Life Advice from an Elderly Millennial

Learn how to maximize your 20s

I’m 31 years old and what they call an Elderly Millennial. That makes me feel both old and young at the same time.

Here’s a list of things I wish I knew in my early 20s, hope it helps.

Don’t rush your first

This Generation of Now is in quite the hurry. When you’re a young adult you desperately want to prove yourself, personally, professionally, socially.

Your 20s are the deciding decade in so many ways. Most of us have our first serious relationships, start our career path, have the very first interviews, jobs. First time living on your own, first failures, first real adventures.

My advice is simple: don’t rush your firsts!

Take the time to enjoy them, have patience to build the right kind of bonds, experiences and relationships in your life and don’t go with the flow. Establish your own pace. Breathe. Take it in.

Nobody has it together at 20

When you were 12, I bet 20 something year olds looked like they had everything put together, right? But when you hit the same age, you start panicking that nothing feels like it supposed to. While your parents might have had jobs, kids and a system going for them by your age, you’re still juggling career paths for the fourth time this week.

It’s normal. No matter what anybody else it telling you, nobody has everything figured out in their 20s. Don’t trust any social status that states that.

Give it time

Instead of putting enormous pressure on yourself, just give it time. This is not a procrastinator’s ode to laziness, but a request to be kind to yourself.

Work on yourself, learn, grow, collect experiences, cherish the lessons. Work on dreams, goals and take action, but don’t expect things to magically fall into place in a instant.

Give it time and stick to it.

Don’t overestimate what you can do in 1 year and underestimate what can be achieved in 10.

Collect experiences

Your experiences shape the way your brain functions. It was assumed that most of the brain’s learning process is done in teen years, but actually it was proved that it continues throughout your twenties as well, especially due to the plethora of experiences you face in this time.

Make sure to use the brain’s neuroplasticity in your advantage and see any opportunity, any person, obstacle and adventure as a lesson.

Take up lessons, courses, internships, volunteer, become socially and civically active, make the most out of those late nights, college years, and the people you meet.

Surround yourself with positive people that challenge your way of thinking, from which you can learn from and that add more value to your life.

Create a growth mindset & healthy habits

This is the time to create a winner mindset, set of skills and daily habits that will take you to achieving your dreams.

Take up sports. It’s not too late to start anything and by the time you’ll be 30, you’ll be able to say you are doing it for 10 years, and that is really something. It will do wonders for self esteem, stress levels and heath from now on. Your future self will thank you!

Create a morning routine that will help you get clarity and perform better, no matter what the day holds ahead. Meditate, exercise and have breakfast every day, take a walk/run, organize your thoughts before getting into anything. It will give you purpose, perspective and drive.

Practice gratitude. Make it personal, easy and doable so you can train your brain to always see the good side in everything.

Get more than 8 hours of sleep at night. It might sound silly, but it will make all the difference in your energy levels and focus skills. You can’t do great things if you’re always tired, hungover, or burned out. You can’t help other is you don’t take care of yourself first.

Save money

While it doesn’t sound sexy, this little monthly habit will save your ass so many times. With student loans to pay off, rent, commute and so on, life in your 20s can be financially harsh. That is why you should start paying attention to your expenses sooner rather than later.

If you’re living from one paycheck to another, counting on parents, friends or others to always pitch in, it’s high time for a change.

Keep tabs on your monthly finances and make a plan to put some buck aside. This way, new expenses, that can come up out of the blue (welcome to adulthood) won’t take you by surprise.

Courage over comfort

This pretty much sums up adulthood.

Try to make this decision every time you’re faced with a challenge. Rise up to it, rather than choosing the safer path.

Move out of your parents’ house. Do it sooner rather than later. It will benefit your parents as well as yourself.

Take a job in another city or even country. Choose experiences that can shape character and from which you can learn from, on a daily basis. Travel. Invest in yourself. Don’t stop learning or growing just because you graduated and you’re all grown up now.