How do I stop feeling like shit for not being an athlete or accomplished at anything?
I'm 22M and I'm gonna sound real dumb.
I feel like shit when I see people that are "great" aka "accomplished". Olympic athletes, people very successful in their careers who are my age, celebrities, etc. I feel especially bad that I'm not on track to be an olympic athlete. To me greatness is being excellent at something and being recognized for it. I'm not athletic and I've not done much with my life. I'm unemployed and trying to land a job, I'm watching people around me move on from college and get high paying jobs.
I want to be great at something. I want to prove to myself that I matter and I have some contribution to the world. I know it sounds corny but in general I just feel really bad about the state of my life at the moment. I don't do much with my days, I have online grad classes but I procrastinate regularly, and fill the time with mindless social media scrolling.
My athletic dream would be to compete in the Mountain of Hell or megavalanche mountain bike races in France that start on top of a glacier and go all the way to the base of the mountain over some insane terrain. It just looks really fun to me and like an insane excercise.
I'm very directionless in my life. I don't have much to focus on outside of class or hone my skills in. I feel the void and I'm not sure what to do. Maybe it's because of the new year but I want to change my life for the better.
Posted Jan 13, 2026, 11:58 PM UTC