If You’re Feeling Behind in Life, Watch This

Order your copy of The Let Them Theory 👉 https://melrob.co/let-them-theory 👈 The #1 Best Selling Book of 2025 🔥 Discover how much power you truly have. It all begins with two simple words. Let Them. — If you’re feeling like you’re behind in some area of your life, today’s episode is a must-listen. Mel is directly addressing one of the most requested topics of all time: when you don’t feel like you’re on the “right timeline” compared to everyone else around you. By the time you finish listening, the way you view your entire life will change. In this episode, Mel goes decade by decade, and speaks to the pressures that people face in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s and 90s. She will hit, head on, the “invisible checklist” and myths that are making you feel stressed out and behind in life. If you’ve ever felt like you should… -Have your career figured out by now -Have already met the love of your life -Have more money in the bank -Own a home -Find a life partner if you want to have kids -Be less stressed and happier -Have found purpose and meaning -Be ready to retire -Found your lifelong friends Today’s episode is for you. Mel is going to liberate you from the expectations of society, your family, your friends, and even the ones you’re putting on yourself. She has the facts, the science, the psychology, and thousands of listener comments to back everything up. This is an episode you do not want to miss, and that you’ll want to share with everyone you love. For more resources related to today’s episode, click here for the podcast episode page: https://www.melrobbins.com/podcasts/episode-280 Follow The Mel Robbins Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themelrobbinspodcast I’m just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is NOT intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I’ll see you in the next episode. In this episode: 00:00 Welcome 00:58 Science Says You’re Not Behind in Life 04:23 The Lies About Aging That Are Keeping You Stuck 14:28 The Truth About Your 20s 30:26 The Truth About Your 30s 46:25 The Truth About Your 40s 53:12 The Truth About Your 50s 1:00:41 The Truth About Your 60s 01:06:49 The Truth About Your 70s and Beyond 01:13:11 No Matter What,  You Still Have Plenty of Time — Follow Mel: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melrobbins/ TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@melrobbins Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melrobbins LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melrobbins Website: http://melrobbins.com​ — Sign up for Mel’s newsletter: https://melrob.co/sign-up-newsletter A note from Mel to you, twice a week, sharing simple, practical ways to build the life you want. — Subscribe to Mel’s channel here: https://www.youtube.com/melrobbins​?sub_confirmation=1 — Listen to The Mel Robbins Podcast 🎧 New episodes drop every Monday & Thursday! https://melrob.co/spotify https://melrob.co/applepodcasts https://melrob.co/amazonmusic — Looking for Mel’s books on Amazon? Find them here: The Let Them Theory: https://amzn.to/3IQ21Oe The Let Them Theory Audiobook: https://amzn.to/413SObp The High 5 Habit: https://amzn.to/3fMvfPQ The 5 Second Rule: https://amzn.to/4l54fah

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Mel Robbins?

  Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast.

• 0:09Mel Robbins?

  I am so excited you're here because today you and I are going to dig into a topic that has been on your mind. This topic is stressing you out and I know this because you've been flooding the inbox at melrobbins.com telling me that you feel like you're behind in life, as if there's some sort of invisible checklist that you're supposed to complete by a certain age. You know, if you're in your twenties, you're writing me saying, "I'm behind. I don't know what I want to do with my life." For those of you in your thirties, you feel this pressure that by now you should have kids, you should have found the one, you should be buying a house. And I so relate to the feeling that you can have in your forties, fifties, and sixties, that you've really screwed up your career. You didn't save enough money, or you got a divorce, you've made so many mistakes, and now it's too late.

• 0:54Mel Robbins?

  It's even stressing you out if you're in your seventies and eighties. This sense that there's some perfect way you're supposed to go through life, these boxes that you're supposed to be checking in your twenties, your thirties, your forties, your fifties. And so today, I am so excited to talk to you about this because I have so much research to share with you, and this is research that is going to give you so much freedom and power. Hear me loud and clear, being a 20-year-old today is not the same experience as it was even five years ago. Being 60 years old today, not the same experience as it was even just five or 10 years ago.

• 1:38Mel Robbins?

  And the expectations that society has, that your friends have, that your family have about where you're supposed to be, they're wrong. Today's conversation is going to blow your mind. It's going to liberate you from this stupid, social pressure that you feel. The facts that I'm going to share, the simple mindset reframes that I want you and everyone that you love to adopt, based on the decade that you're in right now. The mindset that you need for your twenties, your thirties, your forties, your fifties, your sixties, and beyond. This is a mindset that is going to set you free and help you take control of where you are in your life right now.

• 2:21Mel Robbins?

  Before we dive in, I want you to know you gotta stick around until a bonus segment after the bloopers. It's all about reframing, refocusing, and reprioritizing so you can actually reach your goals in 2025. And it's all thanks to our friends at Walmart Plus, the membership that makes life easier by saving you time and money with free delivery and so much more. I will see you after the bloopers and you're gonna love this bonus segment.

• 2:51Mel Robbins?

  Hey, it's your friend Mel and welcome to the Mel Robbins Podcast. I'm absolutely thrilled that you're here. I am thrilled that you're here because, first of all, it's always such an honor to spend time with you, to be together. But I'm also thrilled because the topic today is fantastic. It is so interesting. I'm so excited to share everything that I want to share with you today. I also want to say if you're a new listener, I just want to take a moment and personally welcome you to the Mel Robbins Podcast family. I'm thrilled that you're here today. And because you made the time to hit play and listen to this particular episode, the title of which is, "If You're Feeling Behind in Life," first of all, you're the type of person

• 3:32Mel Robbins?

  who does value your time. And you also want to make sure that your experience of where you are in your life right now, you want it to be different and you deserve to be enjoying your life. And after today's conversation, let me tell you something in particular, when you hear the research that I have uncovered, when you hear the strategies that I'm gonna share with you based on the age that you are right now, you are gonna feel different in your life. How you see where you are right now, based on your age, it's going to be different. Because the fact is, you're not behind. You're not late. You are in the exact same boat as almost every other human being on the planet right now,

• 4:17Mel Robbins?

  who has this sense that they're behind in life. That there's some sort of checklist that you're supposed to be checking off in your twenties, or thirties, or forties, or fifties, or sixties, and beyond. And that if you're not checking off these things on the list, that, "Oh, I should be doing this by then, I should be engaged, I should be having kids, I should be buying a house, I should be doing this." That if you're not checking these things off, that you're losing in life, that you're behind, that somehow you're the only person on the planet that hasn't figured this out. And the reason why I know that you're struggling with this is, first of all, this is a universal experience in life. I have felt this in my life. My kids, who are in their twenties, have felt this in their life. My husband has felt this at various ages.

• 4:59Mel Robbins?

  But more importantly, I'm seeing your messages that are flooding into the inbox at melrobbins.com. I'm seeing what you're writing in the comments on social media. And the number of you who are writing in right now. And you may be thinking, "Wait, Mel's reading my comments?" Of course I'm reading your comments. Of course I'm reading your inbox. And it's kind of startling, the number of you that are writing in, saying, "I just feel lost. I feel behind in my life." And I so relate to that sentiment, but I didn't realize how many of you are feeling this right now. And so I'm like, "We gotta dig into this, and we gotta not just kind of talk about it as a thematic thing. Let's do the research. Let's find the experts. Let's figure out what this sense of being behind in your life actually is."

• 5:45Mel Robbins?

  And this is such a common experience in life. It's so common, in fact, that there's a word for it. It's called the social clock. That is the technical name, based on research, for this sense that there's some invisible checklist that you're supposed to mark your success in life by. And the research is incredible, and it's going to completely transform how you feel about where you are in life. So let's talk about this concept of social clock. And once I unpack that and how it creates pressure and expectations that are just simply unfair and not accurate for where the world is at right now, once you see this, and then we go decade by decade, you're going to be liberated by how you're going to look at your

• 6:27Mel Robbins?

  life and yourself differently. And so in the 1960s, there was a psychologist by the name of Bernice Newgarden, and she found that every single society has this invisible checklist for life milestones. You got to graduate from college by 22, you got to be married by 30, you got to have kids by 35, you're going to have your midlife crisis when you turn 50, you got to retire by 65. And here's an interesting note about 65 and retiring. Where do these numbers come from? Like, why do we all think we're supposed to do certain things by a certain time? Well, they come from societal norms. And what you're about to discover, this blew my mind when I dug

• 7:08Mel Robbins?

  into the research, is so many of the societal norms were determined like 50 to 100 years ago, when life was different. In fact, life expectancy was completely different. So that kind of general notion that you should retire at the age of 65, check this out. You want to know when that became, quote, "the social clock" or "the invisible checklist"? 1935. 1935 was when the Social Security Act happened, and it created this moment in time at the age of 65, where social security was a thing. That's when you were supposed to retire. And we all were just like, "Okay." And then we set the social clock at 65, and then we all live our lives as if we're

• 7:52Mel Robbins?

  supposed to retire at 65. Says who? I guess everybody since 1935. Isn't that kind of dumb? That we have this stupid age we're supposed to do something by? You know, my son Oakley, I'm thinking about something else. My son Oakley, he had a lot of challenges going through school. He bounced from public elementary school to a school for kids with language-based learning disabilities because of dyslexia. Then he had to go to another smaller school because that school stopped at the age of 8th grade, and he had to repeat a grade. So now he's ending his freshman year of college, and he just turned 20, and he's like, "I feel weird because I'm older." Aren't you supposed to be like 18 when you're a freshman? Says who?

