The days of telling people you’re in your early, mid, and finally, the late 20s have passed you by. You’ve reached the first major milestone of true adulthood, and you take a moment to reflect on where you’ve come from, where you are now, and where you’re headed.
Many things you should stop doing (if you haven’t already) once you reach this age. Why don’t you start with these 11?
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Don’t Pretend To Be Someone You Aren’t
You may want to project a certain image of yourself out into the world – one that is successful, happy, and free of flaws – but you don’t have to. An authentic life will remain elusive as long as you pretend to be this other version of yourself. Every second you spend hiding your true self is time you’ll never get back.
Instead, you must stop pretending to be someone other than who you truly are in your heart and soul. There will be no more exaggerations, outright lies, or shying away from the person you have become.
2. Stop caring what other people think of you.
You should stop caring what other people think or say about you, which is closely related to the previous point. The opinions of others, the gossip, and how they look at you are not your concerns; the only thing you should be concerned about is what you see in the mirror.
Those who think negatively of you aren’t worth having in your life in the first place, and those who truly care about you will always wish you the best.
3. Quit Talking Negatively About Yourself
You’d be surprised how much the way you speak to yourself has an impact on your life. If you keep telling yourself how weak you are, you’ll show it in everything you do; if you convince yourself that you’re unworthy of love, you’ll have a hard time finding it.
Stop negative self-talk in its tracks by becoming more aware of it. Whenever an unhelpful thought enters your mind, simply recognize it for what it is, dismiss it, and even replace it with something more helpful (so say you are strong if the thought was one of weakness).
4. Make a conscious effort to live within your means.
Your younger self was probably unconcerned about money and its importance in later life, but now that you’ve turned 30, you need to start thinking about your financial future.
This means you won’t have to rely on credit cards or loans to get by from month to month. If you haven’t already, you should begin putting money aside for the future. You don’t want to retire without a nest egg, so start saying no to regular beach vacations, designer clothes, and flashy cars, and start saying yes to pensions, thrifty shopping, and a frugal lifestyle.
5. You Shouldn’t Take Your Health For Granted
You might have been able to eat as much junk food as you wanted and still fit into the same clothes you wore when you were 18, but that won’t always be the case. Even the healthiest of people will succumb to an unhealthy lifestyle sooner or later.
So cut back on the takeaways, cut back on the alcohol, and start exercising more. You still have a lot of active, mobile years ahead of you, and you don’t want to waste any of them or limit the number of years you have left.
6. Stop prioritizing your career.
When you’re young, you can afford to work long hours at your job while still having the energy to enjoy your free time. Don’t think you’ll be able to keep this up.
You’ll eventually have to choose which aspect of your life to prioritize, and you should unquestionably prioritize play over work. Stop taking on overtime, stop answering emails outside of office hours, and start scheduling more time with family and friends, assuming you can afford it.
7. Don’t Ignore Your Mind
The modern world is bursting at the seams with ways to pass the time, but far too many of them fail to truly engage the mind. None of the – social media, reality TV, celebrity gossip – requires you to shift gears and really get the cogs turning.
Stop letting your mind go to waste; if you do, it will eventually abandon you. There’s a lot of evidence that having an active mind – one that you challenge on a regular basis – is beneficial to your cognitive functions later in life.
8. Stop equating happiness with money.
When you’re young, you fantasize about acquiring enormous money. You imagine yourself living in a large mansion with excellent automobiles and costly devices, surrounded by the best the world has to offer.
Don’t be deceived into thinking that this is how happiness appears; it isn’t. Happiness is a grin on your face and a feeling in your heart; it is determined by how you spend your time, who you spend it with, and what you are grateful for, not by how much money you have in the bank.
9. Let Go of Past Dissatisfactions
Holding on to your anger and resentment, regardless of how you were wronged in the past or who wronged you, is not constructive. You must find a way to separate yourself from your previous grief so that it does not continue to affect your present and future.
The phrase “detach” is a good one for this procedure; the memories don’t have to go anywhere, but you should examine them objectively. They’re nothing more than a hazy memory of what once was, so don’t let them pain you anymore.
10. Stop attempting to please everyone.
You may like to make everyone in your life happy, which may include going out of your way to assist them. Although this is a worthy purpose, it does not always translate into long-term enjoyment in your own life.
It’s time to put yourself first for once, and the best way to accomplish so is to learn to say “no” more frequently than you now do. It is not selfish to want to enjoy your life, and if attempting to satisfy everyone else is keeping you from doing so, it’s time to stop.
11. You Shouldn’t Take Your Parents For Granted
You may have lost one or both of your parents by this age, but if you still have them, don’t be deceived into thinking they’ll be around forever.
Enjoy every moment you have with them while they are still alive; make an effort to see them as much as possible, reminisce over old memories, and develop new ones whenever feasible. Your parents are priceless, and you will mourn them when they are no longer with you.
