The Pressure of Achieving in Your Twenties.

Age comparison is ruining our twenties and I will not stop saying this until everyone listens.

There is something about age that has been bothering me for a while now, particularly this year with a lot of plans and adventures being brought to a holt. Birthday's seem to be rolling around faster than ever before, I swear I was 18 and just starting university last week and now I'm 23, graduated and trying to navigate adulthood- it blows my mind! I don't think I've ever truly felt a saying as much as I have been feeling 'life its too short' recently. I used to listen to my parents reminiscing on their twenties like it was last year and laugh, but in 7 years time my twenties will be over and I can't help but panic that I haven't got a house, a husband, a career or a baby yet (but why do we all feel this way in our twenties???).

“The saying 'life is too short' is the most accurate of them all.”

I have no idea how I got the point in my life where my morning consists of waking up and scrolling through LinkedIn instead of Instagram or Twitter... (sigh) I really am becoming an adult. All my connections are constantly sharing new job announcements, graduation posts, portfolios and promotions- meanwhile I am proud of myself for waking up with enough time to wash my hair in the morning. Just to clarify it's not that I'm not proud of all of my connections because I absolutely am, it's just that when I see everyone else's achievements and accomplishments my own successes always begin to feel so much smaller in comparison. I better get a grip- why is this one of our first thoughts when we find out that our friend is engaged, buying a house or buying their first car. It's because for years we have had this plan in our head that we would be in our dream job, be engaged and have a mortgage all at a certain age, when in fact it doesn't work like that at all. Don't get me wrong some people do have the life they planned for themselves already and that is amazing, but for the rest of us we have to stop with age comparison and follow our own paths.

Why do you care about other people so much?

When you compare yourself to others you start to think you are doing things wrong. Maybe it would have been more impressive for me to start my own business 5 years ago than it would have been for me to go to university and come out unemployed and on universal credit. Perhaps people would be more in awe of my achievements if I had went to a top university. Would people have thought it was more of an accomplishment to travel alone than it was to travel with a friend? But what it really boils down to is- why? Why am I so concerned with impressing others? Why do I push so hard to go beyond anyone’s expectations of me to prove I’m deserving of praise? It probably says a lot about my self esteem that I place such emphasis on external validation.

What I'm really trying to say here is, who cares what anybody else thinks of you. The truth is nobody else puts pressure on you achieving things in your twenties. You put pressure on yourself. Why? To impress others? To feel valued? Let's all just take a step back and let life happen. There's no rush, things happen when we least expect them and instead of continuously dreaming of the future lets live in the moment and live for now. You're only young once, let's enjoy it!

There Are Many Different Paths to Success.