It’s becoming increasingly apparent that no one really has it all figured out, do they? People will say the more you learn, the less you know. Maybe I’m just hitting the age when that seems incredibly true. An age where I’ve lived as an adult long enough to find that no one I’ve ever met truly knows what the heck they are doing.
Somehow though we get caught up in it. What are you going to be when you grow up? What are your dreams? What have you accomplished? People seem to have these answers. You look at them and think, “Wow, what would it be like to actually know the answer? How did you find it?” When in reality, being asked the same question repeatedly makes it easier to concoct an answer rather than just say it. I don’t know. I don’t know!
Later, alone in the dark and quiet, we feel like frauds. Fakes. Phonies. We look to see other people have managed to do something big like run successful businesses, write books on how to live, earn gold medals, sell records and essentially “make it” in the world. For a moment, it appears to be the truth, and again we sit in awe, wondering how we could ever achieve what they just did. But then they fail or fade away, that promise of accomplishment and satisfaction passing quickly. Then it’s back to square one, and they try again. We try again.
Sometimes it feels like admitting that we don’t know what we’re doing is a big step. It’s a hurdle we overcome and humbling to share, when really, it’s everyone’s truth. I struggle with it constantly—the idea that by this point in my life, I should know something or be someone and doing something. That’s not the case. I’ll keep trying, sure. But I’m going to say it just as much for me as for you: you’re not a failure for not knowing all the answers. You’re just like everyone else in this world by trying to make due with what you have. Don’t believe the facades. We’re all right there with you.
