I left my first job after about nine months, staying in the same industry but switching tracks. It was the right decision for my career, and I have been in that same job ever since, happily so. Sticking with my current job has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. But there were so many moments when I watched friends departing for grad school, changing jobs or changing cities, and felt that question return: am I doing the right thing? There were so many moments when I thought, this isn’t happening fast enough. I sometimes felt like I was standing still, and perpetual motion looks so much better, doesn’t it?Instead, what I needed to give myself — what any 22-year-old needs to give him or herself — was time. Much of being an adult is learning to become comfortable with yourself. And that self needs time and space to emerge. It’s a new thing, getting to generate your own priorities, getting to decide what matters to you in the long-term. That is the crucial phrase: the long-term. I had to learn to think on a new timescale.Here is what I would tell any 22-year-old: Your first job probably won’t be the right job, and if you know that, you should move on.But once you find a place that feels right, there is a virtue to sticking with it. Every job will have its frustrations. The point is not to bail on that job as soon as things become difficult—because, I promise you, whatever job comes next will also be difficult at some point. It takes a long time to get good at something, to start recognizing patterns and developing instincts. It takes so much longer than you think it should. But as that time accumulates, so does your pride and investment in your work.So how do you know when you’ve landed on the right thing? That’s the question I asked myself (and still ask myself, sometimes). It takes a while to find your North Star. It also takes a certain amount of stability and quiet. This is why I would also tell any 22-year-old the following: max out your 401(k) contribution if you have it, go to the dentist, exercise regularly, stick to a budget, learn to cook some basic meals, buy fewer and better items of clothing. Organize your life so the daily routine is under control, and so you have room to ask yourself the big question, which is: what really matters to you, in the long term?Maybe it is creative work; maybe it is financial security; maybe it is challenging societal norms; maybe it is a job that makes the world a better place. Maybe you haven’t figured it out yet, and you need more time. That’s okay, because your life is not divided into slim eras, with definitive beginnings and endings. The scale of your accomplishment is no longer visible in months, or even years. The measure won’t be taken for a long, long time. Instead you are laying a foundation that will need to endure. So take your time to get it right, because this is your life—this is the whole thing.Anna Pitoniak is the author of The Futures , out January 17.