How To Accomplish Everything In Your 20s

Turning 20 is an incredible feeling — a decade of firsts is ahead of you. Your first real job, maybe your own business, maybe a family of your own. So much happens between 20 and 30, and how you spend these years shapes your entire future, your happiness, and even the kind of life your kids will have one day.

To help you make the most of this decade, AdmiGram.com put together some advice on what to do before you turn 30.

How to Accomplish Everything in Your 20s

Accept That People Change

Your friends will change, and so will you. Don’t be surprised if your paths start to diverge — everyone’s on their own journey. You might get hurt, get betrayed, or hurt someone else without meaning to. Just accept it, and don’t cling to what’s already over. If a friendship runs its course, let it go.

Give Yourself a Chance to Fall in Love

Serious relationships can feel intimidating — they threaten your freedom, your independence, your plans. But don’t let that stop you from feeling something real. Don’t dwell on the past, don’t worry about the future. Let yourself fall in love, more than once if that’s what happens, and drop the prejudices about what love is “supposed” to look like. The right person will come along.

Don’t Hold On to Toxic Relationships

If a relationship is draining you, constantly wrecking your mood, and giving you nothing back, it’s time to end it — even if the idea of being alone scares you. Life is shorter than it feels at 20. The sooner you let go of something that isn’t working, the more time you’ll have for people who actually deserve you.

Party Less

Sure, fancy clubs, a big group of friends, and loud music sound like a good time — but that gets old fast. There’s a whole world of interesting, unusual experiences out there, and spending every single weekend doing the same thing at the same clubs is just a waste. Plus, if you’re blowing all your money on nights out, you won’t have any left for the things that actually matter to you.

Travel

Travel as much as you can, whenever time and money allow. People assume it takes a ton of both, but that’s not always true. A little saving, a cheap flight, a last-minute deal — if you’ve been dreaming about a trip, this could be the year it actually happens.

Find Your Passion

Everyone — even the biggest cynic you know — needs something to work toward, some sense of purpose. That’s just human nature. But it has to be something that genuinely excites you, not something you’re doing because you think you should. A real passion gives you direction, and it’s what gets you through the hard times.

Surround Yourself With People Who Get You

Only keep people around who make you feel good. If you’re still holding on to old ideas about who’s “cool” from high school, let them go. Genuine connection is one of the best things in life — don’t let outdated labels get in the way of it.

Trust Yourself

For most of your life — through childhood, through school — you listened to everyone else: parents, teachers, older friends, your first boss. But you’ve got your own experience now, and it’s time to start trusting it. Stop worrying about what other people will think. Your own experience won’t steer you wrong.

Start That Business Now

If you’ve got an idea you actually believe in, start now. Right now, at this age, you don’t have a ton of experience — but you’ve got passion, creativity, and the belief that you can actually change something. Don’t let that window close. Even if it doesn’t work out, you’ll walk away with experience you couldn’t have gotten any other way. Plenty of successful people had their first failure before 30 — it’s practically a rite of passage.

Go After Happiness Now, Not Later

This might be the most important one, and it ties everything else together. If you think happiness is something waiting for you down the road, you’re wrong — it doesn’t work that way. You can’t be happy in the past, and you can’t be happy in some imagined future. You can only be happy right now. So while you’re young: take action, and don’t be afraid to mess up. The only people who never make mistakes are the ones who never try anything at all.

image on top: Matthew Ball / Unsplash