Elizabeth Day

Yes.

And interestingly, when I started How To Fail, my podcast, the first few seasons, so many people came and chose their 20s as one of their failures.

And it became something that I'm really passionate about.

talking about.

Because I think so many people in their 20s feel that they're the only ones feeling that they're failing.

And I promise you that you're not.

And also, I think that we've been sold a myth that life is a race, that we need to be achieving greater things younger than ever before.

And I think that comes from the wrongheaded idea of

that as we age, our power somehow diminishes.

And that has been the opposite of my experience.

I feel that I have got more powerful.

I know myself so much better the more that I age.

And my success, conventional CV on paper success, has only really come from my late 30s onwards.

100%.

That is such a good way of putting it.

Because obviously, I spend a lot of time thinking about failure and that means that I've spent a lot of time thinking about its shadow twin, success, and how I think of success has radically changed.

I saw something on Instagram yesterday saying that the true mark of success is a calm nervous system.

And I thought that was so good because that comes from knowledge.

Like,

The ability to retain your inner calm even when there is outer noise, the understanding that you don't have to take on everyone else's opinions, that everyone else isn't right and you're somehow wrong, that is success.