7 Significant Things I Learned in My 20s and How It Changes My Life

Zidni Ilman
4 min readJun 8, 2021
Photo by Paul Skorupskas on Unsplash

I know this article seems a little cliche, but it happens to me, things that I learned in my 20s, really change how I see things in my life and life on the whole. Most 20s are definitely the age where people seeing reality are often disappointing.

The feel of being between the age of 20 until 30 gives you goosebumps about your existence in life.

“Where do I want to go? What will I become in the future? What do I seek in my life? Is this the life I really want to be? Can I make everyone happy?”

People hit their quarter-life crisis around age 24 and so, but for me personally, it all depends on how you react to it. You can’t change the circumstances, but you can change how those circumstances affect your inner self. And what I mean by that is controlling how it is going to affect you.

These are 7 things I have learned in my 20s that significantly changed my life for about everything.

#1. Big dreams, big goals

Having dreams and goals is also equally important because you gotta keep on track. The vision you create right now is how you are going to see yourself in the future. Everything has to start from something wonderful and noble, then achieve it.

#2. Productive habits

The habits you make right now are going to accumulate on something you want to achieve. If you develop a habit of writing every morning, every day, then you will become an excellent writer, or even a magnificent one, I would say. The same goes for almost anything in every work.

#3. Less Social Media

Most people around my age are already getting affected by Influencers and their rich friends in terms of lifestyle. Influencers and rich friends showing off branded technologies and goodies, trips around the world, work accomplishments, and any other achievement through social media could make us insecure.

Just make sure you’re not spending too much time using social media, especially watching and following Influencers and rich friends, instead, focus on following productive, inspiring, and motivational content on social media.

#4. Stop comparing my life with other people

Life is not a competition or a race. It has no end, and life only ends when people or you die, that’s all. You don’t have to worry, not in the same state as your friends of the same age. They probably have a nice job position, high salary, or working for great companies.

Trust me, you will also get your own chance. I don’t know when or how, but I believe everyone would have their way of success on their own. Never stop chasing it.

#5. Not everything is about money or materialistic things

I wish I knew this from a long time ago. Society stigmatized our life achievement way too unreasonably. For them, it’s always about materialistic matters. People only see you from how big your house is, how expensive your car is, or even how much salary you earn in a month or even a year.

I’ve seen people with those materialistic matters around me, and I could say, only a few are wise, the rest are horrible, or parasites to the neighborhoods.

#6. Find partners

Whether it’s a friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, wife, or even family, you need to find partners in your life, someone who you can rely on or hang on in your hardest times. Humans are social creatures so of course, they can’t live alone, they still need at least one person to be at their side.

I know some people who get through hard times alone, with no one at her/his side all along, but few people who could reach that.

#7. Never stop learning

This is the greatest advice that hit me pretty hard. Seems basic, isn’t it? Whenever I stop learning something, I usually become quite bad at it. But the problem is, how if you are already full of knowledge, and you stop learning because you think you had enough of it?

You will become stuck in the zone, in the comfort zone, stay in it, and see everything as what it seems. Never achieve for mediocrity.

Conclusion

The above lessons I had in my 20s quite changed my life. It was the lessons I had to learn that naturally gave me an impact, from mindset, habit, personal growth, and how I rethinking how my life would be. How pleased I am if the stories I share could resonate with yours and I am glad I’m not the only one who feels this way.

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Zidni Ilman

Hello, I'm Zidni and I work as an Amazon product sourcer for a US private company.