"you are good for your age."

is that really true? maybe. but we'd better to think different about it.

you may have asked this question, especially when someone told you that you're good for your age. this essay is about considering age, when we want to evaluate if we are good enough or not.

to be honest, I've heard that i'm good for my age, for almost the whole of my life from the people who were older than me. but when i think about it, i can see that it not only didn't help me but also made me think that being good is much easier to be tried a lot for.

so all i want to say is that you'd better NOT totally consider age when you're evaluating if you're good for yourself or not. let's be honest, it's easy to reach a point at which you're "good for your age", especially between 15 and 20. you just need some good scores, a few simple common achievements, and some other mediocre things.

but you're not just competing with people between 15 and 20! (remember, competing is mostly wasting time). you're living in a world where age doesn't really matter. instead, what you're working on and how you work is what matters. so the best recipe, in my mind, is to (never compete with anyone and) never consider your age.

as i said before, in my opinion, your age shouldn't be a factor when you're self-evaluating and by considering your age, you’ll reach a point where you think “good for my age” is enough and you fall into the trap of thinking that “i don't need to try a LOT.” that's obviously a recipe for failure, not success. so that doesn’t work and you’d better to think differently.

for a bit more generalization, never accept sentences that their final result is to work less. people may tell you that being a good student is enough and you'd better have a work-life balance, etc. but if you're ambitious enough and want to be a super-great person, it's obvious that you must put that “good enough“ mentality aside.

so never tell yourself the sentence that “i'm good for myself”, even if you are truly good. if others say this to you, it implies you're not so good that your age becomes irrelevant. therefore, my ultimate advice for young people (who think they're good for their age) is that don't just be good for your age. that’s not the ultimate goal. forget it and just be good.

you can always reach me via email at sina80mor@gmail.com and let’s talk about this essay.

sina
jun 19, 2024