• 8:39Mel Robbins?

  I guess we did. That's what this concept of social clock is. That if you follow the clock and you're a freshman at 18 and not 20, you're quote, "on time." But if you're not following the clock and you retire at 75, you're off time. If you haven't had kids by the time you're 30, if you haven't met the one by the time you're in your late twenties, that you're off time, you're falling behind. That's where this sense that you're falling behind comes from. It's these weird societal norms that we set way back when for when somebody is supposed to be doing something.

• 9:20Mel Robbins?

  And what I'm going to prove to you today is that the timeline that is in place, that your parents live by, that your grandparents live by, that your friends are all following, that you are feeling all this pressure around, it's completely made up. And it was also made up when life was totally different. I mean, wait till I just unpack all this for you. It's crazy when you hear this. And you know, I want to bring in another researcher that I absolutely love. This is research from Dr. Robert Waldinger's book, "The Good Life: Lessons From The World's Longest Scientific Study On Happiness." Now, Dr. Robert Waldinger, he has been on this podcast, he's absolutely fantastic. He is a professor at Harvard Medical School.

• 10:03Mel Robbins?

  He is also the fourth director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, which is the longest study that has ever been done on what it means to live a happy and meaningful life. This thing's been in existence for 86 years. And the data is very conclusive. And he actually writes about this idea of a social clock and how it screws us all up. It makes us unhappy. It makes us feel like we're falling behind or we're losing in life. So Dr. Waldinger takes Bernice Newgarten's research about this social clock even a step further, because he says it's not just society and things like, "We gotta retire at 65," or "We gotta graduate by the time we're 18," that put pressure on us. But there's also

• 10:44Mel Robbins?

  social clocks that you may feel based on your upbringing, or based on influences like your friends, or news, or social media, or movies. They create this sense that, "Oh, my gosh, okay, that's what other people are doing right now, so that's what I need to be doing right now." Whether it's, "Oh, my friends are now all leaving big cities and moving out to where the mountains are, and maybe I need to be doing that," or, "Oh, my gosh, my best friend just got engaged and I'm still single, maybe I need to be doing that right now." And they also differ from culture to culture, generation to generation, which we're about to get into. Like, when I unfold how different life was one or two human beings ago, and how we still live by some of the same social clocks as people

• 11:29Mel Robbins?

  had 50 years ago, you're gonna think to yourself, "This is ridiculous. Why am I doing this to myself?" And Dr. Waldinger writes about the fact that there are these key events in everybody's life, like, when do you leave a childhood home? When are you going to enter into a committed, long-term relationship? Are you having kids? And if so, at what age? When are you buying a house? That these can also have a cultural value based on where you were raised, based on where you grew up, based on your religion, based on your grandparents and your parents' personal history. That is what creates the sense that you're off time, because you're not, quote, "on time" based on your parents' expectations, or

• 12:13Mel Robbins?

  based on what your friends are doing, or based on what is sort of valued in the culture that you grew up in. And this is where it gets really important and interesting to me, is that it's not that being off time.

• 12:28Mel Robbins?

  Is stressful in and of itself. What makes it stressful is the fact that you don't think you're meeting the expectations that society, or your parents, or your friends have for you. That's what makes this so challenging. See, the sense of falling behind is based on falling behind to whom? Falling behind based on what? Falling behind based on whose expectations? That's what's at the heart of this. And that's why I think this is so commonplace in terms of an experience that you're feeling right now, that there is this crazy expectation that society has for where you're supposed to be in your life, based on your twenties, thirties, forties, fifties, and you've just adopted it.

• 13:11Mel Robbins?

  When is the exact age that you should go to nursing school? When is the time limit for when you could apply to go back to school? Where's the time limit to you reinventing your career? Where's the time limit for where you can no longer get good with money? There isn't one. And that's why this whole notion that you're behind in life is a freaking joke, and it's time to stop playing into it. At the beginning of the 1800s, can you guess what the average life expectancy was here in the United States? So it's the 1800s. What do you think the average life expectancy is? Just take a guess.

• 13:56Mel Robbins?

  Twenty-nine years old. Twenty-nine years old? Of course, you're getting married at the age of 20. I mean, you're almost dead for crying out loud. You gotta hurry up. But that's not your life today. No wonder people were trying to get it all done. Because if your average life expectancy is 29, you gotta hurry up. Every second counts for crying out loud. Like, think about your grandparents. Life in the 50s was completely different. Have you ever turned on a movie from the 50s? It looks like a different planet, from the cars, to the clothes, to the way the saturation of the film looks, to the social norms.

• 14:38Mel Robbins?

  And so the reason why your grandparents, and sometimes even your parents, don't understand what you're doing in your twenties, is because they literally lived in a different reality.

• 14:50Mel Robbins?

  Their friends are dying in their 50s. That's why they hurried up and had certain expectations about things. You live in a completely different moment of time, which means you have to have completely different expectations for yourself and what's possible. And a lot of those expectations that need to change about where you're supposed to be in your life are so exciting and so full of possibility. And this stupid social clock and this checklist from the 1950s, "Oh, I gotta be this by this, I gotta figure it out by my 20s, I gotta be married by this certain time." It's so dumb, because that's not the world you live in. And it's not only dumb, it can make you miserable. Because you may be making a major life decision right now because of approval,

• 15:35Mel Robbins?

  not based on what's gonna make you happy. You may be torturing yourself, telling yourself that you have to have everything figured out right now in your 20s or your 30s, or that it's too late to reinvent yourself because of the mistakes that you've made, and now you're in your 50s. Complete BS, it's not the truth, and yet you're making yourself miserable because of these stupid checklists that we're all adhering to. The pressure to be, quote, "on time in life," isn't the truth. It's social conditioning, and it ends today. So let's start with our 20s and the lies you're telling yourself, and the lies that the social clock has been telling you.

• 16:15Mel Robbins?

  And when I share with you the reality of what it's like to be in your 20s today, I think you're gonna feel very validated. And if you're listening right now, and you're not in your 20s, but you have somebody in your life who is, this is going to be so eye-opening. Because being in your 20s right now is a very different experience than being in your 20s even five years ago.

• 16:42Mel Robbins?

  The amount of change that has happened when it comes to careers, when it comes to the cost of living, when it comes to the way that people work now is mesmerizing. And so, the expectation that you should quote "have it figured out" in your twenties is not only a joke, it's dangerous. And so, as you hear me share the reality of what you're facing in your twenties and why the twenties is not when you're supposed to figure your life out. No, if you're feeling lost in your twenties, you're doing your twenties correctly. Because your twenties is not the decade of figuring things out, especially in your career. The twenties is a decade of possibility. That's what the twenties are. I want to read to you a message from Mimi, who is a listener of this podcast, and she

• 17:27Mel Robbins?

  wrote into melrobbins.com. "Hey Mel, I'm 25, lost, jobless, and I regret the degree I spent four years on. It feels too late to pursue something meaningful like med or law school. How do I break out of this rut and stop comparing myself to those who had a clear path from a young age?" First of all, this notion that you're too late to apply to med school is a lie. You can apply to med school at the age of 80. There is no age limit for applying to medical school. Even if you didn't do a pre-med major, you can do a post-bac pre-med program and then apply to law school. There are people right now that are listening around the world that applied to law school in their 40s, 50s, and 60s.

• 18:08Mel Robbins?

  So, stop putting that pressure on yourself that there was some time that you were supposed to do it, and now you're quote "late." No, you're not. You're figuring your life out. Your twenties is a time that is full of possibility. So, before I talk about how I want you to reframe your mindset to possibility and really embrace that in your twenties, I don't want you to have things figured out. In your twenties, I want you to be exploring and figuring out who you are and what you like. And if by the age of 25, you have woken up and realized, "Oh, my gosh, I really do feel this call to become a doctor." Great! Go explore it. Great, check out the possibility. Great. And for those of you who are listening, who are not in your twenties,

• 18:52Mel Robbins?

