It took me until I was 26 to realize that my parents didn’t know everything. Most people realize that in high school and go through a rebellious phase right around the same time. I was a little slow on the uptake.

My parents are both incredibly smart, accomplished, wonderful humans. But, they are just that: human.

I thought that I would finally feel like an adult when I turned 30. I didn’t.

Then I thought that I would finally feel like an adult when I got married.

When that didn’t do it, I thought for sure that I would finally feel like an adult when I became a mother.

I didn’t.

I find that I still feel as though I’m just making it up as I go along. And I’ve come to realize that this is likely how I’ll feel for the rest of my life.

I’ve also come to realize that I’m not alone.

I’ve spent time with a lot of people who look like they really know what they’re doing: NY Times Bestselling authors, multi-millionaires, household name celebrities, pillars of communities, professionals with many letters after their names, etc.

These folks have two things in common:

1.  In at least one significant area of their lives, they don’t know what they’re doing.

2.  They continue to move forward anyway.

Realizing my parents and many of the other people I looked up to are winging it just like me could have been devastating.

I mean, if the people publicly lauded for their expertise don’t even know what they’re doing, is there any hope for the rest of us?

Instead, I found it liberating.

Well, if they don’t have it all together but they’ve still managed to become exceptional, then what’s my excuse?

Now that I knew there wasn’t some “Guidebook to Life” that I would be receiving at some unidentified date when I finally became an adult, I could get moving making my life what I wanted it to be.

Pick any person you look up to who you think has it all together.

I guarantee you they feel small sometimes.

I guarantee you they have self doubt.

I guarantee you there’s at least one area of their life where they feel lost.

What’s extraordinary about them is that, enough days to make it count, they don’t let these things stop them.

The internet and other kinds of media make it really easy to make things look a certain way.

It’s important for us as consumers to know that things rarely are the way they look.

And it’s important for us to use that as permission to keep at it.

No one is going to give you the rules.

No one can teach you a step-by-step proven system to rock at the life you want.

No one has it all together, no matter how it may seem.

I certainly don’t know what I’m doing, at least not in all areas of my life. And you know what? You probably don’t either.

I’ve yet to meet one person who does.

The good news is that knowing what you’re doing is not a prerequisite for living the kind of life you want to live. {Tweet it!}

But moving forward, despite feeling as though you’re making it up as you go along, absolutely is.

So despite the fact that none of us know what we’re doing, we gotta keep on keeping on.

Sitting around waiting for someone to give us instructions to live the way we want to live and have the kind of impact we want to have is just silly.

Those instructions don’t exist.

Moving forward in spite of feeling like you’re making it up as you go along is how you figure it out.

I don’t know what I’m doing and you probably don’t either. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep doing it.

So keep on truckin’. I’ll be fumbling along right by your side, but making progress all the while.

OVER TO YOU: