What are the things you should absolutely do in your 20s?

Tejasv Gupta, Keen observer,coder,love cricket and gymming

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Twenties are the time that shape up the years that follow. It is that age when it is as easy to discover yourself as it is to lose yourself in doubt.
The elders may keep lecturing you on how the importance of working hard and saving money, but there are a lot of more important things to sort
out before you move on to the next phase in life.
Here are 9 life goals you must focus on in your twenties.

1. Find Your Calling

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Dont take up jobs that drain out your creativity, because you have to. Even if you do take up a job just for the money, dont lose sight of what you
really want to do in life. Switch as many careers as you want, take up a different job every month do all that it takes to find your calling. Its
always worth the risk.

2. Travel
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Set off to foreign lands - with friends, with your family, with your dog, alone. Let the world inspire you. Move out of the little bubble youve
always lived in and see the endless possibilities of life. Youll realise some truths about life nobody is every going to tell you during one of those
journeys. Travel can change lives.

3. Invest In Experiences

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Money saved is always an asset but what really makes life worth all the struggle are moments that stay with you forever. Miss your friends? Take
that flight and surprise them. Want to do something for your mother? Plan a holiday with her. Money isnt going to stay with you, her smile will!
Spend your savings in experiences that move you, not the latest iPhone!

4. Strengthen Friendships
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Those who stay friendships never last clearly havent found the right people. This is the time when you break away from people who dont matter
and come closer to the people who really do. But, as you move onto your late twenties, growing up takes over and pulls you away from them too!
So, while you still have time, hold on and hold on strong. There are some friends you should never let go of, come what may. Make it a point to
keep in touch. Stick around!

5. Learn Something New

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You never know what youre capable of until you try it out. Life is incomplete without challenges. Invest at least some of your time in acquiring a
new skill and who knows you might just discover a whole new dimension to your personality!
6. Chase That Ultimate Dream

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All of us have dreams and for some odd reason, most of us come to believe its never going to come true, very early in life. Dont give up just yet.
Its just the beginning of your career theres enough time for you to pursue your dream. Go get it. Do it while you can!

7. Bring About A Change

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Do something that creates an impact. Not only will it make you feel worthwhile, it might just shape up your life ahead. There is something or the
other we all strongly believe in. Find yours and do something about it. Its one of the most satisfying things in life.
8. Fitness

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It may sound preachy, but its going to pay off in the long run. This is the age when you work on your physique. This is the time when you get
those killer biceps and a six pack! Work on your body and see yourself transform!

9. Find Yourself

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Theres something unique and eccentric that defines each one of us, that tells us apart from everyone else in the world. Find your own quirk;
discover that one thing that defines you as a person and embrace it. Unravel your true self.
As a 22 year old, what is some life advice that I can get?

/profile/Vishnu-Prasath /profile/Vishnu-Prasath
Vishnu Prasath, entrepreneur, avid traveler in a quest for experiences both in/outward
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Here's my take and the list of 6 most-important aspects I'd stick to. Note: This answer is a 10-
15 minute attentive read.

1. Realize
A great portion of people deal with their lives the way it accidentally happens, for the most
part its just unconscious. Only sometimes, they try and deviate from what's on the way and
exercise any control upon it. This puts people under what they term as distress (a big made-up
mental burden). Then the "emotions" are directly false-attributed to unpaid bills, debt, rent,
family members, job and more. When we just realize that, any amount of mental suffering is
just worthless, doesn't make the life-situation any better - we could eliminate this part.

Your happiness is everything.

Realize that our lives are mortal, we're here for a good time and avoid any imaginary
suffering that's simply not the realty! Your emotions and happiness comes from within. Do
not look outside for it and search. Ok! Now we're equanimous and happy. Lets move on,

Set your expectations, goals and "do your best" along the way. A lot of us just call what we
do, as our best while there may be more distance to cover to get to where we'd like to.

True wisdom is knowing that we know nothing - Socrates.

Be present in your moment, carry on with any of your activities with clarity and
consciousness. You will then be able to craft your success.
2. Travel

When you are in your 20's, you have comparatively no responsibilities or outside-
expectations that you have to deliver on (vs. when you're 30 or 40).

Traveling to different places will clearly expose you to different cultures, people and the way
of living. This may lead you to opportunities, like-minded people and much more. I
personally would recommend not to travel to the obvious places, but the tough ones that will
challenge you. To the places that will accept you to be different from what you should be (in
common view of the society).

Travel to discover and travel to learn.

Myth #1: It costs a lot to travel, etc. If you're from a first-world country, and travel the rest of
the world - I guarantee you'd save money while you travel. In-fact, I spend less when I travel!

Myth #2: When you travel, you cannot get shit done. I would disagree. I started doing more
things when I started traveling. I enjoy absolute freedom to decide what could do in my
whole day. Days just appear to be extended enough to do what I'd like!

Scenario: I am 22, I just graduated and debts to pay back, etc etc. You could just work for an
year/two to save enough money to travel. Do freelancing.

3. Fail, fail and fail again, but never give up the thirst for
knowledge

When you start doing something, or build things - understand that failure is inevitable. Inject
the idea of embracing failure, then wipe away the idea of "fear of failure". Fear of failure has
stopped a lot of people to take any step forward. Every shot that's not attempted, is not just
failure but even worse. It also encourages the habit of not doing anything just because "it may
fail". All you know is that it may fail, maybe it succeeds. Just be quick enough to do it. When
you do something and fail, it's "just fine". Observe and pay attention to everything that has
happened. Understand and pay close attention to how it could've been done better. Have some
take-aways, learnings and just move on to the next thing!

