Meg Jay

We start to ask questions like, how is everything I think I want going to fit?

Or what does all this mean about what I need to be doing now?

Or here's one of my favorite questions to ask yourself at any age.

If I'm in a job or a relationship or a situation I would like not to be in in five years, then how much longer am I going to spend on this?

So like I said, many of these are tough questions.

But 20 years of doing this work has taught me that 20-somethings aren't afraid of being asked the tough questions.

What they're really afraid of is not being asked the tough questions.

And maybe that's because they've told the world that they're interested in having courageous conversations about race and class and politics and the environment.

And perhaps at any age, one of the most courageous conversations you can have

is with your future self.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Meg.

Oh, yes.

I mean, I think our 20s is when we first start having to sort of figure out, oh, there's a future self out there.

And I guess I better think about that person because, you know, like school kind of does it for us, you know, has us plot, you know, two or three years in advance.

So our 20s are when we first start to think across those horizons.

We get better at it over time.

And then in our 30s, 40s, 50s, we have more built-in connections to the future.

Like maybe if you have kids, you think, hey, I really want to be around when they graduate from college or whatever the case may be.

So it becomes a little bit more natural the older that you get, but it's always important.