Recently, my staff shared with me an article by a successful businessman and author in China, named Feng Lun. His article, titled, Why Young People Always Feel Lost, has received a lot of positive response and comments from young people in China.
In particular, many like his insights and encouraging message on how to view their situation, which is to try and exercise patience in their pursuit to find answers. While patience is certainly a great virtue when you’re searching for big answers to big questions, I’d like to also place an emphasis on appreciation. For those in their early to mid-20s today, that’s an appreciation for your situation.
For instance, when I was in my early to mid-20s, I didn’t feel lost at all. That’s because at that time in my life I had little ambition, no real career interests, and no real desire to do something with my life. Based on my own experience, an easy way to not feel lost is to lower your expectations.
Another way that you’ll feel less lost is being in a situation that’s absent of opportunity and choices. Many here in China can just ask your parents about this. Because of a lack of opportunity and choices when they were younger, I believe they didn’t even have the chance to feel lost.
My meaning is that feeling lost only happens when you care about your future and where you’re going, or when you actually have opportunities to pursue and choices you can make. The opposite of lost is being in a situation that’s familiar, routine, and predictable. And in extreme cases, being in a situation where you are limited, trapped, or unable to pursue what you want. There are certainly many who face this harsh reality. But for those who just feel lost, you can only feel this way if you have choices, options, and opportunities before you, which is a great thing to have available to you.
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So the best thing I try to tell the younger people I come across these days who feel lost is to learn to embrace and enjoy the journey you’re on.”
When I began caring more about my future in my late-20s and started looking for answers, I was lucky to receive the advice of my uncle, a very successful international lawyer, who told me that I needed to embrace and enjoy the journey, which he defined as the whole process of discovery, seeking answers, and exploring and experiencing the new and different things that were available to me. He explained that the reason why it was important to take this approach was because, for one, you can never tell when you’re going to arrive at where you’re trying to go. And two, most of your life is spent on the journey, not at the destination.
Approaching things with this perspective didn’t change my situation. It didn’t help me find answers any faster. But it did allow me to accept and deal with the realities and challenges that I was facing, and that I was already doing my best to pursue and manage. This perspective helped me to better appreciate my situation and recognize that I was on an unknown and perhaps difficult, but worthwhile and exciting journey.
While I don’t claim to know what it feels like to be part of today’s generation of professionals who are facing today’s realities and uncertainties, I encourage you to be glad for the opportunities and choices that are available to you. Be glad for the chance to pursue what you can potentially be very successful at, and that will make you happy. Because there are far worse things than feeling lost, like feeling trapped or hopeless. Just ask the many out there who don’t even have the same opportunities as you to pursue a bright future for themselves.
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