How to Not Waste Away Your 20’s?

Our 20’s is probably the most important time in our lives. It is the decade in which we will make the most defining moments of our lives.

In our 20’s the actions that we take or do not take will affect the life that we live in our 30’s, 40’s and so on.

Here’s a thought, a decision you make on your career in the first 10 years of your career will largely affect your earning capacity in life. The girlfriend/ boyfriend that you are hanging with will most likely be your partner in life by the time you are 30. The work that you do, the lifestyle that you live in your 20’s will most likely be the foundation and the routine that you stick to into your 30’s, 40’s and 50's.

When you are young there is an endless amount of options available but as time goes, each door closes when you pursue a particular path in life’s crossroads.

Here are the statistics:

• 80% of life’s most defining moments are done by age 35.
• The first 10 years of your career has an impact on how much money you are going to earn.
• More than half of Americans are married, dating or living with their future partner by the age of 30.
• The brain caps and wires off its last growth spurt in your 20s as it rewires your brain for adulthood. What this means is that whatever you want to change about yourself now is the time to change it.

Having a midlife crisis in your 30’s and 40’s isn’t just the realisation that you won’t own a fancy sports car or have your own yacht.

How to not live in regret?

Most people think that when you are in your 20’s you have all the time in the world. The truth is how you choose to spend your 20’s will inevitable affect how you live your life in your 30’s and beyond. The greatest gift of being in your 20’s perhaps is having the luxury of youth and making mistakes and pursuing action, falling down, failing and getting back up.

Most people don’t realise that it’s okay to make mistakes as long as we learn from them. That’s the gift of being in your 20’s because people expect you to not have it all together. People expect you to fail and make mistakes.

What do you think happens when you live your life aimlessly in your 20’s thinking that you have enough time, a whole decade to figure out your life? You are robbing yourself of your sense of urgency and ambition. Meg Jay, clinical psychologist and Ted Talk speaker puts it so point so eloquently with so much truth in it when she highlights that “without a sense of urgency and ambition you are robbing yourself of what should be the most defining moment in your life in your 20's.”

How do you set yourself up for life in your 20's?

If you’re like most 20 year olds you’re probably having a crisis of figuring out what you want to do with your life. There are many crossroads and many temporary people during this stage of your life.

What can you do?

Identity capital

Rather than focusing on your identity crisis, you can start by focusing on getting some identity capital instead. Do something that adds value to who you are. Do something that’s an investment to who you want to be next.

Weak ties

The urban tribe is overrated, best friends in schools are good for catching up over lunch but now is the time for you to focus on where you want to go to next in your life. Staying in the same crowd, and not going outside your comfort zone will restrict the exposure and growth you have in life. This will also limit what you know, how you think, how you speak, and where you work.

Having exposure to other people, other livelihoods, other mindsets will change you as a person and your perspective on life.

New opportunities come from weak ties, friends of friends of friends, networking events, and acquaintances. You begin to build a good rapport with new people once you add value to other people as well.

Pick your future partner

Lastly, you get to pick your family, so always make sure that the person that you partner with have the same values that have, before starting a family with this person. The time to start picking your family is in your 20’s because you have time to see different people and explore different relationships. And you may be thinking, the ’30s may be a better time to settle down which is probably true, but the best time to work on your marriage is before you are married.

That way there are no surprises during your marriage because the big concerns have already been discussed earlier on during the courtship and before marriage. That way any dealbreakers are identified earlier on and this reduces the heartache or being with someone for so long only to realise that this person might not be the right person to have a family with.

Having a successful relationship means being as intentional in love as you are at work. Picking and choosing your family is about picking who and what you want rather than just making it work or just killing time for the moment.

Conclusion

If you want to set yourself up for a successful life ahead, build your human capital, work on your weak ties, choose your family and lastly enjoy your adulthood.

Don’t let your life be defined by what you didn’t know or didn’t do. You are deciding your life right now, so make it count!

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