When you’re young, it’s easy to see your thirtieth birthday as a significant milestone – but a distant one. If you’re going to get the best from your thirties, forties, and fifties, then it’s important to do a little bit of groundwork (while not forgetting to enjoy yourself while you’re in your twenties).
To this end, it’s worth pencilling out a few objectives and devising a strategy for completing them. Five particular challenges stand out as worth tackling. If you reach your thirtieth birthday with all of them toppled, then you’ll be in a good position to attack the following decade.
Complete your education
Higher education is often seen as a default for high school graduates in the UK. University offers a chance to broaden your horizons and pick up the skills and knowledge that will be foundational to your future career. There are thousands of courses to choose from, so you might easily find something that matches you.
Of course, not everyone has an academic bent. If you don’t feel like university is going to match your ambitions, then it’s probably better not to go. Learning a trade will set you up with a skill for life. Plumbers, electricians and plasterers will be earning a decent living, and enjoying great job satisfaction, for at least the next few decades.
Get your driver’s licence
Being able to drive provides several advantages. It will allow you to make better use of your leisure time. It will provide a boon in your professional life, putting you in touching distance of opportunities that would otherwise be out of reach. And, what’s more, driving can be fun.
Learning to drive means taking around forty hourlong lessons, and supporting that education through practice. With the right learner driver insurance, you’ll be able to practice in a car belonging to a friend or family member. This way, you can keep things affordable.
Career establishment
At this point, you might know exactly what you want to do with your professional life. On the other hand, you might not. It’s a good idea to pick up a variety of skills that you know are valuable and to bring them together into satisfying work. Don’t pursue your dreams, in other words: build your competencies.
Travel and exploration
Spreading your wings and venturing to new locations will help you to learn in ways that books, screens and classrooms can’t replicate. You’ll understand how things work in other cultures, and how they might work better at home, too.
Personal growth and self-discovery
You’ll do a lot of learning in your twenties – about the world, and about yourself, too. Make time for your personal interests, and give yourself the freedom to make mistakes and forgive yourself for them. Don’t pile on the pressure this early.
