Loading
What About Your 20s?
Your 20s are a crucial time for shaping your life and career. This period is known for its complexities and realizations. Therefore, prioritizing time as your most precious resource should be non-negotiable. You during this time during this time than at any other time. Your 20s are unique because you’re now independent and at it, building a sense of organisation-informed decision and a proactive intuition against peer influences are paramount.
Your 20s are phases that could be both learning and earning phases, which would be met with both possibilities and difficulties, hence, there is a need to be open to capacity building. For growth over time.
In your 20’s, the world expects you to have everything in preparation or figured out towards your career, relationships, health, time, needs, etc as your responsibilities. Just as the school teaches that the mitochondria are the powerhouse of the cell, the same way you are now responsible for your decisions and actions, as you are now your responsibility.
But your 20s also bring almost unlimited potential. You’re full of energy, drive, and passionate about explorations for accomplishments, yes, that feeling that,
‘The world is yours’
However, in your 20s, you are that young vibrant youth who may be tempted to, influenced or still in an identity crisis of who you are and what to become, as such may derail, if care is not taken. Hence, to step up, you could have whom you model after (Positive Role Model or Models) that you may look up to, who has or has accomplished certain feet in life in any field of endeavour or career.
Therefore, you should as a matter of importance imbibe these five things in your 20s.
Five Important Habits To Imbibe in Your 20s
1. Learn to accept and love yourself
As you grow older, you must learn to accept and love yourself. Understanding that you are not perfect and willing to do better is an important step in this journey. Learn from your mistakes rather than berate yourself for them. Most importantly, be kind to yourself. Hence, No one will love you more than you will love yourself, so love yourself completely because you’re the best advocate you have.
Life is worth it, spend it loving who you are. If there is something you want to change, then put in the work and change it, because loving yourself and believing in yourself is the only way you will achieve everything you want to.
It will give you the confidence to take the risks you need to, to keep going when you want to quit and to believe that your ideas are valuable and you can bring them to life.
2. Learn to say no with confidence
As adults, we sometimes fail to draw the line just because we want to honour, be loyal, respect or rather please people at our expense.
Thus, we automatically say YES to everything, like,.’Get me the water, Yes. ‘Arrange the meeting. Yes, ‘Help me with the report. Yes. ‘Take care of the minutes. Yes.
In one way or another, we were taught according to these principles: Be kind; Help others; Collaborate with the team; etc. These are the attitudes that are valued and rewarded in our family, social and work environments.
In most cases, all these inevitably turn io a great problem when it comes to saying, NO.
It seems that saying,
NO, turns us into rude, impolite and selfish people, as well as irresponsible professionals or worse workers. That’s not the case.
The pleasing side
It is in your nature as a human to be satisfied when you feel useful, believing you are needed and knowing that someone else is better, thanks to you.
Moreso, If you help a colleague finish a presentation, you are a good colleague.
If you stay two extra hours to complete a report, you are a good employee.
If you agree to arrange the follow-up meeting again, you are a good professional.
In the end, you then feel great because you’re doing what you have to. You’re being nice, you’re helping others, you’re collaborating with your team and pleasing your boss. Can anyone ask for more?
The not-so-pleasing side.
Of course, you can and should ask for some reservations.
You can start by asking yourself what is wrong with you, with your time, your well-being, and your life. How will helping your partner finish their presentation impact your day? How will your plans be affected, if you stay two more hours to finish a report? What happens to the rest of your work if you newly agree to arrange the follow-up meeting? There’s a problem, if you don’t know how to set limits,
And if saying yes is automatic because it’s the correct thing and you don’t even consider saying NO to a colleague, a boss or someone who needs you.
There’s a problem if you work non-stop if you forget about yourself and are unable to take into account your situation, your needs or your interests.
In the long run, you will have a hard time meeting deadlines and keeping your promises. There will be problems related to a lack of trust, your interpersonal relationships will deteriorate since you’ll feel resentful thinking they abused your goodwill. It is important to understand that no matter how nice you are, you cannot please everyone.
Learn to say no when a particular situation inconveniences you or you are uncomfortable with it. It’s best to learn this skill now while you’re still in your 20s. That way, you can prioritize the people and experiences that are truly meaningful to you.
3. Take more risks.
Taking risks in your 20s is what moves your life forward. For example, you may be faced with options like these ‘ Should I start a business? Should I quit the job I hate to pursue my passion? Should I take some time out to travel the world?
Hence, these are huge risks to take with real consequences. However, not all risks are created equal. And unlike financial risks, taking risks in your 20s doesn’t come with a risk label or having the ability to know the outcome beforehand. If decisions in your 20s did come with a risk label, then all would venture to know what the outcome would be, which wouldn’t be termed risk anymore.
The risks you take now will have severe consequences for the decades ahead of you. , take them but take them cautiously because, at some point in your life, you will be faced with big decisions that carry risks. It is inevitable. After taxes and death, making risky decisions are the only guarantees of life.
Therefore, don’t be afraid to take on challenges and risks that push you to become a better version of yourself. Avoid talking yourself out of doing things you want to do. Don’t let fear win. Always be ready to face challenges and risks head-on as this avails you better opportunities to learn new things and keeps your mind open to new ideas.
4. Forgive yourself.
Almost everyone has moments they can’t seem to forgive themselves for. You know the ones: That randomly resurface in your mind, tormenting you—the time you said an unkind thing about your best friend and they were standing right behind you; the time you turned in work riddled with mistakes to your boss; or maybe you cheated on someone, or lied, or stole. If these memories taunt you—whether warranted or not—you haven’t forgiven yourself yet. And no matter what it is you did, you should. Forgiving yourself is important because if you don’t, you risk letting these misguided actions redefine your sense of who you are, says John Delony, Ph.D., a mental health expert.
Furthermore, according to Delony, he says, ‘There’s a common misconception that refusing to forgive yourself proves you’re more sorry, but what it actually does is hold you back, he explains.
“We may feel like approaching the world through the worst things we’ve done, buys us extra grace, but it doesn’t,” says Delony. “It causes us to enter into relationships in a down position. Perhaps more importantly, choosing not to forgive yourself is choosing to live a life less joyfully,” he says.
So if learning to forgive yourself is so important, how do you do it? By letting go of the actions that haunt you. and Disconnect Your Mistake From Your Identity because Kicking and beating yourself up over past failures won’t change what happened. Rather, it will leave you sore. Give up all hope for a better past and focus on a better tomorrow. Own who you have been so it doesn’t own you. Learn to love the flawed, imperfect things that you create, and forgive yourself for creating them.
5. Make genuine and deep relationships.
It is important to understand that in your 20s you will meet a lot of friends and probably have a relationship. Hence, you have to know that most relationships are not built to last a lifetime, they’re meant to help form who you are during certain stages of your life.
It’s earthshaking because you’re growing apart from people you thought would play a big role in your future, and making friends is extremely hard after college. It takes a lot more work to see and spend time with friends, and at times you will realize they’re not willing to put in the effort. You can not assume people will care for you the way you care for them, but you can adjust your expectations and your level of attachment. You will find both the genuine and non-genuine, you just have to make room in your life for them by not prioritizing people who are not prioritizing you.
So, therefore, It is pertinent that you understand that other human beings are important in the journey of life, as no one can survive or thrive for that matter by simply being alone. Always make genuine and deep relationships based on shared understanding and values. Communicate your emotions genuinely, kindly, and honestly, and be open to accepting criticism for a better relationship.
