By Chris Spruill
- Don’t treat your first job (or any of your jobs) as a ‘throw-away’ or ‘stepping-stone’ job. Whenever you are hired to do a job, give it your best attempt during every shift (every day). Just because a job might not be in an area of interest for you or just because you can’t wait to see the next job coming down the pike, don’t neglect the duties of the task at hand. You will learn more by working hard and completing tasks, even if you feel like they are ‘beneath you.’ A job worth doing is worth doing to the best of your abilities, no matter how long you plan to stay.
- Don’t take on too much responsibility (mortgage, family commitments, other debt) too early. Your 20’s are for you to explore the world around you and learn more about who you are before you commit to sharing your life with someone else. It doesn’t always happen, but a lot of people who tie themselves down to commitments too early begin to resent those commitments as they grow older and realize how much they were not able to do because they had to take care of other aspects of their life before they were mature enough to handle them.
- Don’t smoke, vape, chew, etc. Tobacco is never a good choice, in whatever form it takes. The nicotine that is present in most forms of tobacco is addictive. You will develop a habit that you have to feed for years to come, taking available money away from other pursuits for as long as you are a slave to your nicotine addiction. And there’s no clear evidence that vaping is less addictive or costly or less of a health risk than more traditional forms of tobacco.
- Take care of your health. Don’t over-eat, just because you have a high metabolism and can afford to splurge on calories. Don’t skimp on physical activity because you feel like you can always get more healthy later on when you are older. Habits that you develop in your 20’s will likely remain with you throughout your life. If you eat everything in sight when you don’t gain any weight, you will struggle with unwanted weight gain when your metabolism inevitably slows down. See a doctor regularly to make sure you aren’t developing any health concerns that need to be addressed early, since early detection and attention is almost always a better approach to your health than waiting until there’s a problem that makes itself known. By then, often, it’s too late to arrest a disease’s progression.
- Don’t take yourself too seriously. Actually, this is pretty good advice no matter what your age. Your opinion is just that – yours. You won’t share it with everyone else in your sphere of influence and you may find some of the opinions other people freely share to conflict with yours. In most cases, neither person is ‘wrong,’ they are both just looking at the same situation through different lenses of experience. Don’t assume that someone who disagrees with you doesn’t like you. You are allowed to be friends with people that don’t have the same philosophical, religious and political viewpoints. In fact, you will learn a lot more about yourself when you can learn to listen to other people’s opinions and take what works for you and discard the rest.
Source: Quora