  I really need you to understand something. Being a twenty-year-old today is not the experience that you had in your twenties. The statistics that I'm about to read to you are so sobering, and it's important for all of us, whether you're the parent, or the aunt, or the uncle of a twenty-something, or whether you're the older brother or sister of a twenty-something, or if you're a twenty-something and you're beating yourself up, or you're thinking you gotta have it all figured out, I really want you to hear this, because it's gonna validate this sense of feeling lost. The average twenty-year-old today is under so much stress, and pressure, and chaos right now, and it's not pressure and stress and chaos

• 19:36Mel Robbins?

  that existed five or six years ago. It's just changed. And, you know, we sit here and we look at twenty-somethings, and we're like, "Oh, they're weak, addicted to social media, all anxious, or this, or the other thing." Uh... Have you stopped to consider what it's like to be a twenty-something today? That, first of all, five or six years ago, you went into an office, work was very predictable, you kinda knew what it was gonna look like when you graduated from high school or college, and you started, like, going into a company and commuting? That's not what work is today. Nothing is stable. It's all hybrid. It's 24/7. In fact, Dell did some research. Did you know that 85% of jobs that are gonna be around in the next 10 years

• 20:20Mel Robbins?

  haven't been created yet? Homeownership is out of reach. The generational wealth gap is absolutely massive. Nearly 10 million people right now are falling behind in their student loans. That's $250 billion worth of debt that is past due. The world is in chaos. And most 20-somethings have parents that lived in a very predictable, stable economy. They went to a corporate job, they reported to the office, they had a network of friends at work. That's not the typical 20-year-old experience. They're now in the middle of a recession and hybrid work. The world is shifting, the landscape is shifting, people are all over the place and scattered.

• 21:02Mel Robbins?

  Nothing is as it was, even six years ago. And it's time to wake up and recognize that if you feel lost, I'm not surprised. I would too. In fact, I felt lost in my 20s because I didn't know what I wanted to do yet. I bounced from one thing to the other, and I wasn't dealing with half the stuff that you're dealing with. Not going into work consistently, not having like a really core group of friends at work, not feeling like there's something that you can count on in terms of predictability, not quite knowing what industry to go into because AI is here and things are changing. This is exactly how you should feel. And so if you're feeling lost right now, if you have not figured out your career, good. You're doing your 20s correctly.

• 21:46Mel Robbins?

  There's nothing wrong with you. It's a perfectly normal response to the decade that you're in, based on the moment in history that you're in. And for those of us that have 20-somethings that we want to support, I think showing up with a bit more compassion, based on the facts on how difficult this is to navigate, and none of us have experience with this, so we can't exactly help them based on our own life experience because we're in the middle of this too. Feeling lost is to be expected, which is why shifting your mindset from this ridiculous social clock expectation that you should have it all figured out yet, to shifting your mind to, oh, I'm basically in a decade of possibility. I'm not supposed to have it figured out.

• 22:31Mel Robbins?

  I'm supposed to be exploring. And one thing that you do have on your side that I want to point out is that because you're digitally native and because all of the jobs that are coming are going to have to do with being online and technology and AI, one of the best things that you can do is double down on learning AI, on leaning into tech, on embracing the fact that it is a skill to be digitally native, it is a skill to be able to communicate the way that you do. This is not a deficit, it's an asset. Embracing that because it's going to be a part of any single career path that you choose. But hear me loud and clear, get rid of the checklist that you have to have your career figured out in your twenties.

• 23:11Mel Robbins?

  In fact, think about your friend Mel Robbins. In my twenties, I had approximately 11 job changes. Uh huh. I graduated from law school. I hated law school. I then went and was a public defender. I liked that job. I did that for a couple of years, then I bounced to a large law firm. Hated that job. Then I quit that job after a year. Then I went not to one startup, not to two startups, I went to three startups in three years. Then I studied to be a life coach. Then I invested in a little tiny paint your own pottery business. Then I tried a little radio. Like I bounced from one thing to the other. So the idea that you're supposed to have it figure out, complete garbage. In fact, you may be the kind of person like me that actually needs to explore and you need to

• 23:56Mel Robbins?

  bounce from one thing to another to figure out what you like because it's how something feels that tells you whether you like it or not. And every one of the things that you're going to try in your twenties brings experience, experience that you're going to build on, skills that you're going to build. And so embracing this idea that I don't have to figure it all out, I'm exploring. This is a decade of possibility and I'm going to embrace it. Have you ever shown up at a beach on a wave day? Aren't wave days the best? The big rollers come in and you grab the boogie board and you jump in the waves and you ride them up and down. That's what I think the twenties are. Figuring out what you like, learning how to ride the waves. That's what you're going to do.

• 24:40Mel Robbins?

  And look, I want to acknowledge something. It's easy for me to sit here and say, oh, it's a decade of possibility. You're going to figure it all out. I understand that there are going to be moments in your twenties where you do feel desperate. In fact, there are going to be moments in every decade of your life where you're going to think like you've made a major mistake. You're going to feel like you're not quite sure if you can go on. And I can really relate to this feeling because our daughter Sawyer, who is now 26 years old, she's the exact opposite of me in terms of how she goes about her life, how she thinks, and she just like has everything all mapped out. Okay, got to go to high school, then I'm going to go to college.

• 25:21Mel Robbins?

  During college, she got herself an internship at this huge cybersecurity firm. During the internship, she gets herself the offer to get the job. After college, the pandemic hits, a lot of plans go sideways. In three years of working for this massive cybersecurity firm, never went into work. Three years, never went into work. Even though she loved her boss, even though she was engaged in her work, she hated never going into work. She never left her apartment. She would literally sit in Southie in Boston and work all day. And if you're in your twenties, that may be your experience.

• 26:04Mel Robbins?

  Hybrid work has done a number of things. Yes, it's wonderful to have the flexibility, but it has imploded people's networks at work. It has imploded a sense of structure and rhythm to your day. It has destroyed the separation between your home space and your workspace, which is why people feel lonely and isolated. And that's what she started to feel. And so she saved her money and she went on this lifelong dream to go on a four-month-long solo backpacking trip. And that was a highlight of her life, something she had been planning for seven years. She quits her job. And one of the reasons why she didn't want to quit her job is because, check this out,

• 26:47Mel Robbins?

  she was worried about what future employers would think and what it would look like on her resume. Why? Because of the social clock. Because of this expectation. I gotta, the checklist in my twenties, I gotta make sure that I stay at a job for a certain amount of time, that I stay in an industry for a certain amount of time, that I don't quit too soon, or I don't stay too long, so that it looks a certain way to other... This is all the same thing. Not wanting to look behind other people, not wanting to look bad to other people, based on what the expectations are of other people in society. Well, thankfully, she finally decided, I'm gonna go on this trip. She spends four months solo backpacking. Great, because in your twenties, decade of possibility. You don't have kids.

• 27:32Mel Robbins?

  You don't have obligations. You don't have the massive amount of things that pile up in your life when you're in your thirties, forties, and fifties. That's the time to do it. That's the time to move to a different city. That's the time to explore new things. That's the time to jump from one thing to the other, because it is the decade of possibility. But then, she came home completely broke and having no idea what to do with her life. And if you don't have somebody in your life who is lost or feels behind, I want to play a little selfie video for you that she took of herself in her bedroom upstairs while she

• 28:16Mel Robbins?

  was living here at home with her parents at the age of 25, feeling broke and lost and not knowing what to do with her life. This is what it feels like to be behind in your twenties.

• 28:29Speaker 01

  Hey, I can't stop crying. My face is so puffy. And it's all because I have no fucking idea what I'm doing. I want to make a lot of money, as everyone does, but as a 25-year-old coming home from an extraordinary trip and thinking I'm gonna make so much money off the bat, I'm not. And I also haven't done anything to make money either.

• 29:11Speaker 01

  Ah! I'm dying. I feel like there's a million things to do and I can't do anything. My to-do list feels like so long. But on my to-do list, it's like, "Call so-and-so, catch up with blank."

• 29:30Speaker 01

  "Stop crying."

• 29:34Speaker 01

  Oh my God.

• 29:39Speaker 01

  Oh, God.

• 29:42Speaker 01

  I will be okay.

• 29:45Mel Robbins?

