their lives later.
Also, inventing something or founding a successful startup is not necessarily succeeding in life. There are scores of people who got rich and/or famous and are miserable. While money is important up to a point, external success doesn’t really mean you are living a life worth living. It can help but comes with its own cost.
I think you are focusing on external things instead of internal ones. You are also comparing yourself to people whose heads you have never been in.
Why do you think those decisions were so much better? You focusing on academics and enjoying yourself is pretty much what I think you should have been doing. Being a child and a teenager is exactly the time when you should be figuring out yourself and what you like so you do not wake up at thirty and be in a profession you hate.
The vast majority of people don’t end up inventing something. Are they wasting their lives?