Being narrow-faced will let you avoid any pitfalls/trap

After you've thoroughly analyzed and taken a decision to move forward with something - do
not look back unless there is a very strong reason to. The other shore will always be green.
Do not compare how it would've been when you did something else, how good somebody
else is doing. When you come across someone doing wonderful, that's actually great (learn
from him). He/she maybe in a different level in the game of life. Work on working your way
up. Evaluation just based on comparison and other potential alternatives is just a "waste of
time".

Once you build this habit in yourself, it'll naturally start to occur. You cannot stop yourself
from something you've started and you'll keep on moving forward.

Read. Don't just read what you already know about or prefer to. Because "our preferences"
clearly come from our limited knowledge we've acquired so far. Read everyday. Learn how to
read quickly, skim through things, observe it so that you understand. If you'd want to start
somewhere, start reading about people. Wikipedia and Quora - the way to go! I enjoy
surrounding myself with books (this is just an option).

Your exposure, worldview and understanding will be elevated to a different level when you
read.

4. Definitely don't work full-time somewhere

Maybe I am biased but I'd personally not recommend working full time for someone
elsewhere on their visions (unless you think that's "the thing" for you and you truly enjoy it).
General corporate meetings are where our ambitiousness, ideas, confidence will go and die
(doing something that we're not at all passionate about). If you're ambitious and are confident
enough on your abilities to do something. If you're "all-in" to improve your "abilities to
execute", that'll do. In-fact, I dropped out of my school at 15 to become an entrepreneur when
I barely knew anything about what I am doing today. I wonder if I'd employ my own 13 year
old self. All I have done is #3 (above) with unshakable confidence and a thirst for knowledge.

If you have a clue about where to get started and what to do - great. Whether you're gonna be
a star soccer player, or a statesman - I salute you! Do not know where to get started? There
are numerous articles in Quora that you can look into. Or maybe Google it. Here's a result I
got from Google (specifically relating to becoming an entrepreneur - that's what I know best),
200 Ways to Make Money From the Internet (this compilation is by far the best I've seen
about freelancing/working online). Once you've an idea, get it going from there and keep
moving on. It'll take you to places.

If you find yourself in a corporate job that you wish you could leave, then do it. Leave. If you
don't have a corporate job yet, see point five.

5. Health

a. Eat Well

We've looked at happiness in #1. I find a lot of people in their 20's not caring/considering
their diet to be a great deal. The need for a nutritious meal is just simply underrated. The rate
at which people get sick, and the amount of GDP spent on healthcare is just totally alarming.
Eat enough fruits, vegetables, raw natural products. Just I mean, some healthy food (I
wouldn't personally consider too much of cheese/processed junk food and red-meat healthy)!

b. Stay healthy

I personally do yoga (pranayama, asana, dharana and dhyana) to stay physically and mentally
fit. I'd recommend the same. If you'd instead choose an outdoor sport (or) to go for a long-
run, - that's good too (just do it everyday). Try to sleep well, during the same hours Because,
you're screwed when you get sick both financially and physically.
6. Finally, a few things:
1 I'd say, do not watch television. That clearly doesn't appear to help people get any
better at what-ever they do. Too much of negative influence. Before a century or two,
you'd have no knowledge about war going on in the next city. Even now, the world is
totally doing great, the sun rises and sets and billions of people are engaging with
their everyday activities and are very happy. Maybe there's some war, robbery,
murder, etc. It's much less than what it used to be ages ago. Alright - opinions on gun
laws, ISIS, extremism, women getting cheated on facebook making it to foxnews, is
not going to get you anywhere ahead.

2 Relationships and people. You somewhat become an average of the five people
around you. People are generally ok, sometimes great and sometimes bad. In some
cases, some of the unselfish people, I sought have been among the best things that has
ever happened to me in life. I have not been let down in most cases when I sought for
knowledge/help from someone. Don't ask for a money or job when you reach out to
someone.
Seek advice, surround yourself with likeminded people. It's fine if there are only a
limited number of them. #2 will greatly help this effort.

3 Trust. Trust everyone and everything until you have a reason not to. Do not let your
suspicion stop you from engaging with somebody or attempting something. Read a
little bit of human psychology, so that we can know why we're doing things the way
we do (Parataxic distortion, Psychological projection, Cognitive bias, Negativity
effect, etc)

4 Value time, and be patient. You'll not get the moment back. Spend every moment of
your life exuberantly, consciously and at the same time achieving the progress you'd
like to. Do not waste other's time. It's simply not OK.

5 Act polite, talk generous. I've personally had a big problem, being an introvert coming
from a third world country to effectively put my ideas, thoughts and communicate in-
front of people with generosity. Some books and reading has helped, a lot more has to
be done. I understand that the way we communicate can influence anything. You can
design your sentences to achieve what you'd want. I'd recommend you to read the
books "Crucial Conversations", "Psychology of Persuasion". Maybe, you could learn
NLP (neuro-linguistic-programming) - I am just not there yet.

6 There could be more, but I think it's good for now. If you keep searching for more,
you will probably find much better answers and more life advices. Difference isn't
caused when you come across all these advices, it happens only when you enact and
constantly follow what you find to fit you. Unless you truly believe, buy into a given
thought and be conscious about doing everything in life - it will not happen all by
itself. You just have to craft your own personal experiences and the life ahead of you
(that you are totally free to choose either with utmost clarity (or) it will happen as an
accident).
Even though most of our ideas are influenced by social realty, the purpose/goal need not
necessarily come from the same. You just need NOT do things a particular way just because
everyone else around you does. I wish you a very happy, abundant and a healthy life ahead!

Your comments are welcome!

PS: I am 21, and my answer is based on my own [limited] life experiences. Well, actually I
am about to turn 22 and kinda have this same question striking my mind. This is my attempt
to consolidate my observations and come-up with an answer that's not just befitting but also
serve as a reference to myself, my like-minded friends and the community at Quora.