Life Was NOT Supposed to Look Like This… And Maybe That’s the Point

If you would've asked younger TJ what my life would look like at 30, I can almost guarantee you this was NOT the answer. 😂

Working on cruise ships?

Traveling around the world?

Hosting events with a microphone in my hand?

Creating content?

Running a creative business?

Writing books?

Randomly waking up in another country and sometimes having to remind myself what day it is?

Yeah… none of that was on the original vision board.

But here we are.

And lately I've been thinking about something:

Maybe life wasn't supposed to look the way I planned it.

I Thought I Had the Plan

When we're younger, people constantly ask:

"What do you want to be when you grow up?"

And somehow we're supposed to give them one answer.

Teacher.

Doctor.

Lawyer.

Chef.

Whatever.

Nobody tells you that you might grow up and want to be seven different things.

Or that the thing you thought you'd do forever might only be one chapter.

I've worked in education.

I've worked in marketing.

I've coached.

I've created graphics.

I've planned events.

I've built websites.

I've photographed moments.

I've created content.

I've worked aboard cruise ships.

I've stood in front of rooms full of people with a microphone and thought:

Ohhhhh. THIS feels right.

And every single version of me taught the next version something.

That's the part I didn't understand when I was younger.

Leaving Something Doesn't Mean It Was a Mistake

For a long time, I think I viewed life like a straight line.

You pick something.

You get good at it.

You keep doing it.

Eventually, you arrive at wherever "successful" is supposed to be.

Simple.

Except my life apparently looked at a straight line and said:

Absolutely not. 😂

There have been turns.

Detours.

Unexpected opportunities.

Things ending before I wanted them to.

Things beginning that I never planned for.

And plenty of moments where I've had to ask myself:

"TJ…what the hell are we doing?"

But looking back, I don't think any of those chapters were wasted.

Education taught me how to communicate with different personalities.

Marketing taught me how to sell an idea.

Event planning taught me how to think ahead while being ready for everything to go wrong anyway. 😂

Content creation taught me storytelling.

And working on cruise ships?

That taught me more about people, adaptability, confidence, culture, hospitality, entertainment, and myself than I could probably fit into one blog post.

None of those things exist separately anymore.

They all show up when I grab a microphone.

Then Cruise Ships Happened

This is still one of my favorite plot twists.

Somehow this kid who grew up with all these different interests ended up working at sea.

And once I got there, something clicked.

Hosting didn't feel like I was pretending to be someone.

It felt like somebody finally handed me a microphone and said:

"Okay TJ, go be TJ."

Now THAT I can do. 😂

There's something about walking into a room full of strangers and knowing it's your job to turn that room into an experience.

Some people walk in ready to party.

Some people are shy.

Some people need encouragement.

Some people are already doing entirely too much before you've even introduced yourself. 😂

And somehow, as the host, you learn to read all of it.

You learn when to turn the energy up.

When to pull it back.

When to improvise.

When to let a moment breathe.

And when something completely unexpected happens?

Smile.

Keep going.

Most of the room probably doesn't even know it wasn't supposed to happen.

That lesson applies to a LOT more than hosting.

The Detours Still Count

This is something I'm trying to remind myself of at 30.

A detour isn't automatically a setback.

Sometimes it's actually where the story gets interesting.

There have been seasons where everything felt like it was moving exactly the way I wanted.

Then suddenly…

PLOT TWIST.

Plans change.

Opportunities change.

People change.

You change.

And suddenly you're looking at your life thinking:

Wait. This wasn't part of the plan.

I've learned that you have two choices in those moments.

You can spend all your energy wishing you were still following the old plan…

Or you can look around and ask:

"Okay. What can I build from here?"

I'm choosing the second one.

I Still Have Big Dreams

Now don't misunderstand me.

Just because I'm learning to embrace the unexpected doesn't mean I've stopped planning.

Please.

I'm still TJ. 😂

I have goals.

BIG ones.

There are stages I still want to stand on.

There are places I still want to travel.

There are things I want to accomplish in the cruise and entertainment industry.

There are ideas I want to build through TJM Studios.

There are stories I want to write.

There are projects sitting in my notes right now waiting for me to finally stop adding ideas and actually finish them.

And there are dreams I haven't even discovered yet.

That's probably the part that excites me most.

Because if my life already became something I couldn't have predicted…

What else is coming that I haven't even thought of yet?

Maybe We're Too Obsessed With Being "On Track"

I think a lot of us secretly have this imaginary timeline.

By this age, I'll have this.

By that age, I'll be doing that.

By 30, I'll definitely have THAT figured out.

Then you reach the age and realize…

Oh.

Everybody is just figuring this out as they go. 😂

Somebody gets married at 23.

Someone else meets the love of their life at 43.

Somebody knows their career at 18.

Someone else completely changes careers at 35.

Someone buys a house.

Someone moves across the world.

Someone starts over.

Someone finally takes the chance they've been scared to take.

None of those lives are automatically ahead or behind.

They're just different stories.

And I'm finally learning to stop measuring mine against a timeline that doesn't belong to me.

So No… This Wasn't the Plan

My life at 30 doesn't look exactly how younger TJ imagined it.

Thank God.

Because younger TJ hadn't seen enough of the world yet to dream this big.

He didn't know all the people we were going to meet.

He didn't know all the places we'd eventually see.

He didn't know we'd fall in love with hosting.

He didn't know we'd build brands.

He didn't know we'd create.

He didn't know we'd work at sea.

He didn't know we'd have stories worth writing down.

He didn't know how many times the plan would change.

And he definitely didn't know we'd still be figuring things out at 30.

But maybe that's the point.

Life isn't something I need to completely figure out before I'm allowed to enjoy it.

Some chapters will make sense immediately.

Some won't make sense until years later.

Some might never make sense.

But I'm still going to live them.

Because maybe being "off track" isn't always being lost.

Sometimes…

you've just found a road you didn't know existed.

And right now?

I'm curious to see where mine goes next.

Until next week,

TJ

Yup! It's TJ Mitchell.

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Let's talk: Did your life turn out the way you thought it would? Or did life completely throw your original plan out the window too? 😂 Tell me in the comments.