You know that feeling? The slow-burn panic in your chest when you realize you’re not where you thought you’d be by now. Like there’s some invisible scoreboard keeping track of your progress, and you’re embarrassingly behind.
Everyone else seems to have it figured out. Your friends are buying houses, launching businesses, getting promoted, falling in love, making it look easy. Meanwhile, you’re sitting there staring at your own life like it’s an IKEA manual written in a foreign language—missing half the screws and all the confidence.
So, let’s get one thing straight right now: you are not running out of time.
I don’t care if you’re 25 or 45. You are not too late. You haven’t missed your shot. Life is not a conveyor belt where success and happiness have to happen on some arbitrary schedule, or not at all.
But the world loves to shove that lie down your throat, doesn’t it? It starts early, with those unspoken checklists:
• Graduate by 22
• Get married by 30
• Have kids by 35
• Reach peak career success by 40
• Retire with a house, a dog, and a hefty pension
And if you don’t hit these milestones on time? If you take a detour, start over, or—God forbid—fail? The world has a way of making you feel like a malfunctioning product. A factory reject.
But here’s the thing they don’t tell you: timelines are an illusion.