I am 30+ & wasted another year. What should I do now?

Time flies very fast. Finally year 2015 is coming to an end in another 2 weeks. I just can't believe that 12 months have passed so fast.

There are 365 days in the year. Every day we get 86400 seconds to do whatever we want to do and achieve in life. With so much time at disposable, still majority of us feel that we have not achieved any thing significant in life. No matter how hard we try (or not), we are still short of time.

Time = Life, Therefore, waste your time and waste your life, or master your time and master your life -
Alan Lakein

Almost all my friends are in their early 30's. Life is moving at a very fast pace. It looks like we just wasted another year in our daily routine of work commute, work, family time and sleeping. Life has become mechanical. 

When we look at 20 something college graduates (or drop outs) running successful startups or doing amazing things in life (excelling at sports, music, films and of course politics), we almost look like a failure. We have not done anything significant in life. We will continue with daily routine for the rest of the life.

But is that the reality or there is still time to do or achieve something significant? While researching for this article, I came across a word called "Late Bloomer"

Late Bloomer, as per wikipedia is someone whose talent, capabilities are not visible to others until later than usual. History is full of stories of people who started doing things at a later stage in life which are not at all normal as per our society norms.

Following short story will illustrate this very nicely.

In 1950's an old, retired, penniless person was living on his social security checks and was well over 65. He had been doing odd jobs through out his life in America and had mastered the art of cooking chicken but with no real success.

He had the idea of franchising his cooking recipe where restaurant owners would use his secret herbs and recipe to cook chicken. He would get nickel for every chicken sold.

He went to every nook and corner of the country to convince restaurant owners. He would keep all his luggage, cooking material in his car and tour the country.

He received a "No" from more than one thousand restaurants before he finally convinced the owner to use his recipe. And the rest is history. 

That man is none other than Colonel Sanders, and his recipe is now popularly known as KFC chicken. The franchise ultimately become a multi billion dollar company called KFC restaurants, spread across the world.

Colonel Sanders was a true "late bloomer", who started business at the age of 65 when most of the people think of just passing time post retirement. He worked hard and took lot of rejections because he wanted to do something and believed in himself. Age was not a barrier for him.

You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream -
C. S. Lewis

What should I do now?

As you can see from the story, age is just a number and there is still lot of time to achieve everything you want in life. But how?

1. Forget the past - Whatever time that has passed will not come. So instead of  regretting what you have not done or achieve, focus on future. Believe that best of your life is still to come. Whatever you have done so far is just the ground work to do something bigger. You have gained experience, you know what works and what not. Use it to move forward.

2. Decide what you want? - Majority of us do not know what we want in life. We are too engrossed in daily routine of life. As a kid, we used to have passion, fun and nothing in world was difficult to achieve. We wanted to join armed forces, become an architect, musician, painter and what not.

Still there is time to follow our passion. You may not become a world class painter soon but at least you will start enjoying life. So decide what exactly bring you happiness and can change the course of your life.

Colonel Sanders wanted to make a living out of selling his recipe franchise. Decide what do you want to do? Than Just do it.

3. Make a plan - So now you have decided what you want. Create a plan to achieve that. Jot down everything you need to do to get things rolling. Use your past experience, talk to friends, get a professional coach or find a mentor. 

Your plan does not have to perfect but you must outline what you must do to move towards your goal. Colonel Sanders plan was simple - Meet as many restaurant owners as possible and tell them the benefits of his Recipe.

4. Take massive action - Once you decide what you want and have a plan to do it, all you need to do is take massive actions. There is no substitute for hard work. If your plan involves taking those music lessons every weekend, than just do it. It should not matter whether its day or night, raining or shining.

Action is the foundational key to all success -
Pablo Picasso

5. Be consistent - Why most of us fail is that our actions are not consistent. We decide to work out. Make a plan to take gym membership. Join it and go for a week. We miss a day or two. Than when we realize it is almost a month away from our work out. No points to guess, we will not achieve our goal.

KFC restaurant came out after a consistent rejections of more than 1000 times. Had Colonel sanders stopped in between, chicken would not have tasted that better :)

6. Do not afraid to fail - Failure is an integral part of success. Without it, success will not taste good. Failure teaches us that we need to step back and re plan. 

Failure should be the launch pad to do something bigger next time. Instead of submitting to it, you should gather all your energies to try again and keep doing it.

7. Rinse and repeat - Once you have gone through step 1-6 and achieved what you wanted in life, its time to start again. You should not settle for mediocrity. Always keep your aim high and when you reach it, make your aim higher.

It is never too late to start afresh. Just like late bloomers, we have enough time to do anything and everything. 

Still there are 2 weeks before new year eve. Reflect on your past 1 year to see what you achieved, what you missed. Be grateful for what you have and just plan for next year well in advance. 

Here is a nice infographic by Anna Vital showcasing people who achieved success later in life.

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From 'aha' to 'oh shit', I will be sharing everything I learn about startups, business growth and personal development. I am having a great time learning and so will you.

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