  And yes, you will be okay. And yes, you're gonna figure it out. And you don't have to figure it out today. And you don't have to figure it out next week. All you gotta do is keep telling yourself, "I'm gonna figure this out." "I am capable of putting one foot in front of the other." "I am capable of networking with people." "I am capable of landing a job and feeling it out." "I'm capable of leaving a job if I don't like it." "I'm capable of moving to another city." "I'm capable of saving money." Because the decade of your twenties is not where you're supposed to figure it out. It's the decade of possibility. Where you have so many experiences because you're figuring out who you are and what you like.

• 30:28Mel Robbins?

  And none of that can be distilled down into a checklist. And so, instead of trying to check the boxes, I want you to take a step back. I want you to see that the twenties right now are really different. That it is challenging, it is overwhelming, it is confusing. And so, feeling that way is normal. But the best thing that you can do is to remind yourself that you don't need to figure it out. Nobody has it figured out. But step by step, day by day, you have to remind yourself that you have the ability to explore, to make changes, to learn about yourself. And if you do that, I promise you,

• 31:10Mel Robbins?

  you are going to wake up at the end of your twenties and go, "Not only am I doing okay, but I've learned a lot about myself." And you're also doing better than you think you are. And if you're listening right now and there's a twenty-something in your life, that's exactly what you need to say to them. You are gonna figure this out. Your twenties are very hard. This hybrid work thing is so confusing. Trying to network with people that don't even show up to an office? It is really difficult. You're right. And guess what? You're still gonna figure it out. And I'm gonna be here every step of the way to support you in doing it. So stop putting the pressure on yourself. Take a breath, go for a walk, and then take the next right step. That's what we need to be saying to the 20-somethings in our life.

• 31:55Mel Robbins?

  So if you're 20 years of the decade of possibility, now let's talk about your 30s. Because the biggest lie that the social clock and this invisible checklist is telling you is that you're supposed to quote, "settle down." You gotta meet the one. You gotta have kids. You gotta find the house and settle down and move to the burbs. Eh, that is not what you have to do. If that's what you wanna do, fine. But that's not what you have to do. This checklist was created. Let's remind ourselves this checklist was created based on a time when the average life expectancy was in the 50s. This is your grandparents checklist. And so it doesn't have to be yours.

• 32:39Mel Robbins?

  You do not live in the same moment of history that your grandparents or your parents did. And it's time to understand the reality so you can stop pressuring yourself to meet all these expectations. You're gonna love this research. Do not go anywhere. We're gonna take a short break so we can hear a word from our amazing sponsors. Please, share this. I think this is one of those conversations that every family should listen to. Because it really sets the record straight on what modern life is for real. The pressures that you're facing, the expectations that we put on each other at every age. And so, share this with your family in particular. Share it with your friends. I can't wait to hear about the conversations that you have

• 33:24Mel Robbins?

  in light of listening to this episode together. And don't go anywhere. We are going into the 30s and the 40s and beyond when we return, so stay with me.

• 33:41Mel Robbins?

  Welcome back. It's your buddy Mel Robbins. I'm so excited that you're here with me. We're talking about this feeling of being behind in life. It is so common right now. You are flooding the inbox at melrobbins.com/podcast with messages about how you're struggling. You feel behind in your career. You feel like you should have figured out things by now. You're struggling with the ability to buy a house because it's so out of reach. I'm thrilled that you're listening to this. I know that the conversation today is going to be life-changing and empowering. I also know that it's going to create a deeper connection and understanding and level of support between you and members of your family and your friends. And so, thank you for

• 34:23Mel Robbins?

  listening. Thank you for sharing this with people in your life. And we've already covered the 20s and how the decade of being 20 and the experience of being 20 right now is completely different than what it was like even just five years ago. Your 30s is a decade where you've told yourself this lie that you have to settle down. Like, this is the decade where you've got to find the one. You have to have your kids. You have to buy a house. And while those are amazing things to do in your life, if those are things that you want to do, the pressure that you feel is complete BS. There seem to be two major items on the checklist

• 35:04Mel Robbins?

  that people hold themselves accountable to in their 30s, and that is the house that you need to buy and the marriage and the kids that you need to have. And I'm going to unpack them both one by one. And I've been getting a lot of messages from people recently, and I want to read one from a listener named Shauna. She writes, "Mel, I recently turned 35. I've been somewhat single for five years, and I have a big wish to be a mom. I've always loved and wanted children. Taking care of kids is second nature to me. But as the months roll by, and as I've matched my thousandth matched on all the dating apps that I've been on for four years, I'm hitting a wall of despair. My life is not budging." The apps aren't appin'. Meeting people in real life is not a thing anymore as no one ever talks to me when I go out.

• 35:49Mel Robbins?

  I don't have eligible single friends, nor are there friends of friends left. I can't be the only woman in this situation, and I don't know how to go on living like this. Well, first of all, yes, you do. You do know how to go on living. You're gonna go on living. And based on what I'm gonna unpack for you, I'm gonna give you a sense of power and freedom that I want you to really embrace in your 30s. Because what you're feeling is extraordinarily common. And there is a big difference between the topic of having children and the reality that I need you to take seriously versus the pressure that you feel to do it by a certain time

• 36:30Mel Robbins?

  and the pressure that people also feel during this decade to find the one, to get married, to buy the house, okay? So let's talk about the pressure to have kids. Because I want to be extremely responsible about that. The decade of your 30s is not the decade when you're supposed to settle down. The decade of your 30s, in my opinion, is where you need to dig into the research and settle in on what matters to you. This is particularly true when it comes to kids. Just because you haven't gotten pregnant yet, you haven't met the one yet, you're not a mom yet, doesn't mean you're not going to be one. But when it comes to the topic of having kids,

• 37:12Mel Robbins?

  it is critical in your 30s that you be honest with yourself about what you actually want. Because for women in particular, there is a biological deadline if you want to have your own biological children. So let's take fertility, for example. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists say that a woman's best chance at getting pregnant is in her late teens to her late 20s, and fertility does start to decline around 30 and starts to drop off more significantly around 35. So what does that mean for you? That means that you don't need to settle down. But you need to be honest with yourself about what you want. And you've already done that part. You want to be a mom.

• 37:57Mel Robbins?

  You'd love to have children of your own. Great. If you're 35, that means you need to freeze your eggs. Do not gaslight yourself. Do not hold out on this. Follow the research and the medical facts and set yourself up to be able to make a decision in the future. Yes, the biological clock is a very real thing. Which is why I want you to understand there are very real options that you have to make sure you don't miss the window. And just because it feels like this sense that, oh, my God, I'm 35 and there's this checklist and there's this social clock and the door, you know, is closing. It doesn't mean your life is. It doesn't mean the options are closing.

• 38:39Mel Robbins?

  And you will feel so empowered if you take the step to freeze your eggs, which is what I would recommend that you do if this is something that you're serious about. Here's another thing that I would get serious about. If you're in a relationship right now and you know you want kids and your partner's like, eh, I don't know if I want kids or not. Do not waste this decade with somebody who does not want the same things that you want. Do not tell yourself that the person is going to change your mind. Because if you continue to stay in a relationship with somebody who does not share the same vision for life, who does not have the same values for what you want on something as important as whether or not you're going to have kids. Do not do that to yourself.

• 39:19Mel Robbins?

  Because you will waste the rest of this decade with a person that you hope changes their mind. And then the door will be closed. And you're going to regret this for the rest of your life. And so you've got to be very serious. Again, this is not where you settle down. And you settle when it comes to your values and your vision for your life. Your 30s is where you get honest with yourself about some core things. But now I want to talk to you if you're in a situation where like, okay, I get it. And I still want to find the love of my life. I want that for you. And you are going to find the love of your life. And here's what I want to say about that, though. I wrote about this a lot and researched this in the Let Them Theory. And I think there's some important research.

• 40:03Mel Robbins?

  If you quote, haven't met the one. You've dated a lot of people or you've been in a bunch of relationships and it hasn't turned into a long-term committed relationship. There's very interesting research around this that you need to dig into. So on page 252 of the Let Them Theory book, I also address this fallacy, that the purpose of dating is to find the one. And I think this is a reason why dating is so hard, is that you don't understand the true purpose. You're not just trying to find the one. Dating is helping you learn more about yourself and what you want and what you don't want. And the Let Them Theory is going to be super important for you, because you gotta let people show you who they are,

• 40:44Mel Robbins?

  and you gotta focus on what you actually want to feel and the type of person that you want to be with. Because the more time you spend chasing the wrong people, the longer it's going to take you to find the right one. And one of the most important lessons that you're going to learn is the kind of behavior that you will not accept, the kind of person you truly want to be with. And if you get so obsessed with finding the one, and you feel so much pressure because of the stupid social clock as to when you're supposed to be in a committed long-term relationship, you're gonna miss all of the information and the lessons that dating is trying to teach you. You weren't put on the earth to be somebody's wife or husband. You are here to fulfill your dreams, share your story, and create a big, beautiful, amazing life.

