You can’t make any decisions because you don’t know what you want. And you don’t know what you want because you don’t know who you are. And you don’t know who are because you’re allowed to be anyone you want. Welcome to your Quarterlife Crisis – that uncertain time of transitions from classrooms and professors to cubicles and bosses.
Experts say this crisis hits people in their 20’s, because after years of learning the system of how to success in school, college grads are thrown into the world of work with no real understanding of how to succeed in it. Studies show that people in their 20’s are working shorter tenures at multiple employers – unlike their parents, who had more clear-cut career paths and more loyal to employers.
Here are five strategies you can take to right yourself and get back on track for fulfilling your dreams.
1. Develop realistic expectations.
Develop a mentoring relationship with someone in your same profession and learn the steps it takes to make the kind of progression you to hope to make.
2. Take time to discover your passions.
Many people fall into a quaterlife crisis because they take the first job offer after college and embark on a series of wrong jobs/careers. Spend some alone time conducting some serious self-assessments. What are your passions? What are the types of activities you love accomplishing? What do you dislike? What first inspired you about your college major? Beware your passions may change as you experience more things and grow as a person.
3. Set goals and visualize your future.
It does not do any good to have realistic expectations and an understanding about your passions if you do not have a plan for progressing in your career. Where do you see yourself in five years? What type of job do you envision? What type of life do you want?
4. Consider changing careers.
You may find during this process you notice that your current career is not for you, which is perfectly okay (even if you are already on your fifth career). If you are unhappy with what you currently do, if you dread going to work in the morning, if your work is causing you to be (mentally or physically) sick then you must make a change.
5. Cultivate a positive meaning/definition of success.
Many 20-year-olds have a too materialistic definition of success. You must stop judging yourself by other people’s standards and develop your own. How do you define success? What gives you the most satisfaction and happiness? What gives your life meaning? Remember that many of the so-called trappings of success such as money, material possessions, etc. are strictly the results of success; not the definition.
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