The largest website for English phrases and quotes

The largest website for English phrases and quotes

Category: Meg Jay

Ian pretended that not knowing what to do was the hard part when, somewhere inside, I think he knew that making a choice about something is when the real uncertainty begins. The more terrifying uncertainty is wanting something and not knowing how to get it. It is working toward something even though there is no sure thing. When we make choices, we open ourselves up to hard work and failure and heartbreak, so sometimes it feels easier not to know, not to choose, and not to do.

choices, decisions, failure, heartbreak, life, twentysomethings, uncertainty, work

As we age, we feel less like leaves and more like trees. We have roots that ground us and sturdy trunks that may sway, but don’t break, in the wind.

confidence, life, millennials

Shoulds can masquerade as high standards or lofty goals, but they are not the same. Goals direct us from the inside, but shoulds are paralyzing judgments from the outside. Goals feel like authentic dreams while shoulds feel like oppressive obligations. Shoulds set up a false dichotomy between either meeting an ideal or being a failure, between perfection or settling. The tyranny of the should even pits us against our own best interests.

Distinctiveness is a fundamental part of identity. We develop a clearer sense of ourselves by firming up the boundaries between ourselves and others. I am who I am because of how I am different from those around me. There is a point to my life because it cannot be carried out in exactly the same way by any other person. Differentness is part of what makes us who we are. It gives our lives meaning.

differentness, distictiveness, empowering-quotes, i, live-meaning, me, meg-jay, person, personality, the-defining-decade, we, who-you-are, you, you-i-am

In one way or another, almost every twentysomething client I have wonders, ‘Will things work out for me?’ The uncertainty behind that question is what makes twentysomething life so difficult, but it is also what makes twentysomething action so possible and so necessary. It’s unsettling to not know the future and, in a way, even more daunting to consider that what we are doing with our twentysomething lives might be determining it.

advice, career, future, life, twentysomethings

I wasn’t scared of losing my past. i was scared of losing my future.

Doing something later is not automatically the same as doing something better

advice, career, defining-decade, life, love, millennials, relationships, work

Traveling in a third-world country is the closest thing there is to being married and raising kids. You have glorious hikes and perfect days on the beach. You go on adventures you would never try, or enjoy, alone. But you also can’t get away from each other. Everything is unfamiliar. Money is tight or you get robbed. Someone gets sick or sunburned. You get bored. It is harder than you expected, but you are glad you didn’t just sit home.

marriage, relationships, travel

It’s the people we hardly know, and not our closest friends, who will improve our lives most dramatically

career, connections, friendships, life, love, networking, relationships, work

But while the urban tribe helps us survive, it does not help us thrive. The urban tribe may bring us soup when we are sick, but it is the people we hardly know – those who never make it into our tribe – who will swiftly and dramatically change our lives for the better.

adult, change, family, friends, improve, inspiration, life, twenties

What no one tells twentysomethings like Emma is that finally, and suddenly, they can pick their own families – they can create their own families – and these are the families that life will be about. These are the families that will define the decades ahead.

choose-carefully, family, family-quotes, love, love-quotes, meg-jay, pick-your-family, pick-your-own, picking-up-families, the-defining-decade, togetherness