Your life is a journey, not a destination you were supposed to have figured out

We tend to think about our lives in terms of where we're trying to get. Aspirational accomplishments serve as an outline for the life we're trying to build. Having something to work toward gives us direction, but it can also create the impression that we're always on our way to some point where we'll finally arrive.

There is no finish line where everything finally falls into place and you can declare that you've made it. Treating life that way leads to sacrificing the present in pursuit of a future when you expect life to finally be complete. Along the way you waste your time and energy measuring your progress against people who seem closer to getting there.

Your life is the journey itself. The goals you pursue and milestones you reach are important, but none of them completes the story. You reach a checkpoint and life continues from there. You will always be confronted with changing circumstances where new possibilities emerge and others disappear.

When you come up against a roadblock, sometimes the right answer is to figure out a way around it and keep going, other times you’ll need to pivot in a different direction.

The point isn't to find the perfect path and stay on it forever. It's to remain an active participant in your life and decide where to go from here.