You Grow Into the Person You Once Needed
It’s okay not to know yet. You’re becoming the person someone else will one day depend on.
Wisdom doesn’t arrive overnight. It’s built slowly - one messy attempt at a time.
When we’re kids, we look up at our parents like they’re superheroes. They always seem to know what to do. They can fix anything. They understand how the world works. And somehow, they always have the right tool at the right time.
You sit beside them while they work on the car - passing them a wrench, watching in awe - and think, “How do they know all this?”
They feel untouchable. Like they were born with wisdom coded into their DNA.
But they weren’t.
The Myth of Instant Wisdom
As teenagers, we hit a strange phase where we think we do know everything. Then life humbles us. We make mistakes. We fall hard. We feel lost.
And just like that, our parents are back on the pedestal.
Back in their place of infinite understanding.
Back as the ones who know exactly how to handle everything we don’t.
And from that place, we start to believe a lie… that they’ve always had the answers. That adulthood just comes with wisdom.
But it doesn’t. It’s not something you get handed.
It’s something you grow into.
A Lesson About A Wall
My wife and I are currently remodeling a barndominium - it’s a big metal building we’re turning into a home.
Sunday, I found myself on the floor in dirty shorts, learning how to frame a wall.
My father-in-law was there, walking us through each step - teaching, guiding, showing us how it’s done.
It took us four hours to frame the first wall. The next day, we framed two more in less than half that time. And it hit me:
This is what it means to grow into something.
To stumble through the first time.
To get a little faster. A little more confident.
To build your experience the same way your parents built theirs.
Wisdom is with the aged, and understanding in length of days.
- Job 12:12 (KJV)
You Don’t Have to Rush
We live in a world obsessed with speed: get rich quick. Learn fast. Go viral. Know everything by 25.
But life doesn’t work like that.
You’re not supposed to know how to do everything at once.
You’re not supposed to have it all figured out.
And if you did, it would crush you. It would be too much.
There’s beauty in taking your time. There’s wisdom in being okay with not knowing - yet.
Because every project, every failure, every attempt… teaches you something you’ll use later.
And one day, without even realizing it, you’ll be the one someone else looks up to. The one with the answers. The one passing down the tools.
Final Thought
Don’t rush through life trying to “arrive.”
There is no finish line for growth.
Just one slow, steady day after another.
Keep showing up.
Keep learning.
Keep building.
And when you look back, you’ll realize you became the person you once needed.
Not because you were born with wisdom… but because you grew into it.
Further Reads:
The Enemy of Purpose Is Distraction Disguised as Productivity
There’s a lesson I learned this year that I keep coming back to:
