You know when you’re “behind” in life. It’s not about money, career success, or family milestones. But it can be, and for many people it often is. When you’re behind in life, it feels bad. You don’t see yourself well, and it impacts how you go through life and how you’re treated by others. Falling behind in life sucks, but it is common and natural. The important thing to do when you fall behind in life is to pick yourself back up. Recovering from your failures and struggles is far more important than what you experience. Most people experience setbacks, and many people don’t recover well. Catching up when you’re behind in life is an important thing to do, because you only get one life. Here’s my story, and how you can also make it happen.
How I fell behind in life and what I did to fix it
30% of the reason why I fell behind in life was due to outside forces. The rest was my fault. I was held back from finishing my final year of high school despite having passing grades. But after that, I wasted two years not getting anything done. I eventually got tired of this and decided to change, but it’s hard to reverse years of bad habits and delays. I worked my butt off to get money and now have a solid understanding of what I can make, and how much I need. My blogging and business journey is well underway, and I should be comfortably set up by the time I’m in my early 30s. It’s been hell making it this far, but it does seem like it’s going to be worth it. I’ve learned a ton of stuff about blogging, SEO, and work ethic along my journey, but also realized that money wasn’t the end goal for me. Stability, freedom, and location independence are what I’m looking for. So, while I’ve started this blog, I’ve also begun studying. A degree might not be what it used to be, but in poor countries, it lets you find a stable job. I expect to work in sales or IT after I graduate. Sales + specialized knowledge = money. This will give me more stability and balance than if I live in a wealthy country on just one salary (the lower cost of living and tax rates help with this). Which leads me to how people can emulate my success.
Have a rough idea of what you want
Me personally, I want to live in a nice house in some poorer country, and own enough assets and generate enough income to support a family. I set about this task in my mid 20s because I knew it would be quite difficult. Nowadays people are struggling to afford to start families in their 30s, depending on where they live and how they want to live. I grew up pretty well off, so I have a few more years of work cut out for myself before I can sustain something I consider worthwhile. This is why I set about starting a business before I got my degree. I wanted to make sure I would have a way of earning money, outside of a job in the established workforce. So, I set about working, and things are looking pretty good with regards to me reaching my goals. I’ll be a bit “behind”, but I’ll be well-rounded, and still pretty successful. Definitely as well off as the average American, despite being from a 3rd world country.
Realize that you can’t reverse 10 years of bad decisions with one year of hard work
It’s just impossible. Everything you do in life compounds, and that includes the bad decisions you make. If you make bad decisions, you’re going to have to live with the consequences for as long as they last. There’s no getting around the fact that bad decisions compound. If you’re behind in life, realize that you can’t skip life stages. On the flipside, you can achieve a lot once you overcome the psychological pain that comes with accepting this reality.
Realize that you might need to compromise in some areas of life
I realized that due to the fact that I lost so much time during my high school and early college years, along with the fact that I had chosen to party when I was young, that I would likely never get super rich without giving up a significant portion of my life. This didn’t appeal to me, and I didn’t want to miss out on life experiences simply working. I personally can’t imagine a more painful feeling than knowing you’ve wasted your life on pointless stuff.
Make a plan
You want the plan to take as long as things normally take. Look at people such as musicians, businesspeople, and doctors. Assume you’re as good as the guys who worked hard and found eventual success. Don’t expect to be a prodigy. Make a plan for what you expect from life if you work hard and do the right things. Make it realistic, and achievable. In my experiences with quantifiable fields such as standardized testing, you can aim to be in the top 10 or 1% with a bit of effort. Thankfully, that’s usually more than enough to live comfortably in the modern world. Most people, even wealthy people, are not 1/1000 intelligence wise, and often not 1/1000 at anything. This is because certain fields are more lucrative than others, and because decision making, not talent, is what drives success. Make a plan dedicated to living a top 1% life, whatever that means to you. It should be achievable if you set your mind right.
Realize that you’ll never have truly arrived
From what I can tell, life is about constant work. If it’s not about constant work, life involves a lot of worrying about health issues. If you’re alive, you’re making something happen, whatever that may be. Realize that arriving, just means reaching your ideal work schedule, savings levels, income, job type, setting these parameters on “cruise control” and praying. You’re always going to be some kind of work, even if it’s just organizing family gatherings and parties with your friends.
If you’re behind in life, don’t worry. Sometimes setbacks are what change the trajectory for your life, and if you’re young, you definitely have time to catch up. Time waits for no man, and you’ll have to accept the time you’ve lost or wasted on unimportant things. But if you adjust, you can still have a worthwhile life. A truly smooth life is rare, so there’s a lot of value in not giving up. Most people give up. If you can stop yourself from doing this, you’ll beat 90-95% of people. Look up the number of YouTube videos, followed by the number of YouTube channels if you don’t believe me, remembering that the app is about 2 decades old. Most people are inactive or barely active. The only thing the average person has over you if you see yourself as “behind in life” is that they’ve been saving. Maybe. If you set your mind to “getting ahead”, you should be able to make leaps and bounds in progress and eventually make it to where you want to go.
Thanks for paying attention.
