We still have no idea what we are doing...

When I finished school in 2021 I was hit hard.

I was crushed by the realization that I was lost.

All the dreams I had growing up, seemed impossible.

I somehow found myself working a job I didn’t enjoy (even though I spent everyday trying to avoid this)

I had 0 clue what I wanted, where I was going, or how I was going to get there.

To make matter worse, I was surrounded by people telling me:

“Your 20s are the peak of your life”

“The best times of your life are about to happen”

“You have no worries in your 20s”

This couldn’t have been further from the truth.

I felt like I was at rock bottom, all the worries I could bear, and saw no light at the end of the tunnel.

When you’re in school, everything seems simple.

Your biggest concerns are making it to class, homework and not missing any parties.

Life is good.

As you start to think about working, you’re excited about all the money you’re going to make.

The car, the house, the family.

But then we graduate.

We are thrown head first into the unknown.

We start a job (that most of us hate), we get bills, we have horrible bosses.

It doesn’t take long to feel like you’ve just been stripped of every dream you ever had.

You find yourself asking “Is this all there is to life?”

It’s a scary thought.

And it’s one I’ve grappled with for the better part of 5 years.

You are in control of your life, no one else is

This is the most fundamental shift that needs to happen for everyone in their 20s:

You are 100% in control of where you are in life.

Even if you didn’t realize it, you made choices and actions that landed you here.

Of course, there are external situations that are out of our control, but we cannot control those.

The only thing we can control is how we think, decide and act.

We are solely responsible for ourselves.

This was the most freeing principle that I learned, because it means we can create any change we want.

Want more money?

Want to feel better?

Want to be healthier?

Want to achieve more?

It’s all in your control.

The most responsibility we take, the more in control we are.

Your 20s are for experimenting.

Society has conditioned you to think you should have an entire career figured out by 22.

This couldn’t be more wrong.

You need to try 10+ things before you realize what you actually enjoy.

The only way to find what you like is figuring gout what you don’t like.

Experiment as often as you can, try new things and have 0 expectations of how it will turn out.

The faster you experiment, the faster you will find your way.

I tried 4 different jobs in 2 years until I landed exactly where I wanted to be.

The entire time I had people telling me why this wasn’t going to work out.

Turns out, they were wrong.

Instead of trying to find the perfect career, start experimenting.

Learn how to get to know yourself

Self-awareness is a superpower in the real world.

The deeper you are able to understand yourself, the clearer things become.

Getting to know yourself is a muscle, it gets better with time.

Everyone is different, but what has worked for me is:

• writing

• constantly asking myself “why” I do things

• frequent reviews of what’s important to me

• Always looking for areas to double down on, things to avoid, and areas of improvement.

A personal example:

I thought I wanted to be a lawyer because I enjoyed working with and advocating for people. ( I was wrong)

Then, I thought I wanted to make people money so I moved onto finance consulting. (wrong again)

Then, I started doing SEO to grow businesses. (wrong but getting warmer)

Finally, I ended up building products where I get to:

• work with people

• advocate for users

• grow business revenue with new releases

Each mistake I made, brought me closer to figuring out what I truly enjoyed: building innovative products and helping others.

Your mental is everything

You will quickly realize (if you haven’t already) that even the world’s most successful people struggle mentally.

Billionaires with depression.

Celebrities who feel alone.

World class scientists crippled with anxiety.

Often our external situations have no bearings on our internal dialogues.

Success drowned in negative thoughts.

Failure drowned in positive thoughts.

As Conor McGregor says “if you’re internal is solid, nothing external can rock it”

Cultivate your mind to be the strongest part of your body.

In our 20s, we go through a lot of change, which can take a toll on your mental.

We resist change and pursue comfort.

The faster you can embrace discomfort the better.

No matter how hard things become, you can keep a positive mental and that can make all the difference.

Approach your 20s as a life-long learner instead of an expert and you’ll feel the stress lift off your shoulders.

People in their 60s don’t have it figured out, let alone their 20s.

Take a deep breath and apply the principles from this letter.

Happy experimenting and I’ll see you inside the Miro board soon :)

Talk soon,

Matt