• 41:28Mel Robbins?

  No one else is going to create that life for you. The person you choose to love gets to share that life with you. That's why you gotta be choosy. See, when you're dating, have a lot of fun. But don't ever forget the bigger picture. You're looking for someone who is capable of helping you become your best self and co-creating a beautiful life together. And so it's important to understand that you're learning more about yourself, and here's what I want you to do. It's easy to close yourself off. See, if you focus on the social clock, and I should have been finding the person by now. I'm 35, it's too... If you start doing that, you get pickier. That's, that's an interesting thing.

• 42:12Mel Robbins?

  You get pickier because you're looking for a needle in the haystack. That's not actually how you meet somebody that amplifies you. You actually have to do the opposite. You have to become more flexible. You have to be willing to be less choosy and meet more people. You gotta be more open to lots of different types of people. Because ultimately, the more people that you meet, the more you open yourself up to people of different heights, of different backgrounds, of different body types, of different professions. Ultimately, it will lead you to choosing someone amazing,

• 42:54Mel Robbins?

  who makes you feel incredible, who chooses you back. And look, I get it. It's kind of hard to embrace this idea that you've got to be more open. But I promise you, when you realize that it's your own insecurity and desperation around this that's narrowing the field, you gotta do the opposite and open yourself up to new experiences and new people. And change the filters is what everybody says. Change the filters, change the height filter, change the mileage filter, open yourself up. I promise you, the love of your life is just around the corner. In fact, if you knew that the love of your life were right around the corner,

• 43:37Mel Robbins?

  how would you be living your life differently now? There you go. All right, let's talk about the third big thing that is one of these milestones on the checklist in your 30s, which is, I gotta buy a house. I gotta buy a house. I gotta have my first house. I gotta have a house. I gotta buy a house. I want to share, if you're in your 30s, or heck, 40s or 50s, and you're wanting to buy a home and you're somewhere in the world where you feel like it feels out of reach. Like, when did real estate become so expensive? Because you're not wrong. Real estate is just...

• 44:18Mel Robbins?

  Shocking is the wrong word. It's unfair, in my opinion, what's happened. I wanna, I wanna share some research with you because it's different. I'm sorry, it's different than the situation that your parents and grandparents were in when they were buying their first home. The American dream in particular is now like the American nightmare. And a lot of experts say that the vehicle that was the primary vehicle where people could establish wealth, which is buying a home, is not accessible to a lot of people anymore. And let me just hit you with some of the facts. You ready?

• 44:56Mel Robbins?

  So in 1950, the average cost of a home, so we're talking the house that your grandparents or your parents bought, you ready? You wanna buy a house? The median price, $7,300.

• 45:12Mel Robbins?

  $7,300.

• 45:16Mel Robbins?

  Some of you may be paying that in rent every two or three months.

• 45:21Mel Robbins?

  I think you could afford a house at $7,300, but if we were to convert that in today's dollars, what would the actual cost be, adjusted for inflation, in today's dollars? If we were looking at kinda like, okay, well, if we do apples to apples, adjusted for today's dollars, that would be $88,000. That means there's an 11x increase between what your grandparents were paying and what you now need to pay. What does that mean? Different world, different reality, which means you gotta have different expectations. And there's a reason why this has happened. Check this out. In 1991, the average home buyer was 35 years old. Today, the average home buyer, 56 years old.

• 46:07Mel Robbins?

  If you live in a world where the average home buyer is 56 years old, why on earth would you tell yourself you have to have a house by the age of 30? Why are you putting so much pressure on yourself to do this? And if you're wondering, wow, it just seems like rents and housing costs have gone up significantly in the last couple of years? It has. In the last three years, the housing market in Boston has gone up 73%. You're not imagining this. This is the reality, and I'm sure you've even seen this in your own neighborhood. The world has changed, which means you've got to change the expectations and the pressure that you put on yourself. First of all, hybrid work coming out of the pandemic, it just imploded everything. And one of the things that it impacted is real estate costs, because people that were

• 46:52Mel Robbins?

  living in big cities could move to smaller markets, which meant all of a sudden there was this huge bubble everywhere, even in places where normally it would cost way less to buy a house. Another reason, a lot of people don't talk about this, but it's true. All of those supposed federal grants that were supposed to go to payroll and to helping businesses stay open, you know what a lot of people did with that money? They invested in real estate. So did private equity. That's why you've got situations where there's no rental stock, why it's impossible to buy a house. And I'm not saying this to make you depressed. I'm saying it because how are you possibly going to settle down if you're not accepting where the world is right now? And so here's what I want you to do.

• 47:37Mel Robbins?

  If buying your own home is an important core value to you, fantastic. And I personally believe that you can figure out how to do it, and you can figure out how to do it in a great place, and you can find a house, and you can buy a house, and you can fix up a house. If that's your dream, wonderful. But I want you to stop holding this checklist or this social clock over your head, and I want you to embrace reality that things have changed, the real estate market is different. And I want you to do your research, just like I'm asking you to do the research around kids. Do the research. Embrace the fact that this is not something that has a timeline. It's a dream that you own and there are things that you can do to set yourself up for it. It might take you four or five years to save the money to get a house.

• 48:22Mel Robbins?

  It might take you researching, going to auction on houses going to foreclosure. You might decide when you do the research, hey, you know what I've realized? I actually want to rent where I am. But maybe what I'm going to do is I'm going to look into buying a small little unit that I can rent? That's in a place that I want to move to in five years. And so I'm going to think about this differently because I live in a different moment in time. And if I really double down on what I want and then I start getting smart and doing the research about how to work with what I've got and to embrace the reality of the decade I'm living in and the moment in history that I'm in and the place that the market's in and finances are in, I can figure this out.

• 49:03Mel Robbins?

  And if I loosen my timeline and I give myself some grace, I'm going to feel motivated to do it. And I might just do this in a way that's super cool. I'm going to rent a house. I'm going to get an investment place. I'm going to learn how to make money on the side. And then guess what? When I move up there in about five to 10 years, I'm going to have paid off a lot of that mortgage. I'm going to be sitting really pretty. In fact, I not only now have a house, I did it in a way that was even smarter than what my parents and grandparents did. And for those of us that are not in our 30s, really understanding that the landscape is different, understanding that housing prices are exorbitant and to level set your expectations is important

• 49:45Mel Robbins?

  because then you're not adding undue and unnecessary pressure on yourself, which is only going to make you feel lost and depressed. And now you don't have to because you can figure it out. So let's go to our 40s. And the poster child for how to take control of your life in your 40s when you think you screwed everything up is your friend Mel Robbins. I have so much to share with you about this. The 40s were the best decade of my life. Well, actually the 50s are pretty good too, but the 40s is where, holy cow, I went from rock bottom to climbing the mountain and you can too. We're going to hear a few words from our amazing sponsors and don't go anywhere. We're going into the 40s when we return, so stay with me.

• 50:35Mel Robbins?

  Welcome back. It's your buddy Mel Robbins. Today, you and I are talking about this concept of feeling behind in your life, unpacking research around the pressure of following the social clock and expectations of other people and societal norms. We've already covered your 20s and your 30s. I'm thrilled that you're here. I'm thrilled that you're sharing this with people that you care about. And I'm also thrilled to talk about our 40s. Because I think the 40s were one of the hardest decades of my life, but it ended being one of the best. And it can be one of your best decades, too. So the lie that people tell themselves about their 40s is that if you haven't made it yet, then you're never going to. It's complete baloney. In fact, this was my story.

• 51:18Mel Robbins?

  At the age of 41, my husband's restaurant business was failing. I had been laid off from this job that I thought was going to be my ticket. And I felt like I had made every single bad decision in my career. I mean, I told you earlier about the number of career changes that I had had in my 20s. I kept bouncing from one thing to the other in my 30s. I mean, I'm talking another seven different pivots. And so here I am, 41. I'm about 14 jobs in, in my career. It didn't look like a resume. It looked like a choose-your-own-disaster adventure. And now I'm feeling, at the age of 41, I've completely blown it. I've blown it.

• 52:02Mel Robbins?

