The one thing I recommend to anyone feeling that they wasted a significant amount of time in their lives.
Set on to do something that will make up for those five years.
This is, in part, a letter to my younger self. Not that I experienced it, but imagining what if I did, knowing what I know now.
Time lost is never recovered. It’s good that you’ve realized you’ve “wasted” those years, but as long as you learned something, it’s not entirely in vain.
The best action to take is to start now - don’t procrastinate or overcomplicate life more than it’s already been this past half-decade. Instantly get onto something that will compensate for your “lost” years.
You don’t have to have figured out your passion yet, but that you’re doing the work to discover it already makes it a good use of your time. I mean, it’s either that or resuming the constant wailing about not finding one’s passion, in which case, is still wasting time.
The sooner I realized at 19 that I’d been wary of others’ perceptions of me, the more I dropped them and visualized the path I wanted. A couple of years later, and so far, it’s paying dividends.
Morgan Freeman got his big break into acting at 52. Colonel Sanders started KFC at 65. No one looks at those two and thinks they wasted a cumulative 117 years to make it big. We see their face value today; barely anyone cares about their past.
I don’t think it’s about the time you feel you wasted before you finally figured out life - no one “wins” life anyway. Rather, it’s the fact that you have started your journey - whatever that could be until you hit your mark. Better started than not, and better late than never, so start.
At this point of self-discovery, the final destination is unimportant - the process towards it is. Nonetheless, every second counts, so invest wisely in the process—progress, not results.
All the best, and you’ll do well.
~Carerra, 2k21.
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