Make the most of your twenties

I found this TED talk quite interesting. It filled me with a sense of urgency that may be important to me right now (I just turned 28 and am about to change careers -not just jobs- once again, a stressful and utterly reviving time).
But in the end I agree even more with the comment by Vero Borja below, because it is closer to where I see myself in three years and the kind of life I want to have lived by then:


I’m 31. Yes I am single, and no I don’t have children. But, I didn’t spend my 20s as if it were one long spring break. I travelled; I finished 2 master degrees and am about to finish my PHD. I lived in 5 different countries, spanning 4 continents, learned 4 languages, and made strong and fulfilling relationships (friendships are just as important and fullfilling) that have deeply nurtured and changed me. In other words, I lived. I learned to love in different ways, and I learned to surround myself by people who love me. 
Thinking of your life in terms of periods in which certain things must be fullfilled, just limits life, and life goals. What does the 30s are the new 20s really mean? it is as empty a suggestion, as implying that the 20s are somehow more defining than any other moment in life. After all, people and the lives they lead never stop changing.

Don't be idle, just jump!

I thought I was prepared. I really thought I had nothing to worry about and that all the pieces would fall into place pretty quickly soon after my graduation. A job would be found and I would move there to take another step on my path, and then another to bring about positive change in the world. Sound a bit naive to you? Well, it certainly does to me now. Not the part about worrying, because I believe it is not a good use of anybody's energy to worry too much, but the part about the job finding. It is NOT something that is just found. It is something one needs to go and look for, do research about, get to know people and most importantly apply for. If like me you have not already been working in the field you would like to dedicate yourself to, then you need to find and entrance, a starting point. And this is not an easy task.

Over on my other blog I wrote about my jobsearch and the lack of inspiration that I face now that I got out of university. Here I would like to add a second aspect. The aspect of not-knowing-what-to-do. This is different from not-knowing-what-you-want, which is one more difficulty.

Not knowing what to do is about the insecurity what your next step should be, and the cocktail of fear, self-doubt, anger, and frustration that inevitably starts brewing the longer you sit around without getting active. It catches me while looking at job listings. They never describe what you expect your dream job to be, because dream jobs are not advertised to individuals. It's a personal affair to define what your dream is. Mostly you would not even recognize your dream job in a paper, if you saw it broken down into qualification requirements and tasks. So what is one to do. "Jump in", everybody says. "You will only know later if it is what you wanted." And so I sit here again, idly looking around, losing and gaining a little bit of inspiration left and right and wishing I was more of a machine that could mechanically do the necessary.

So here is some advice that I will try to take to heart again now:

Those who do not have their own vision of the future will have to accept living in the vision of other people. Where the capacity to draft new desirable images of the future is left unused, change can only be tolerated or suffered, but never created or designed. (changeX magazine)

If you'll excuse me, I need to write another job application now.

"New year, new you." If only.

The change of years provokes most of us to give our own lives some profound thoughts. Even if you don't have any specific resolutions you might have thought about giving yourself some. There are many people who recommend making a plan, others say it's no use, you are only going to disappoint yourself and have less motivation to get things done next year. I try to get things clear in front of me and then get over trying to reach every goal. Most of my wishes are things that I wish for everyday, so what is the difference on New Year's Eve?! Right, so why wait for January to come if you like to change something in your life...

The way I see it, this is the only advice we should all follow (from here):



Happy new year!