  And not only have I blown it in my career, I don't have any money. We've invested everything in my husband's restaurant business. That's now failing? So you want to talk about that sense that you're not only behind, but that you've royally screwed it all up? I thought, in my... There's no way I'm getting out of debt. There's no way I'm getting the liens off the house. There's no way I'm going to be able to pay for my kid's college. There's no way I'm ever going to be successful in my career. That's how I felt at the age of 41. I wasn't just behind. I effed the whole thing up. And I'm here to tell you that you're just getting started when you hit your 40s.

• 52:47Mel Robbins?

  And one of the best things about being in your 40s is that even if your career or your financial life is a complete train wreck, like mine was...

• 53:00Mel Robbins?

  You still are not starting from scratch. That's the coolest thing. Every single thing that you've done up until this point is actually building experience. Experience that you can build on. And so you're not too late. In fact, if you look at the life expectancy of 77, you're like got 37 more years. Do you know how much you can get done in 37 years? And here's the thing I want you to really think about. If you're going to hold yourself to a standard that by the age of 40, you should have things figured out. That means that you can kind of figure things out over the next couple of decades. Okay. You got plenty of time and beating yourself up and telling yourself that you're lost and telling yourself that you've screwed up. Do you know what that does? It doesn't motivate you.

• 53:45Mel Robbins?

  It actually makes you depressed. It makes you feel like a loser and you're not a loser. You just have a winding path. You are probably just stubborn like I am and you learn lessons the hard way. You explored a lot and now you know a lot. And so you cannot afford to tell yourself this stupid lie that it's too late, that you're behind, that you screwed it up, that you can't turn it around because it's complete BS. If I can do it, you can do it. And it's not just me. Do you know Vera Wang, the famous fashion designer, wedding designer? She started designing wedding dresses at the age of 40. Samuel L. Jackson landed that role in Pulp Fiction, 45.

• 54:30Mel Robbins?

  Julia Child, do you know how old she was? Famous French chef Julia Child, when she published her very first cookbook, 49. And here's the other thing that you have in your 40s. You have a network of people that you know. You have a number of experiences. You have a lot of lessons that you've learned. And now you know what you have in your 40s that you didn't have in your 30s? You have a sense of urgency and you can use that to your advantage. Take everything that's happened in your career to this date and say, you know what? I'm going to figure this out in my decade. I'm going to triple down and I'm going to go for it. Your 40s aren't a finish line. Your 40s are the launchpad for the next decade of your life. That's what they are.

• 55:14Mel Robbins?

  It's where you can truly launch forward in your career. You can do something new. You can build on what you've learned, the mistakes that you've made. That's why the 40s are incredible. And by the way, the other reason why the 40s is really fun to do is because everybody around you is so distracted, typically raising kids, or they're engaged in their career, or they're doing other things, that nobody cares what you're doing. So you can do anything that you want. And that is super cool. I mean, that's true about all the decades, but in the 40s in particular, you're going to notice people don't care as much, and you're not going to care as much either. And here's another statistic that I want to give to you. Maybe things haven't worked out because you're supposed to do your own thing.

• 55:56Mel Robbins?

  Maybe your 40s is where you take that interest that you had, or that side hustle, or that thing you've always imagined doing, and you actually launch your own thing. Do you know this is research from a study at MIT Sloan School of Business? The average age of a successful startup founder? Forty-five. Kind of cool, huh? You want to know why the average age is 45? Because you have a certain amount of wisdom, and a certain amount of failure, and a certain amount of clarity after four decades of your life about who you are and what your strengths are and what you're interested in. And you're also sick of the BS, and so you can laser focus in on what you actually want to do.

• 56:38Mel Robbins?

  And for me, it was my 40s where I got tired of my own excuses and I forced myself to do it. And I think that's the invitation that your 40s have for you. If you don't like where you are, then stop listening to your excuses and use this decade to change your life. If you've been sitting around waiting for somebody else to come rescue you, stop gaslighting yourself and take responsibility for creating what you want. Because it was my 40s and that rock bottom moment. That forced me to discover the strength that I have and the capacity that I have to do the things that needed to be done in order to change my life for the better. And regardless of whether you're successful or you're struggling like I was, you have

• 57:21Mel Robbins?

  that exact same ability and your 40s are your invitation to get honest with yourself and get to work. All right, let's talk about our 50s. The lie you're going to tell yourself is that when you hit 50, because it's kind of that midpoint in life that you're supposed to have some sort of crisis. No, you're not. It's not the midlife crisis. I actually think your 50s are a moment for fabulous reinvention. I was 50 years old when I went from being a motivational speaker to starting a media production company and working with companies like JP Morgan and Starbucks and Alta Beauty and Audible. I was 54 when I started the Mel Robbins Podcast, which as I'm talking to you right now is the number one ranked podcast in the entire world. Number one.

• 58:06Mel Robbins?

  As a 56-year-old woman, sitting above my garage in Vermont, having never done that before and leaning into all, I think that is so freaking cool. And it's an example that if you look at your 50s, not as I'm behind, I should have been here, da, da, da, da, da. This is where you get to play. This is where reinvention is a thing. Because for most of us in our 50s, if you've had the kind of life where you've been raising kids, or you've been climbing the ladder at work, or you've been busy caring for everybody else, this is where you get to think about yourself. That doesn't mean you don't still have to care for kids, or care for aging parents, or you don't have a demanding career.

• 58:49Mel Robbins?

  But what if this were a decade where you stopped lying to yourself and saying it's too late to start over? And you started telling yourself the truth, which is your 50s are the decade of reinvention. Everybody that I know that's in their 50s is doing something cool right now. And if you are listening and you have parents in their 50s, please send this to them. Please remind your parents that they are super cool and there's so many cool things that they could be doing. Because everybody that I know in their 50s right now is thinking about this. Like, they're either thinking about it from the standpoint of what do I want to do next? Or they're thinking about it from the standpoint of, all right, I've taken care of the kids and everybody else. What do I want to do? What's the contribution I want to make?

• 59:33Mel Robbins?

  In fact, my husband, I'm so proud of him, Christopher Robbins, for the last five years, when he was in his 50s, he started a men's retreat called Soul Degree. He only does three of them a year. He has also gotten a certificate to be a death doula. He also is working on his first book. I'm so excited about this book. I can't tell you about it. I'm gonna have to let him tell you about it when he's finished writing. But he writes every day for an hour. How cool is that? And the man is also getting a master's in spiritual psychology right now. He just applied online and he's doing it remotely. Isn't that so cool? That's available to you. I really feel like thinking about 50s

• 1:00:17Mel Robbins?

  as giving yourself permission to reimagine what's possible. And that goes for everything. If you're divorced, you're gonna meet the love of your life. If you're married, you want to know the best marriage? It's the second marriage to the first person. That's the best marriage. When you reimagine what's possible with the person that you've been with for the last 20 to 30 years. I feel more connected to Chris now because of what we're doing to improve our relationship in our 50s and being like really intentional about how we're showing up and changing old patterns. Like, it's the coolest thing ever. So it's not too late. It's actually just the beginning of a whole new chapter of your life

• 1:00:58Mel Robbins?

  and a decade where you can reimagine everything. And, you know, I've got this message from Laura, where she wrote and said, Mel, I'm a recent empty nester to twins. So boom, it happened all at once. I have no idea what I want to happen now. I've been a caretaker for my family and now I'm not. I have a small crafting business, but it doesn't really excite me. It just brings me some extra money, so I feel like I contribute a little financially. The last 14 years, I've volunteered at the schools, but that chapter's closed. I believe I wanted to get involved in some kind of charity, but I'm not sure what. Or maybe start something of my own that would benefit my town locally. Or maybe leave a legacy. I'm just not sure what direction I should go in. You know what's cool about this?

• 1:01:41Mel Robbins?

  Is that it's kind of like your 20s. Give yourself permission. You don't have to pick a direction. Explore them all and see what feels right. And you don't have to figure it out by the end of this year. What if you give yourself your 50s to explore all kinds of things? And that's part of the process of reinventing yourself. And so I want to say a couple of things, though, because there was some great research about being in your 50s, and this will also be true as we get into 60s and beyond, from Robert Waldinger, our professor at Harvard Medical School from the Harvard Study of Adult Development. He basically said that one of the coolest things about reaching your 50s and beyond is that the kids are gone

• 1:02:23Mel Robbins?

  and you can finally start to think about yourself again. One of the coolest things about this phase of your life is that you've been through some hard things. And I want you to give yourself credit for that. Like, you've experienced loss. You've experienced job changes. You may have gone through a divorce. And you have a lot more wisdom and life experience, which means you also have resilience that you need to give yourself credit for. And there's this kind of confidence that comes up where you sort of are like, you know, this is who I am. Take me or leave me. Let them, right? You sort of start accepting yourself. And yes, while you still are going to worry about other people in your life in this period of your life,

• 1:03:07Mel Robbins?

  this is a moment where you need to really double down on yourself. In fact, there's some really interesting research from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in the UK. 73% of job growth over the last 30 years has come for people over 50. So don't be lying to yourself and telling yourself that there are no opportunities. It's completely wrong. And if you are going back into the workforce, there's really great research from LinkedIn. They did this big thing about the future of work. And they're calling this era a skills-based economy.

