6 Lessons for Adults in their 20s
Our 20s are short. Most young adults who graduate from college start their 20s stressing over their next “big move”. Fumbling around with their career choices, figuring out where to live, uncovering their passions, building relationships. With enough hard work and a little bit of luck, your 20s can be a potent catalyst that sets the tone for the rest of your life.
However, there’s no blueprint on how to get our 20s right —we’re all going to make mistakes and discover bits about ourselves that we may have not known before. The key is having a growth mindset. With every slip-up comes an opportunity to better yourself and adjust your perspective. I’m a firm believer that we’re the masters of our own destiny — through intentional action and self-awareness, we can set a path to self-actualization using the vehicle of consistency & incremental progress.
Mistakes are inevitable, but there are principles we can follow to avoid some common pitfalls. Blake Burge is an entrepreneur that frequently shares his personal insights on business, productivity & self-improvement. He recently wrote a Twitter thread on some retrospective advice he thought would be useful to young adults, so I figured it would be perfect with the subject matter at hand.
- Surround yourself with people smarter than you
Case in point, your environment has a significant impact on how you perceive the world. Surround yourself with pessimists and you’ll find yourself anxiously questioning your every move. Surround yourself with individuals, emboldened by their own self-belief, and you’ll find yourself seizing opportunities that were right in front of you the whole time. Upgrading your peer group is synonymous with upgrading yourself.
2. Who you work with & what you work on matters more than how hard you work
Hard work involves long hours and sheer focus. There’s a reason why people preach to “love what you do”. Unless you’re passionate about your craft and empowered by your colleagues, you’re likely to experience heavy friction with being immersed in your work; often indicative of the results you produce. Don’t fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy, either: our tendency to follow through on an endeavor if we have already invested time, effort, or money into it, whether or not the current costs outweigh the benefits. Your college degree is a perfect example of this: just because you invested years of your time, effort, and money into it, does not mean you should be pigeon-holed to a career in that industry for the rest of your life. Especially one you dislike.
3. Bad luck ≠ Bad day
Morning coffee tastes too bitter? Loud neighbors kept you up all night? Amazon package arrived a day late? We tend to focus on negative events more than positive ones because of evolution: our ancestors who were more attuned to danger and perceptive to bad things around them were more likely to survive. One might argue, some of us are too attuned to these instincts: the slightest inconveniences can be classified as “day-ruining” events. If we summed up each minute of the day as $1, giving us a total of $1440, and out of the entire day, 3 moments worth a total of $3 ended poorly: would you throw away the rest ($1337)?
4. Age isn’t everything
While age is often referred to as the gateway to wisdom, be wary of those imposing un-solicited advice, regardless of age. The fact is, your life story is bound to diverge greatly from most people you speak with, sprinkled with momentary instances of convergence. While good-intentioned as their unsolicited advice may be, it is often distracting and unnecessary. In moments of doubt reign upon your own self-belief rather than the opinions of others.
5. Optimism is your best friend
It’s not the end of the world. Take a deep breath, look around you, and stay present. Gratitude will guide you through negativity, so use it as your north star when everything in your life seems chaotic. Reminisce on good memories with family, friends, and loved ones as much as possible. The point is to steer clear of negativity and embrace the spiritual warmth that daily practices of optimism can bring.
6. Effort > Skill
As mentioned previously, I believe the road to self-actualization is driven by consistency & incremental progress. Putting in the hours to hone your craft needs to be done strategically. Short-term exhaustion can cause long-term burnouts, so plan to schedule your time accordingly. Balance your effort, and always remember that skill without the work is wasted potential.
Thoughts? I’m curious to hear what you think 📝
Blake’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/blakeaburge
