Is It Too Late to Be Successful? Here’s the Truth

Hey it’s Marie and welcome to another episode of The Marie Forleo Podcast and MarieTV — the place to be to create a business and life you love. Now, if you ever get inspired by hearing about other people’s success but then simultaneously feel like crap — that you’re too old, or that you’ve missed the boat and that life has passed you by — you’re going to love today’s episode! Our question comes from Farah who writes, 

“Hi Marie, I was watching an episode of your show recently and it made me both happy and sad. Sometimes, when I hear other successful women’s stories, I feel so behind. At 46, I’m still trying to get to the things I really want to do. Don’t get me wrong – I have a wonderful husband, kids, my own business, family, and friends, but I’m still not expressing a lot of the creative ideas I have in me. I wonder if time has run out and I’ll never be able to do all the things that I want to. So my question is, how do you deal with the fear that life has passed you by?”

Farah, Farah, Farah – thank you so much for this question. It is such a common experience — especially for ambitious, multipassionate creatives like us. People who have so many ideas and so many gifts and experiences that we want to have during our relatively short time on planet earth.

First up, let me tell you – you said, “I wonder if time has run out…” 

NO. WOMAN. Your time has not run out. Those are 100% facts. And the reason we know that is true is because you’re still alive and still breathing, am I right?! And to be super honest, 46 – in today’s world, is still really young. And if you’re taking good care of yourself both inside and out — you’ve barely crossed the half-way mark, which means that — God willing — you have decades and decades of possibility and creation in front of you. 

So now let’s answer your question, “How do you deal with the fear that life has passed you by?” 

So there are 2 simple steps that you can take RIGHT NOW to make sure that ALL of your remaining months and years will be as creatively fulfilling as possible.

STEP 1: I want  you to write down all of the things you really want to do.

In your question Farah, you shared, “But I’m still not expressing a lot of the creative ideas I have in me. I worry I’ll never be able to do all the things that I want to.” My suspicion here is that you have loads of ideas swirling around in your head or fragments of things that you fantasize about or get seduced by, but you’ve never actually taken the time to write all of your creative ideas down so you can look at them all, objectively, in one place.

Whether it takes you 20 minutes, 3 hours or 4 days — I don’t care. I want you to get everything out of your head and clarify it on the page. Why is that? First, because we actually need to know — how many creative ideas are we really dealing with here? Is it 10? Is it 76? Is it 2,047? We don’t know until you write each of them down, very clearly and specifically. And second, I promise you this — writing everything down is going to feel like an enormous creative colonic. It’s going to unclog and release so much of the angst and the fear and the worry that’s been stagnating inside of you. 

Now look, once you have all of your ideas out of your head and onto the page you’re ready for step 2 which is…

STEP 2: Decide what’s most important to you at this stage & season of life.

Our priorities can and should change as we grow and evolve. The creative projects or the things that we want to focus on are going to be different depending on whether we’re a teenager or in our 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, and so on. It’s also going to be different depending on our life circumstances, our health, our family responsibilities… like that.

So I want you to take a look at your big list of all your creative ideas and really, I need you to get real with yourself. Out of everything you wrote down, what is the single most important project that you want to focus on this year? What is truly most important to you creatively at this current stage and season of your life? Don’t want you to listen to your head now, I want you to tap into your heart. 

For example, from 2018 to 2019ish — the very most important creative project for me at that time, was writing and publishing Everything is Figureoutable. I consciously decided that was the most important creative project and that decision allowed me to focus on that and hardly anything else. 

Then, when I think back to the beginning of 2021, I decided that my most important creative project for me, for the about next 6 months, was going to be giving birth to my Time Genius program — which by the way, you should really join – it’s open right now. And in that program, I show you exactly how to decide what’s most important to you, and then I give you all my personal tools and practices so you can actually get it done. If you want to learn more you can check it out at JoinTimeGenius.com  

The bottom line is really this: deciding what’s most important for you to create at this specific stage and season of your life — whether that’s the next 6 months, 12 months, 36 months – doesn’t really matter… Once you know what’s most important to you right now, it becomes so much easier to ignore what’s not. 

Now of course, once you have that decision Farah, then you have to take consistent, committed action to bring that creative project to life no matter what it is. And here’s the best part – that part of the equation is not super complicated, but you do need a system in order to get it done. And there are certain tricks and science-backed strategies that I personally use – especially as someone who’s multipassionate, as someone who has an ADHD brain, to really get my most important projects done in record time. Once again, that’s all my Time Genius program, so if you want my help with that — just go to JoinTimeGenius.com. We’d love to have you.

Last but not least, you asked, “How do you deal with the fear that life has passed you by?” 

Emphasis on fear. 

I want to remind you of something we talk about in Everything is Figureoutable and it’s super applicable here. The best way I’ve ever found to deal with fear of anything is by taking action. Now for you, that means complete the two steps that we just talked about and then take consistent action toward your most important creative dream for this year. 

Because in my experience, action is the antidote to fear. Action metabolizes fear. It transforms it, it transmutes it into learning and growth and fulfillment. And before long, you’re gonna be so busy living those creative dreams that it wouldn’t even occur to you that you could possibly be missing out on anything. Promise. 

So that was my A to your Q Farah. I really do hope it helps. And I need you woman to start taking action now, get yourself into Time Genius if it’s the right fit for you and, of course, let me know how it goes.

Now I’d love to hear from you. I’m super curious – what’s the most important creative project that you’re focused on at this stage and season of your life? And tell me, I want to know about the difference it’s going to make in your life and possibly even the lives of others once you get it done. 

Let me know all that good, juicy info in the comments below. And by the way if you enjoyed this episode, and you’re watching on YouTube - hit the subscribe button right now because it really  does help our channel.

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Until next time, stay on your game and keep going for your big dreams, because the world really does need that special gift that only you have! Thanks so much for tuning in and I’ll catch you next time on MarieTV and The Marie Forleo Podcast. 

Success and business really requires two qualities that grow as we get older. Stamina and maturity.