The philosopher Søren Kierkegaard famously wrote:
"It is really true what philosophy tells us, that life must be understood backwards. But with this, one forgets the second proposition, that it must be lived forwards."
Later (also famously) adapted by Steve Jobs to become:
“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.”
Too often, we assume that everyone else was given something we weren't: a map showing them exactly what they need to do to get to where they want to go. Far from it.
No matter how straightforward someone else's journey looks from the outside — no matter how clearly they describe their goal, no matter how strong their conviction seems, no matter how easy you perceive their progress to be — it never feels that way to the person who is on it. On the inside, they feel exactly the same way that you do. Their journey feels messy, difficult, complicated, confusing, two-steps-forward and one-step-back, sometimes boring and sometimes exhilarating, with days where they want to give up and days when they don't know what they're doing.
Never compare your internal experience to someone else's outer appearance. Remind yourself: every single one of us is living forwards with no idea of what will happen when we look backwards.