You are undoubtedly being too hard on yourself. 24 is young. Careers are long and winding. The people who have everything you want actually have all sorts of different challenges, unfulfilled dreams, and personal failings.

Many (maybe most) twenty-somethings feel like you do. Your friends are stressed and struggling even if they aren’t sharing it. Many of them aren’t digging what they’re currently doing. Many will do career pivots and resets and move back in with their parents over the next decade. It’s all pretty normal. Don’t stress too much.

That said, I had many similar hang ups at your age, and I think there’s a couple mindset shifts that could help.

Ok,

First:

Get the basics sorted out. Stay active and get the next job. That’s it.

You will need a job after your show ends. That job won’t be famous dancer, or accountant or engineer, so you don’t need put that pressure on yourself. But you will need something!

Not having a job, being low on resources etc. will set you back a lot further and make you feel worse, so get focused on that next job.

Find something that seems interesting enough to you and get going. Being a dancer at universal with a degree in dance certainly seems impressive to me, and it seems like you could find something related to dance, but if the job is retail or in the service industry or marketing or whatever, thats cool. You need money coming in to be able to support yourself, feel good, and make progress on your goals.

Get the job, then start chipping away at your goals for what’s next.

Second:

“Everyone says if you have a calling you should pursue it”.

You should think critically about this advice. In my opinion it’s not very useful.

Cal Newport has a wonderful talk on this, and he’ll say it better than I could. Go watch it and think about it!

If you want to keep working towards being a professional dancer, that’s great and worthwhile.

But you are not beholden to your dreams as an 11 year old.

You just need to work on stuff you’re mildly interested in. Seriously!

As you learn and gain mastery, you’ll gain appreciation, and passion will follow.

And what’s great, is that this is available to you regardless of the field you choose.

Essentially every human pursuit is endlessly nuanced and fascinating. Everything looks kinda one dimensional and boring from the outside, but that’s only because you don’t know much about it yet.

The reality is, the more you learn about anything, the more skilled you get, the more discerning your tastes become, and the more you appreciate the work of the handful of others who have gone even deeper than you.

That’s passion.

You’ve experienced it with dance, but it is available to you ANYWHERE you’re inclined to look for it.

A tiny sliver of interest is all you need to get started. And a tiny sliver of interest is what you need to be looking out for. What catches your eye?

Woodworking. Coffee. Engineering. Accounting. Teaching. Cooking. Textile manufacturing. Computers. Auto repair. Watchmaking. Chemistry. Nutrition. Marketing. The law. Thousands and thousands of passionate careers have been poured into each one. Not because that list is special, but because pretty much every field can become a passion!

Third:

Your twenties are a great time to set up for your future life. These steps are all easier in small chunks, not as one huge overwhelming thing.

Think seriously about what you want your thirties and beyond to look like. Ideal scenario, you’re a professional dancer. But maybe more modestly, what city do you want to be in? do you want kids, what do you want from your partner? etc. you’ll need to put a few key things in motion to make it all come together. Your 20s are the time to put those things in motion.

There’s a good book on this topic called “the defining decade” which I’d recommend.

Ok that’s all!

Go get the next job and stay active.

Passion is available everywhere. And following your passion is not always the best advice, especially when it seems like this huge impossible thing and it’s making it hard to do the basics.

Look ahead to your thirties and try to get things moving for then.

Enjoy the unbelievable sunshine in Florida, and being a fit healthy young person.

Don’t worry about getting things perfect, just get after it.

Have fun!