There is this looming belief in the young adult crowd (myself included) where you have to aim to be a prodigy within your age group. You desire to impress, exceed expectations, and usurp all of the stereotypes about your generation. We desire for adults who are much older to look at us and think we are a "one in a million wonderkid".

While this indeed does happen for some, we should never accept this as the standard. It's an exception at best and even then, the people who had that massive success at a young age would tell you to seek as much wisdom from older mentors as you can. While the start to their success no doubt had to do with them, most of them would say the maintaining of their success was preserved by those they surrounded themselves with.

If you're in your 20's, 30's, 40's or beyond, let's say this together: life takes time. Building a life takes hard work, patience, endurance, and discipline. Your parents didn't start out with the house they are in. They certainly didn't start in the role they have now. What they have built over the course of their entire lives is an indicator of the work and experience they've accumulated over their life. It's often a temptation for so many of us young people to look at the destination and find a quick way to achieve that without all the work (get rich quick schemes) but the reality is that those methods simply aren't as accurate as they're often communicated.

Achieving what's important in life takes time. Being a good leader, a good parent, having a good career, having the home you've wanted; it all takes experience and wisdom over the course of your life to achieve these milestones. If we don't work for something, how are we supposed to appreciate them for what they are? If we're not careful, we'll lose our contentment for these things and find ourselves chasing the next big thing.

"Wealth obtained by fraud will dwindle, but whoever earns it through labor will multiply it." - Proverbs 13:11