• 1:03:40Mel Robbins?

  And whether you've had a long career, or you're changing careers, or you're going back into the workforce, stop telling yourself you're too old. You have skills from your life experience. Communication, project management. If there are things that you want to learn, there are so many classes online that you can take to brush up on skills related to tech, related to project management, related to AI, and all of that is available to you. The other thing that the research is very clear about is the 50s is a period in your life where friendship really matters. This is a moment where you want to pivot away from a primary focus of caregiving, and of just burying yourself in your career, and reprioritize friendship. It is critical

• 1:04:23Mel Robbins?

  for you to double down on being proactive and starting to build a community. Because one of the things that you're going to learn about as we jump into how the social clock and this invisible checklist is lying to people in their 60s and beyond, is the importance of friendship, the importance of having social connections. And so your 50s, it's not too late. You can reinvent yourself. You can fluff up your social life. In fact, you can meet some of the best friends of your life from this point forward. And you will, if you lean into it and you stop lying to yourself. So that brings me to the 60s, where there's

• 1:05:02Mel Robbins?

  a lot of lying that people do to themselves about it's time to retire. In 1935, Social Security Act set 65 as the age of retirement, and we all just kind of followed in line. Who says you have to retire at 65? Who says you have to work into your 60s if you don't want to? This is your life. Don't live it based on other people's expectations. Figure out what's going to make you happy. Figure out what's going to bring you meaning. In fact, here's a message from Alyssa who wrote in to melrobbins.com/podcast. Mel,

• 1:05:35Mel Robbins?

  To retire or not, I'm struggling with the challenges of retirement, money, no clear plans, and the fear of being forgotten. What if I don't want to retire, but everyone around me keeps asking me, "When are you going to retire?" Like, for me personally, I'm never retiring. I don't want to retire. I don't want to retire because, first of all, I love what I do. I love learning. I love the connection to everybody on my team. I love having a sense of purpose. And I believe that 60s is not a time to slow down. 60s is not a time to retire. 60s is the decade where I want you to reignite your passion for life. That's what I want you to do. And when I hear in this question,

• 1:06:17Mel Robbins?

  "Should I retire? Should I not retire?" You know what I hear? I hear pressure. I hear expectation. I hear a social clock that's so dumb. How about answering that question from, "Well, what is going to reignite passion?" And passion is just a fancy word for energy. What brings energy into your life? And look, if you want to retire from your job because you hate it, and you've stayed for a pension, or you've saved enough money, and now you can do something else, great. But maybe do something else that energizes you and brings you passion. Or maybe you're in the camp that a lot of people are in, where you are living in a moment in time where what you save for is not going to actually cover the

• 1:06:59Mel Robbins?

  cost of retirement. And I want to say right up front that I personally feel like being in your 60s right now is a lot like being in your 20s. Experiencing your 60s is very different than what it was like to be 60 just 10 years ago. I mean, I laid out some of the statistics when we were talking about being in your 20s and in your 30s about the way that the housing market has changed, the cost of living, the chaos in the news, the up and down in the stock market. All this stuff is impacting the financial obligations that you have, the realities of that you're going to live longer. And also keep in mind

• 1:07:37Mel Robbins?

  that when the age of retirement hit at 65 in 1935, the life expectancy wasn't that high. And now you're living longer. And so the reality might be that you planned for a certain age, but now that you're there, you're like, wait a minute, I'm really engaged. I don't, I don't want to just sit around and fill it with golf and mahjong. I mean, I want to be doing something. And that's a really cool thing. Or maybe the reality is that you saved and you thought you'd be in a certain place, but now you live in a part of the world where my God, the insurance costs are rising, or you have a health condition and so you need the insurance. That's just the reality. And so it's not a time to pressure yourself to retire unless you want to.

• 1:08:22Mel Robbins?

  It's a time to really think about passion and how you reignite it in your life. What can you be doing, whether it's volunteering or a different type of job, or staying in what you're currently doing to keep energy and passion alive? And this is important because the research is pretty clear that there is a pretty deep decline in verbal memory. There's an uptick in depression and social isolation that happens when people retire. Because you underestimate how important it was to be engaged in a community at work, to be focused on the things that you are working on and how it stimulates your brain,

• 1:09:06Mel Robbins?

  the rhythm and the structure of your work life, and how it gives you a sense of purpose and how it gets you out of bed in the morning. The same is true with what I was talking about with your twenties. If all you're doing is hybrid work and you've never experienced that, not having that structure creates its own isolation and sense of being lost. The fastest growing segment of the workforce is people 65 and older. I love that people are staying engaged. I love that. And I want you to really think about it. And if you're starting to feel like, well, I'm kind of getting a forced retirement. Well, you know, I'm needing to kind of leave gracefully. Just think about what's next. Just because you're leaving one job, or you're closing the door on one chapter of your career,

• 1:09:51Mel Robbins?

  do you know how much you have to give to a nonprofit? Or you have to give to a new venture? Or you have to give by sitting on boards? Stay involved, because it's really going to help you stay energized and passionate in your life. When you decide to retire, choose to do it because it's what you want to do, not because society expects you to do it. You're not behind, you're not ahead. You're just living your life based on a way that makes it exciting and meaningful for you. And if you are choosing to retire in your 60s, I want to just highlight the research, and this is important for you to share with people that you love. It is critical that you get involved in something else.

• 1:10:33Mel Robbins?

  It is critical that you stay social. Do not underestimate how important this is. And do not underestimate how much that is provided by the fact that you're still working. And so, there is no timeline. There is no checklist. There is just the research and the reality of where you're at, and the reality of where you are in history. And so, focus, focus, focus on reigniting your passion. And that brings me to what's possible in your 70s and beyond. This is not the decade to slow down. In fact, there was an expert that we had on the podcast by the name of Dr. Vonda Wright. She is a world-renowned orthopedic surgeon

• 1:11:18Mel Robbins?

  and researcher in longevity. And what she had to say about aging blew my mind. Everybody that you care about, your parents, your grandparents, need to hear this clip. Just check out what Dr. Vonda Wright has to say about getting older.

• 1:11:34Speaker 02

  There is a pervasive myth in this country. That aging is an inevitable decline from the vitality of youth, down some slippery slope to frailty, where we spend the last 20 years of our lives dying. But the fact of the matter is, we actually can be healthy, vital, active, joyful. But people think that they have to go down this slippery slope and that there's nothing they can do about it. But the fact of the matter is, there's so much we can do to pre-plan our future.

• 1:12:07Mel Robbins?

  And what I love about her research is that it doesn't matter if you took the worst care of yourself up until this point. Your muscles and your brain are designed to grow and get stronger until the day you die. There are things that you can start doing now that will increase your mobility, your movement, your strength, your vitality, your energy. It is never too late to fully experience the possibilities of your life. And I think that is such an exciting message, that you don't have to slow down. I personally, I want to be dancing the day I die. I literally want to go, go, go, go, go, and boom, drop dead. That's exactly what I want to do. Now, is it going to happen? I don't know.

• 1:12:52Mel Robbins?

  But I hold that vision for my life, and I hold that vision for you too. It's not a time to slow down. It's a time to get strong, and to stay strong, and to be connected, and to be social, and to have more fun. And one of the things that's more important than ever is connection. If there were ever a decade to double down on your relationship with your family, your friends, your loved ones, it's now. Relationships matter. And here's what I'm going to tell you. If there are things you need to apologize for, if there's somebody that you have not forgiven, if there is someone that you've never said I love you to, now's the time. It doesn't matter what's gone down in the past. There are always ways

• 1:13:37Mel Robbins?

  that you can build bridges to people and create a different future. And being proactive about creating stronger connections with your loved ones, with friends, meeting new friends, heck, even finding love again. You know, one of the things that's very inspiring to me is that my mother-in-law has been a widower for 19 years. She has found the second love of her life at the age of 85. How cool is that? I mean, she's giggling like a teenager for crying out loud. They're so cute together. I just love thinking about the fact that some of the best days of your life are ahead of you.

