Turning 25 is a huge milestone, and many consider it one of the last milestones before the big 3-0. Turning 30 is often greeted with disillusionment and despair in Western culture, but it is actually an incredible moment worth celebrating. When you hit the halfway mark, you may start to feel like you have to get your life in order. This could mean ditching certain habits, focusing on goals or taking life in an entirely different direction. You may not even know where to begin. This article is your best place to start addressing what’s holding you back and start making valuable changes.
Assess Your Career Satisfaction
Are you working in a field you can reasonably see yourself sticking with for another five years? If you don’t envision yourself in this industry at 30, it’s probably not a good idea to keep dreading each day without looking for alternatives. Your 20s are a time to start gaining experience and establishing a professional presence that will help you get promotions later. If you hate your job, what’s the point in sticking around only to get more responsibility later? You may not feel like you can change gears now because you already graduated. That doesn’t matter. Undergraduate degrees are versatile, and most can be applied to almost any industry regardless of your major. If you want to specialize in something, look into grad school. You can take out private loans that cover the cost of tuition and some living expenses of graduate school, so you can dedicate yourself to advancing your life without having to stress about paying bills.
Define Your Relationships
Stress and anxiety only make your life feel more unstable. It may have been fun to flirt in the gray zone when you were younger, but now, you need to know what you want and where you stand with people. In dating, this means setting expectations early on and not wasting time with people who do not share them and have no desire to meet them. It also means cutting old friends loose. You know the ones. You’ve kept clinging onto them since high school or college, even though they bring nothing but jealousy or drama into your life. You should also assess your relationship with your family. Decide who you need distance from. It’s okay to feel guilty about it, but that shouldn’t stop you from drawing boundaries you need to thrive.
Make Plans That Don’t Involve Work or Partying
Routine is good, but if it becomes too rigid, you are likely to feel stuck. You need to start making social plans that don’t involve drinking or partying at someone’s house; go out and do activities by yourself, or invite friends over for a homecooked meal. If you are so attached to your job that you even find yourself working overtime just because you can, it’s time to think about the bigger picture. What are you avoiding by putting so much extra hours into your job? Is this really going to pay off in the future, and if so, at what expense? Find a balance, and start cultivating actual hobbies that give you something to look forward to. Join a sports team, start crafting or even learn how to skateboard. Commit yourself to trying new things that shake up the norm.
