By: Demetria Jackson
The other day I was trolling around ted.com and came across a talk by Meg Jay called “Why 30 is not the new 20.” Without giving a whole summary of her talk (you should really go watch it ; It’s only 15 minutes) she argues that your 20s are the most important developmental years of your life. Now, as a mid 20-something year old social entrepreneur, this concept really hit home with me. Think about it; our twenties are the time for us to lay a solid framework and foundation for the rest of our lives. This doesn’t mean that we can’t be (cue Wiz Khalifa voice) “young and wild and free.” It just means that we have to be responsible while doing it.
We’re going to mess up in our early twenties. It’s inevitable. We’re going to blow off a couple more classes than we probably should; we’re going to drink past our limit the night before an early work day; we’re going to mess our credit up a little bit, or maybe a lot, and; we’re going to seriously mess some of our relationships up. It’s inevitable in our early 20s. But, here’s my question: does it have to be inevitable in our mid and late twenties?
When I asked myself a similar question a couple of months ago, the answer was clear to me: no. If the answer is as clear to you as it was to me, great, but it’s time to rise and grind folks. Rise. And. Grind.
It’s not easy to lay the framework and foundation for the rest of your life, especially when you’re in this awkward quasi-adulthood phase. We have the older generations calling us entitled, spoiled, selfish, unable to communicate without technology, blah, blah, blah. What they fail to understand is that we’re incredibly ambitious, motivated, passionate, unconventional, and we have the ability to shape the political decisions that will affect us tomorrow, by giving a sh*t today. Gen Y is an extremely important generation and right now, we’re at an extremely important age developmentally and politically. What we do in our twenties will have a profound effect on not only ourselves and our immediate communities, but on our countries and on the world.
As a lifestyle coach, I’ve spent some serious time contemplating these ideas – in fact, I’m still contemplating them. That said, I have used many tools to help me start the process of creating a life that I love and I’m going to share one with you today. The Rise and Grind Tool (click here to download) will help you start planning for the future. It will jumpstart you into thinking how you want to feel about your life, what you want your life to look like and discovering the many steps you can take to get there. Once you’ve had an opportunity to work through the steps, let us know in the comments what some of your goals are and what you plan to do before you turn 30, to ensure you’re on your way to achieving them.
Finally, I want to leave you with this quote from C.S. Lewis: “We are what we believe we are”. If we believe that we have the right to live all ten years of our twenties carelessly, then that’s exactly what we will become; just an upgraded version of us in our teenage years. If we believe that we are the creators of our own destiny, and that as twenty-somethings we have the ability to change the world, that is exactly what will happen and that is exactly what we will become.
Demetria Jackson is a Femme Lifestyle Coach & Clarity Expert, social entrepreneur and founder of demetriajackson.com a healing justice and personal development blog for twenty-somethings. Follow her on Twitter at