11 Things You Need To Immediately Stop Doing In Your 20s

carpe diem socks
slomygosh

1. Apologizing for changing your mind. When opportunities open up to you, and new and exciting adventures are on the horizon, you want to grab onto each and every chance you get to. Sometimes your plans will change. You will shift gears a bit. And that’s perfectly fine. You are under no obligation to explain your change of heart to anybody else or justify those changes. You can switch your direction at any given time, no questions asked.

2. Doing things out of obligation instead of desire. The more you do things out of obligation and obligation only, the less appealing they will be to you. Doing things because you feel like you have to ruins any sort of fun the experience may have had.

3. Hanging around people who have no goals or ambitions in life. When you’re surrounding yourself with like-minded people, you will see that your goals match up with theirs. These people are motivating, inspiring, and uplifting. The more you hang around people without any sort of direction in life, the more you’ll find yourself just as lost as they are.

4. Looking for love in all the wrong places. When you are constantly searching for love, you probably will never find it. Love finds us when we’re ready for it. That doesn’t mean shut yourself out from love. It means that if you’re going out on a limb to find your soulmate in hopes of some sort of fulfillment, chances are you are feeling unfulfilled with yourself.

5. Waiting for tomorrow to start anything. If you keep putting something off until “tomorrow,” tomorrow may never come. Whatever it is you want to do in life, do it now. Start right now. Wherever the hell you are, whoever the hell you are. Stop thinking that you need to have reached a certain milestone in your life to accomplish anything.

6. Feeling “stuck” in a relationship because you’re afraid of being alone. Life is too short to remain a prisoner of a shitty relationship. Love shouldn’t make you feel stuck. You are not stuck. And being on your own is a HECK of a lot better than being with someone who’s all wrong for you.

7. Making excuses for every little thing. Excuses are shit. And when you’re constantly making excuses for yourself and for others, you’re shit too. You’re only cheating yourself in the end. When you mess up, own up to your mistakes. If you make excuses for your actions, you’re only justifying your bad behavior. Own up to your demons, instead of constantly excusing them.

8. Not giving yourself enough time to heal. Healing is a lifelong journey. Healing is all sorts of painful. And sometimes your deepest wounds will be ripped open once again, only to hurt you just as badly as they the first time around. Wounds make us warriors. Healing is the only form of growth. Let yourself heal those wounds at your own pace. And take time to acknowledge your pain, but never let it consume you.

9. Judging everyone. The truth is, judging someone else won’t make you any better than them. Judging others is a waste of your precious time. Nobody is perfect. You are not perfect. They are not perfect. Every one of us carries our own unique story and certain flaws and quirks that us who we are. Judgment is poison.

10. Living life through a cell phone. While you’re busy scrolling through the world of social media, you forget to look up and see that life is happening all around you. Instead of living vicariously through collections of other people’s memories, get out there and create your own.

11. Saying yes when you really mean no. If you don’t want to go out on a Friday night, don’t agree to go. If you don’t want to work that extra shift on your only day off this week, say no. Learn to say no when you want to and when it is appropriate to. You are certainly not required to always agree with the ideas, opinions, or plans of others. And saying no can be liberating. You have the power to consciously make your choices based on what will be best for yourself. Thought Catalog Logo Mark

Writer, photographer, adventurer.

Keep up with Andrea on Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Website

More From Thought Catalog