As I turn 21, I learned a lot in the past couple of months. I have never been ready to leave 20 behind me and be 21, but I feel more at peace with myself than I have been within the last couple of months of my life. I am so ready to begin a more reassured and confident chapter of my life. I learned cruel and crucial lessons at 20, which I know I will be thankful for.
I hope you will learn these lessons well before I did, and if someone can avoid some of the pain and failure that I experienced from my mistakes, it makes them worth the trouble. Here are the five most important lessons I learned at 20:
1. Stop caring what people think.
For whatever reason, people will root for you to fail. It is not because of anything you did or said, as a matter of fact, it has nothing to do with you at all. It is not our problem, it is theirs. Their reaction to you is likely not something you said or did, it is their own issue. So do not take their negativity to the heart. Just keep on working. Those people are not worth sweating over, that is the time you will never get back. Every successful person has been told they cannot achieve their goal, so do not listen. Just keep working.
2. Do not give up.
The one thing all successful people have in common is they never, ever give up. You never know how close you are to the next opportunity or the next breakthrough. Keep grinding. The most wildly successful people are not genuises or prodgies. They are regular people who work incredibly hard and refuse to give up on what they want even when every odd was against them and to keep going in unbearably difficult. Do not give up.
3. Eliminate negative people.
Life is too short to let people make you feel like you are not worthy of what you want. Do not waste your time with people trying to feel better about themselves by letting them tear you down. Kick them out of the curb if they continue to make you feel bad. The sooner, the better.
4. Everything takes time
Careers, relationships, etc. will all take time and they require patience. Do not lose heart. Keep on working. It all takes time. Your life will not be ruined because your career has not taken off yet.