"The worst thing we do is say I SHOULD be here be now." (Learning)

Life Letters™

How do you measure success? In today's episode, Emma gets us thinking about the timelines the world sets for us. And the pressure that comes with them.

If you could talk to you, this is what it would sound like. In under five-minute clips, the Life Letters™ explores the topics of growth, change, self-love, relationships, and happiness. Hosted by author Emma Grace of Instagram’s hugely popular 'Live in the Details,' the Life Letters™ will hand you a daily dose of the words you never knew you always needed to hear.
Podcast Transcript: The world has all kinds of timelines for us. By 18, we should know what we want to do with our lives. By 22, we should be well on our way to getting it. By 27, we should have found the one. By 30, we should have 1.5 kids and Sunday morning pancakes. By 40, we should be figuring out how to balance family and career and the Pinterest-parenting lifestyle this world seems to expect from us. By 50, we should thinking about what we want to do in retirement. By 65, we should be doing it. But— what if we don’t follow those timelines? What if we figure out WHEN we’re 50 what we really want to do with our lives? What if, by 22, we have never gone to college and frankly, still don’t want to? What if at 40 we want to START thinking about babies and love stories? What if we choose to work until we’re 70? The world may shout that you're so behind and so late— that if you don’t catch up you might not get the chance. That’s what it does. Loudly. It likes to fit things into neat little boxes and perfect timelines. But that’s just not who we are, is it? It's not who people are. Especially now. Most people, they want both careers and love stories— and they don’t want to have to choose. They want creative lives over stuffy, consistent 9-to-5s. They want to travel and experience and drink in the air of something new— rather than settle down forever in one place and never know the difference. Look, if you’re feeling the pressure to keep up, it probably means you’re on your own road. Stay there. Go at your own pace. Figure out what works for YOU. The worst thing we can ever do to measure success in this life is draw a line in time and say— “I should be here by now.”