Hey Jen,
Any tips for a quarter life crisis?
Oh yes. First, curl up with a blanket – or park yourself at a swanky hotel bar – and read some pretty, glossy magazines for older women. I wrote something about O Magazine here: O Magazine Can Make You Feel Awesome About Turning 55 In 20 – 30 Years.
More recently, I particularly enjoyed an issue of MORE magazine. The Gentlewoman is more a magazine to keep on your coffee table than to read, but hey, why not?
A quarter life crisis can seem like a crisis if it seems like the 20 year olds have the jump on you and the 30 year olds are doing stuff you won’t be able to manage by age 30. But throw some 40, 50, 60, and 70 year olds in there, and it’ll kind of fade into a much bigger picture.
I also recommend learning some specific, quantifiable skill. Not something like “writing” or “art” or “people skills” – those are important, but your faith in your own abilities in those areas waxes and wanes with your moods and your confidence and with how others treat you and your work. But if you can code or optimize AdWords campaigns or install sinks or build cabinets or do CPR – well, yes you can. Those things are facts. No one – including you in your darkest moods – can take them away.
This might help: 5 Ways To Be More Ballsy (Even If You Don’t Have Balls!)
Good luck! It’ll be fine!
No one who’s 35 wants to go back, trust me.
On a personal level, I wish I had spent less of my mid-twenties working out, and more of it writing or making money or networking. I mean, I looked good in a bikini, but I’d rather have written a book back then.
I’ve written a lot about taking care of your future self. Don’t just imagine your future self at 30. Imagine her at 45, at 70. What the 20 year olds and the 30 year olds around you are doing is not that important. Take care of your future self. You’ve got plenty of time.
