You can either say you are 30 years too old or 30 years young, however way you want to put it, but either way you have to admit that you have passed about half the average life expectancy, and it is high time to get your priorities straight.
Life may be too short for some people but unless you learn to cut down on your bad habits and develop good ones, the thread will cut shorter. It’s never too late to start, and to start while you’re still in your 20s is perhaps the best decision ever.
In your teens, you are a bit irrational and still driven by the raging hormones and boiling blood that courses within you, but in your 20s, you have had ample amount of education and knowledge, and thereby gathered maturity to know to draw the line between right and wrong. This is the perfect time to reflect on your actions and make life-altering decisions.
With that in mind, we have come up with a list of things to abide by or say, a few lifestyle changes you ought to follow to ensure you live a happier and healthier life down the line. While it may be quite difficult to incorporate them all into your life, try to take one cup at a time and gradually make a shift for the better.
Quit Smoking!
This cannot be emphasized enough. If you are a smoker, it’s high time to put the cigarette down unless you want your children to see you cough to death. Smoking is injurious to your health and the ones around you. It damages your lungs and causes cancer. We are all aware of the adverse health effects of smoking. Therefore, before it gets worse, cut it down.
There are various ways of doing so. Vaping is harmful too, but far less than cigarettes. You can try shifting to vaping and then slowly cutting that off too. Or you can opt for nicotine patches. There are plenty of ways to stop yourself from smoking, so just do it.
Start Exercising
You don’t have to work out for a chiselled summer body. If you damage your car, you might buy a new one. If your house breaks down, you’ll build a new one. But you only get one body for a lifetime and therefore, you need to be careful about the body you are given.
You don’t have to hit the gym every day to ensure you have a healthy body. We won’t even ask you to change your diet. Eat whatever you want, but at least make time to exercise daily.
There are tons of home-based exercises that you can do. From planks to push-ups to other exercises each focusing on different muscles and aspects, you can choose whatever form of exercise you want to do at home. You can even run at the local park if you want or even on a treadmill at home. The important thing is to make sure your body is working its muscles and keeping its structure firm.
Maintain A Ledger
As you are getting older, you are going to be dealing with a lot more transactions as the day goes by. You can easily lose track of the money coming in and going out, and therefore, falling into debt because too easy. Before you thread over the thin line, make sure you keep accounts of the money that comes into your pocket and your expenses.
You can simply keep an accounts book which you update at the end of the day. Or just have an Excel sheet that you can edit from your phone at all times. Have two columns, one for credit (incoming money) and one for debit (expenditure). Thus, you can easily calculate how much you earn through different sources in a month, and where you lose most of your money.
If required, you can even cut down on unnecessary expenses since you will have an idea of where you are spending your money.
Don’t Listen To Negative Comments!
Do you think Columbus bothered about other people’s opinions before he ventured out into the sea? What do you think would happen if he told people he would discover a new race of people? Most likely, everyone would call him crazy and laugh at him.
Likewise, don’t expect people to support you or have your back. Chances are, in this world, you are a lone wolf. Plan your projects to the best of your knowledge and have faith in your work. If you believe in what you are doing, keep pushing forward whether people support you or not. Keep grinding till you reach the mountain top. Once you reach the peak you will see people showering you with support.
Don’t pay heed to what people say. Achieve whatever you set out to accomplish and then bury them with your success.
Minimalism
When you are reaching your 30s, you will see your horizons expanding in every direction. But before you do so, it is better to practice minimalism. Minimalism is a lifestyle technique where you only possess whatever is essential for your existence. You don’t have to go 100% into the said lifestyle, but practising it will surely prepare you for a lifetime of struggles ahead.
How? Well, you will see that you don’t need a wardrobe full of clothes to make yourself happy. Nor do you need to buy every new gadget that hits the market. Minimalism shows you how little you need to be content with your life. The fact is, we don’t need much to survive. What we have is basically what we need, the rest are just greed. If we can overcome the latter, we can surely pave the path for our future more conveniently and easily.
Meditation
Meditation is an ancient trick that helps you take control of your body and mind. Is it a myth? No! Though it’s difficult to get the grasp on the technique and execute it to perfection, even getting the basic grip on the subject allows you to regulate your actions in a better way.
People who meditate are calmer and more relaxed and can also show patience in the toughest of situations. They train themselves to be aware of the thoughts that come into their minds and can obstruct unwanted thoughts and shun them out. They can identify the morality of their actions and thus further develop themselves to be better persons.
If you are willing to become a better individual, do try a few meditating lessons. Don’t lose hope if you can’t get it right the first time. The test is about patience and virtue, and you will succeed only if you pick up those traits in the learning process.
Put Your Phone Down!
It’s time to pick your nose up from your screen and put the phone down. This toxic attitude needs to be changed for good. If you spend too much time on your phone instead of interacting with the people around you, put your phone down and take a look around.
Some of us spend the majority of our daytime scrolling through various social media posts. The simple solution for this is to log out of our accounts or turn of notifications. Trust us when we tell you the real world is much better than the virtual world if you know where to look.
Instead of wasting your time knowing about the life events of unknown people, know the neighbourhood, or at least pick up a good book.
Social media is for entertainment and therefore, use it as a form of entertainment- not more than an hour a day. Break it down to 30 mins in the morning and then again at night. Don’t spend your whole day on the apps. Be productive and lose the toxicity.
To-Do List
Speaking of being productive, make sure you develop the habit of making a daily routine of the task you should accomplish by the end of the day. This can be as simple as having a haircut to as big as buying groceries. The main thing is to list every activity you should achieve by the time you hit the sack.
This will help you to keep your tasks on track and you won’t forget to do any work. Either set up a daily or weekly to-do list and follow the list accordingly. Span out your work based on how much time they will take or based on priority, and see how you get through your work faster.
Final Words
It’s never too late to learn something new or pick up a new hobby or quit a toxic one. This list gives you a good insight, but each individual’s life is unique. So, if you have any other life lessons you wish to learn before turning 30, make sure you add that too.