• 1:14:17Mel Robbins?

  And when you adopt this truth, that your body is designed to move, your body is designed to be strong, your mind really wants to learn and be connected, and it can, that what brings meaning into your life, particularly near the end of your life, is connection to friends and family, and you can build it. And in fact, I was talking with my parents the other day. My mom is 76 and my dad is 80. And you know, their community where they are over the winters in Florida has really shrunk, either because people are no longer coming down, or they're getting older. And a lot of their friends, who are a decade older than my parents, they're dying, which is like super sad. And I was saying to my dad the other day, like, what do you think you guys want to do in the next couple of years?

• 1:15:02Mel Robbins?

  You know, do you want to stay in your house? Do you want to go? And my dad was so cute. He was like, well, we're really thinking about it. We're thinking about where we might want to be. And we're thinking about the possibility of making lots of new friends and getting re-engaged in a new community. And I just think that's so exciting to have that attitude. And so, you know, the BS that we've been sold about the fact that you're supposed to slow down and get fragile and disconnected and get grumpy and grouchy, it's not true. It's simply not true. And the science is there to prove it, and the evidence is all around you. In fact, let me just give you some really fun statistic. Betty White, Betty White worked until she passed away at 99. Dick Van Dyke just started a Coldplay music video. George H. W. Bush, my dad talks about this a lot.

• 1:15:47Mel Robbins?

  He's like, I think I want to do that. Went skydiving on his 90th birthday. If they can do it, so can you. In fact, one of the other cool things that's available to all of us is tech. We complain a lot about social media. But you know how many 90 year olds have millions of followers on TikTok? One of my favorite is Grandma Droniak. She's hilarious. You might even recognize her voice. I want to play a little clip. This is Lillian Droniak. She's got 14.8 million TikTok followers. The channel is managed by her grandson Kevin, which I also love because that's an example of how she's being proactive to stay connected with her grandson. And she's having fun all the way until she drops dead. Just listen to this.

• 1:16:32Mel Robbins?

  It's hilarious.

• 1:16:33Speaker 03

  Get ready with me. My first date in 25 years and he's going to pick me up in 20 minutes. I'm getting nervous now. I met him at bingo and that's the way it goes. He's really handsome and I couldn't say no. Powder, powder, powder. I might kiss him. You never know, but I'm going to still put lipstick on just in case.

• 1:16:58Mel Robbins?

  You know what I love about that? You can tell she's having fun. And I think that brings us back to the whole point of this conversation. Who says you're supposed to be a certain way at 90? It's complete BS. You can be any way you want. And if you can be any way that you want, if you can do whatever you want in the decades of your life, why wouldn't you? Why wouldn't you want to have fun? Why wouldn't you want to reengage in your passion? Why wouldn't you want to stop pressuring yourself and holding these expectations over yourself and lying to yourself? You're not lost. You're not behind. It's not too late. You have plenty of time to figure things out and you will. And now is the time to stop holding the social clock over your head,

• 1:17:42Mel Robbins?

  to delete this invisible checklist and to double down on where you are in your life, what you want, the moment of history that you're in, and imagine a bigger possibility and remind yourself every step of the way. This is your life. Stop comparing. Stop apologizing. Stop telling yourself behind because you're not. You're right on time. You are capable of figuring this out and you will. Alrighty, in case nobody else tells you, I wanted to be sure to tell you that I love you and I believe in you. And I believe in your ability to create a better life. And I think what we've learned today is recognizing

• 1:18:27Mel Robbins?

  when you're holding yourself to somebody else's or society's expectations, that's not how you're going to create a better life. That's how you're going to stress yourself out, make yourself depressed and drive yourself crazy. So stop doing it. Creating a better life requires you to take ownership of where you are and what you actually want and how you want to feel. And I'm here to remind you and I hope you will start reminding yourself that whatever it is that you decide you want to create in this decade of your life, you're capable of doing it. Now get to work. I'll see you in a couple of days. I'll be waiting in the very next episode to welcome you in the moment you hit play. I'll see you there.

• 1:19:07Mel Robbins?

  Alright, you ready? No, you're good. Okay, here we go. Great, great. Okay, awesome. Okay, great. And where... Hold on a second. Is it that Wendy?

• 1:19:15Speaker 04

  It's getting louder. Is it windy? Like, what is that? What is jingling?

• 1:19:19Mel Robbins?

  It's a weather vane that I'm gonna have to have removed from this. But as the months roll by and as I've matched my thousandth match on all the dating ads and as I've matched my thousandth... Oh my God, I can't talk right now. Alright, great. Let's have lunch. What time is it? It's 3? How did that take so long? That's how we do it, people. Okay.

• 1:19:48Mel Robbins?

  Oh, and one more thing. And no, this is not a blooper. This is the legal language. You know what the lawyers write and what I need to read to you. This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I'm just your friend. I am not a licensed therapist and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist, or other qualified professional. Got it? Good. I'll see you in the next episode.

• 1:20:22Mel Robbins?

  Stitcher.

• 1:20:26Mel Robbins?

  This bonus segment is sponsored by Walmart Plus. Spring is here, thank goodness, right? And with it comes the perfect moment to reset, refresh, and refocus on what really matters to you. Whether that means spending more time with your family instead of running errands, or spending more time in your garden, or making smarter choices for your budget, Walmart Plus makes it easier. It's a paid membership program with tons of benefits, and it's super easy to sign up at plus.walmart.com. You get free delivery when you spend at least $35, gas savings, free shipping with no order minimum, and video streaming at no additional cost. It's all designed to save you time and money. You know, I know you're here listening to this bonus segment because you really want

• 1:21:09Mel Robbins?

  to make some positive changes. And I got news for you. Making positive changes doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. I'm gonna let you in on a little secret. When in doubt, do the next right thing. Because we're four months into 2025, and perhaps for you, that's four months since you even set some goals for yourself. You want to start a business? You want to save for that dream vacation? You want to spend more time with the people that you love? You want to take better care of yourself? Of course you do. And at first, when you start out working on these things, you feel great. And then life happens. You start slipping. Distractions pile up. And suddenly, all of those good intentions and those goals that you set for yourself, oh my gosh, they just fade into the background. Now, I'm not here to call you out about that, by the way. I mean, the world that you and I live in, it is just overwhelming, and it's so easy to get distracted.

• 1:21:55Mel Robbins?

  It's totally understandable that a few months into the year, you might be feeling a little run down or unsure about how to get back on track. Well, if you looked at just what's the next right step now, then what happens is now becomes the perfect time to just hit the refresh button and ask yourself, am I still showing up for the things that I said mattered to me? Momentum isn't about making big dramatic moves. It's simply about doing the next right thing. You can waste your energy beating yourself up for everything you haven't done, or you can realize that you get to decide what you do next. Let's say that you have a goal to write a book, and a lot of people have a goal to write a book, and you should write a book. And yeah, it's a, it's a big goal, and it sounds kind of scary. Is anyone gonna read this?

• 1:22:40Mel Robbins?

  Kind of, uh, uh, uh. And maybe that's the reason why you haven't made a lot of progress on it. You're constantly like talking yourself out of it. What's the next right thing? I'm not talking about building a marketing plan, or designing the cover, or figuring out the perfect ending. What if you just sat down for 10 minutes today? And then the next day, the next right thing was to sit down again and just put a few words on the page? Or maybe you're trying to get healthier, but then you just stress eat your way through the work week on fast food. What's the next right thing? It's not punishing yourself. The next right thing is just choosing a healthy meal to cook instead of spiraling. Research out of Stanford Graduate School of Business shows that the way that you and I structure our goals has a huge impact on your success.

• 1:23:23Mel Robbins?

  When you are just starting out on any kind of change or big goal, breaking that goal or change down into smaller, more manageable, kind of like micro goals, it actually boosts your focus and increases your motivation. Because when you have these tiny little milestones, what happens is the overall goal feels more attainable. And because it feels more attainable, that gives you the little extra encouragement and push that helps you get going and keep going. Just focus. On the next Right Thing. Thank you again to Walmart Plus for sponsoring this bonus segment. A better life starts with the small decisions you make every day. Because those small decisions can add up to really big impact. Like the decision to join Walmart Plus. With Walmart Plus, your goals of saving time and money are right within sight.

• 1:24:08Mel Robbins?

  With free delivery, free shipping, gas savings, video streaming, and so much more. Walmart Plus can make the rest of your life easier, as it should be. Start a free 30-day trial at plus.walmart.com. See Walmart Plus terms and conditions. $35 order minimum. Paramount Plus Essential Plan only. Separate registration required.