For many people, turning 30 is something of a wake-up call – and often a bit of a startling one, too.
When we are in our early 20s, we generally aren’t too hard on ourselves about having all of our ducks in a row. After all, we are still pretty much at the start of our adult lives, and there’s plenty that we still have to figure out, and accomplish.
At 30, though, it’s normal to feel a growing sense of urgency – a general suspicion that it’s really important to begin to get stuff “figured out.”
While life is always an ongoing learning process in various ways, there are certainly plenty of things that you can do in order to begin seriously getting your life on track in your 30s, so that you don’t have to live with the constant sensation of wandering around more or less aimlessly.
Get a pet, and embrace responsibility towards others
Not everyone will necessarily be inclined to get a pet – and, of course, it would be silly to think about getting a pet as a life-changing panacea for whatever issues you might be facing.
All the same, many people have found that their lives really begin getting “on track” when they focus less of their energy and attention on their own personal preoccupations, and spend more time embracing a sense of responsibility towards others.
Getting a pet is just one way that you can begin directing your attention outwards in a positive sense.
Whether you get a pet bird and supply it with what it needs via a company such as Little Peckers, or whether you get a dog that requires regular strenuous exercise, a pet can certainly serve as both inspiration and motivation to embrace a more selfless dimension of life. And, with a pet, the emotional rewards of focusing your energies in this way are quickly apparent.
Start taking care of yourself in ways that will make you a more effective person
“Self-care” is a phrase that is often met with some degree of scepticism. No doubt, that’s largely because many people use the term to refer to purely hedonistic self-indulgences, like having a hot bath and a glass of wine in the evening, or binge-watching a TV show on the weekend. When taking care of yourself, try ways that will make you a more effective person, and not just in ways that will give you a quick feel-good buzz.
Of course, there’s nothing wrong with doing things just for fun, from time to time. But if you really want to turn your life around, it’s important to focus most of your energy on taking care of yourself in ways that will make you a more effective person – not just in ways that will give you a quick feel-good buzz.
Focus on getting your nutrition right. Make a point of getting enough sleep each night. Get regular exercise, and pay attention to which pastimes and activities leave you feeling more energised, versus which ones leave you feeling less energised.
Make it a real point of focus to do things that are good for you, and not just things that make you feel good.
Work to let go of habits that repeatedly bring you down
Everyone has likely had the experience, at least at some point in their lives, of realising that they were falling into the same traps and counter-productive habits, time and time again.
For whatever reason, it seems to be a natural human tendency to repeat the same actions while constantly hoping for different results. By the time you reach your 30s, though, you should have a pretty good idea of what some of those negative patterns are and how they tend to manifest themselves in your life.
It can be difficult to figure out what you “should” be doing. But it’s often a lot easier to figure out what you “shouldn’t” be doing. Do an inventory of your bad habits, and work diligently to let go of those habits that repeatedly seem to bring you down and throw you back into the same unproductive patterns.
Refocus on what’s really important to you
As a human being, you will always have a limited amount of energy to spend at any given time – and if you try to spread yourself too thin, it’s likely that you will not achieve nearly as much as you would like to.
Refocus on what’s really important to you and spend less energy on the rest. Give it your attention, and dedicate your energy to it. As for the rest – get comfortable with saying “no” more often, and spend your time and effort on what really matters.
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