Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself

In the words of Jess Glynne, “don’t be so hard on yourself”. I’ve realized lately, that I can be incredibly hard on myself when it comes to my life and figuring out what I want to do with it. A quick Google search of the phrase “twenty something” is enough to know that I’m not the only one feeling this way.

See, I’m 26 years old, and I don’t have it figured out yet. I’m not even close. In fact, I feel even further away from having the answers then I did five years ago. And I feel like I should I have it sorted out by now. I should know what my ideal job is, and I should be doing it. I should have traveled the world. I should own a house. I should have a clear plan. But I don’t.

I’m so focused on all the things I haven’t achieved, that I forget to take a step back and look at what I have done. Five years ago I didn’t have a university degree, and my work mostly consisted on babysitting and retail. I hadn’t traveled more than a few hours away from where I lived, I had never traveled alone, and I hadn’t lived away from home.

Now, I have a post graduate degree. I have had four years of experience in jobs related to what I studied. I have traveled far and wide on my own, have ticked off a significant portion of my bucket list, and more. I have moved out of home, and have made some life long friends along the way.

And when I look at it like that, it doesn’t seem so bad. Five years ago, I could have never imagined that I would do all that I have done so far. Things happen as and when they should. And maybe in five years from now I still won’t know exactly what I’m doing with this life of mine, but I’m sure I’ll have added a few extra things to that list above.

So tonight, all my fellow twenty somethings, let’s all take a moment to look at what we’ve achieved, rather than focusing on what we haven’t done yet.Stop being so hard on yourself.

I’ll leave you with the quote below, which seems pretty fitting to this post.