Lifestyle

These Are The 6 Mistakes You Absolutely Have To Make In Your 20s

by Zoya Gervis

Our early 20s are an opportunity for immense growth and evolution.

As I look back upon the person I was just a few years ago, I can see a massive transformation.

In fact, my early 20s taught me a significant amount of life lessons that have shaped me into the woman I am today.

The best part is, we never stop growing. We continue to make mistakes and hopefully learn from them.

But when we are in our early 20s, it seems like the lessons are exponentially larger and more significant than any other time in our lives.

Here are just a few lessons we all learn in our early 20s that allow for great personal growth:

1. Settling in relationships

When we are young, we desire a companion to make us feel complete.

But the truth is. we can never find happiness from an external source like a boyfriend. Instead, we have to learn to find inner self-love.

And sometimes, it takes a certain relationships to teach us this valuable lesson. Eventually, we learn that we deserve the best from a partner, and we no longer settle for a guy.

Instead, we honor our greatness and seek a partner who can share our love instead of relying on them to provide love for us.

2. Partying the night away

FOMO runs rampant in our early 20s. We're constantly worried we're going to miss an epic night out if we stay in.

So, we force ourselves to dress up every weekend, go socialize and drink the night away.

Turns out, partying all the time doesn't get us very far in life.

In fact, by going to the clubs every weekend, we end up missing out on making deep connections with people.

If you, like me, prefer meaningful relationships to superficial ones, going out every weekend and getting wasted isn't going to lead to anything satisfying.

Learning this valuable lesson will teach you it is absolutely OK to stay home and watch Netflix with your dog on the weekends.

3. Some terrible fashion choices

College is a time to have a standard uniform. At my school, we all looked like clones on campus, wearing a North Face coat, Uggs and leggings as pants.

Fortunately, realizing how silly that outfit looked made me realize I needed to invest in some real clothes that actually brought me joy.

Once you get that first real job, you finally have some money to spend on real people clothes.

Learning about which styles fit you best and taking fashion risks will bring you immense joy.

Not only will you learn more about yourself, but you may also just find out you actually can pull off that hippie chic look you always thought wasn't for you.

4. You'll cheat

We are all human. As such, we make mistakes.

In our 20s, we may cheat in a relationship. This doesn't mean we are bad people.

If we can learn why we strayed in a relationship, we can begin to help ourselves grow. In turn, we can evolve and grow into a better version of ourselves.

As long as we avoid making this mistake over and over again, we can notice where we need to possibly work on ourselves.

We can learn what we truly want out of a relationship, instead of what we think we need.

5. Never setting boundaries

Approval is a big part of our lives when we are young.

Even as children, we seek approval from our parents and classmates. In our early 20s, we continue this thinking.

However, what we end up learning is that by always saying "yes" to everyone, we may take on too much. In the end, we may end up exploding or simply becoming so overwhelmed that we can't even accomplish a very easy task.

As we grow, we learn the importance of saying "no" and taking time for ourselves. We learn about self-care techniques so we can show up in the world as the very best version of ourselves.

6. Refusing help from others

When we are in our early 20s, we think we're super women. It's like we are invincible and nothing can stop us from tackling life on our own.

Turns out, we aren't. Our 20s teach us that failure is part of life. We can't do it all and do it well.

In fact, being stubborn and not being able to accept help doesn't serve you in the long run.

Learning we all need help sometimes doesn't make you weak. It actually makes you strong for acknowledging when you can't do it all on your own.

Asking for help isn't a weakness. Learning this incredible lesson allows you to be a more confident version of yourself. Being humble is a wonderful lesson that comes from your early 20s.

Our early 20s are a great time for all of us to learn about ourselves.

This is a beautiful time in our lives where we truly begin to evolve and grow. As a result, we become well-rounded human beings who can conquer the world.

However, we will always continue to make mistakes. We will continue to grow and learn more about ourselves.

But, it is this critical time in our lives when we are just entering adulthood that truly shapes us.

So, don't be so hard on yourself the next time you make a mistake. Because in the end, it's all just a beautiful learning experience that will leave you with great memories and lessons that you mold you into the magnificent person you are today.