How Should A 20-Year-Old Invest Time?

Between 16 and about 30, life gives us incredible energy.  After that, we have less energy and less time.  As Franklin said, "Do ye love life?  Then do not waste time, for that is the stuff life is made of."  A great lesson of Western Civ is to delay gratification in hopes of a better reward down the road. Hence, the many compelling time-wasters of our day (mindless internet surfing, video games, texting, reality TV, endless social media use, bad relationships etc.,) --these are all a slow drip of poison for the life you hope to have. You can never get back those many hours wasted.

What should one do instead?  Read, study and build skills. Listen to old people.  Hone your ability to concentrate. You are now in the 'habit-forming' time of your life, that will carry forward for many years. Guard your integrity: your word, the quality of your friendships, the interests you allow yourself. Be fully in the moment; life is more interesting that way.

My son is a student and a cook.  If I was between jobs, I told him, or if I had some days available, I'd ask to work for a week at a few different restaurants as an unpaid intern.  Sign a liability waiver, smile, and tell them you want to learn from experts like them, and all you want at the end of the week is a great reference or referral.  They may feel complimented, and give you a chance. They may keep you on, as a paid employee. You'll learn to cook other things, and add a new cuisine to your experiences.  Think about your young life this way, as an opportunity to pack away experiences.  It's hard to find the time to learn them, later.

For those NOT on scholarship and WITHOUT deep parental financial support:  A young person should first seriously consider learning a trade, at a tech or occupational school, before their college career.  A trade: working with your hands with a bona fide skill connects you to the real world in a way classroom knowledge cannot.  Your work at that trade will pay you much more per hour.  Paying for college by working full time at a low-wage entry level job is mind-numbingly hard. Besides, this will make you more interesting.  "Hmm, an accountant who can weld? I'd better read this resume..."  Personally, I use all kinds of skills I picked up while young, which come in handy now.

Ah... but be careful: Peer pressure will urge you toward making that trade into your life. That extra money will be a big temptation. Do you want to stop there?  Or continue on to a better place, and a 4-year degree?  HAVE A PLAN - don't just putter along. Use a trade as a tool to better yourself, as part of a broader goal, with timelines, a series of objectives and self-discipline. Such discipline is hard, at first, especially if your friends aren't supportive.  And why is that?.. 

Because vampires are real: Understand that some of your friends may be time-vampires, or for that matter, emotion-, or energy-vampires.  All relationships are a give-and-take, but if your friends chronically derail you from your goals, dreams or better judgment, get new friends.

One last item on this point: While some relationships are unhealthy, and should be allowed to fade, at the same time, don't hold a grudge about it. -- Don't hold on to grudges about other people in general: The trap of blaming others for one's failings is a chronic problem in society today, and an internal sap for one's energy, attitude and discipline. It becomes an excuse that permits us to sit on the couch and say "I might as well not even try."  We are so much better off if we can let minor irritations go, and forgive ourselves and others from human frailties. Related to this, playing the victim card and complaining that others are racist, or sexist, or classist, or phobic or whatever, may get us a pat on the head from our 'friends', but it doesn't really get us anywhere in life. Better to hit the next day with a good attitude, ready to work hard, with an open mind.  Trust me on this.

Turning to something more pragmatic, one should avoid student loans if at all possible. In the US, we're probably looking at the bubble of higher education bursting soon, because the cost of education has risen so much faster than inflation, and because the quality of education is declining. Admissions officers lie. "Oh yes, Modern Dance is a fine major. I'm sure you'll find many rewarding opportunities with this degree, as do all our grads.  Just sign here..."  And on this subject, look at what starting income is for your proposed field of study. Don't waste your financial aid. If you are going into debt with student loans, know that a new grad will almost certainly be paying huge bills in comparison to their salary - and for decades - if they've chosen a sociology degree, architecture, or fine arts, or womens' studies, or basically anything in the soft sciences, with the salaries those degrees command. Even if they can find a job!  Sorry.  Hard sciences, business or pre-professional curriculums are a much better bet. [For more, see this link for a study of Return on Investment (ROI) for US colleges, and my response to Dan Dorpsworthy, below.]

I want to be clear:  I like (good) architecture, and women (as a rule), and (good) art.  But these degrees don't pay well, or there aren't many opportunities with those degrees compared to the number of grads.

Brain-building - If you can't concentrate and read a book for a few hours, work on it anyway.  Until at least the age of 25, the brain is still developing its habits.  Starve its craving for the video games you play, and feed its ability to focus on books or a study topic.  This gets much easier with practice.  To test this, mark the hardest chapter of your hardest book, and go back to it in six months to see how much easier it is to comprehend.

This is very important - please read the next two lines very carefully: Your choices in life don't just define you, they become you. YOU ARE YOUR CHOICES...  That simple fact is the greatest piece of wisdom anyone ever gave me.  Our brains grow to meet the experiences we give ourselves.  If you spent hundreds or thousands of hours on video games, your brain will be wired to seek pleasure through them, and it will be a serious battle of withdrawal to break away from that endorphin source.  The same is true with all habits we nurture.  When YOU control your brain's input, instead of passively seeking whatever is pleasurable, you can begin to change your habits and your very self.  Example: More study make studying easier. Or, regular writing helps you communicate better over time. Talking, versus texting, helps you develop interpersonal skills that will make you more valuable as an employee and a better friend. Practicing a musical instrument eventually makes your brain comprehend the nuances of any music you listen to much more deeply.  As you sleep you'll create new clusters of brain synapses to support an ability or skill where they didn't exist before.  But the reverse it true, too, for bad habits...

Be Fully in the Moment - Do you find yourself texting in class, or at a dinner with friends?  When you do that, those around you often feel uncomfortable, as if you are saying they are less important. Put it away, and open up your awareness to all you are missing. There are people you may see today whom you will never see again, old folks who will die, and younger people who may move away. Let them have a great last memory of you.

Are you ready for the five or six incredible chances that each of gets in our lifetimes?  Every day we get evaluated...  If you can get your head around that, and train yourself to be "on" at a moment's notice, or when you need to be brilliant, then you will become the person who gets noticed, who gets hired, and gets promoted. The truth is, we often create our own luck. Even the Ancients noticed it: In the words of Euclid, "Fortuna eruditis favet" means Fortune favors the prepared mind. -A variant on the Roman saying, Fortune favors the bold; both maxims are true.

Mentors: You may have a mom or dad who can give you practical advice.  Or a grandparent.  Seek them out, or an older person who is 'disinterested,' meaning they don't just think the world revolves around you. Give your mentors the freedom to tell you the truth, even to hurt your feelings.  Listen to how they perceive you, and your talents and weaknesses.  Eventually, you will use your talents to address and fix your weaknesses, but not if you're stuck blaming others for them.  Even if it was your parent's damn fault.

Ladies, be hard to get. Or at least, don't be easy. It messes with your head, and makes you think you have less value.  No meaningful relationship starts at 1AM.  At some level, men, more than women, are wired for the chase, for the conquest. Yes, it's disturbing to see how they can walk away from a brief fling with a partner. Yet, they often do walk away, unless you build a friendship first that shows him you have many attributes of value, not just sex. This link describes the hormonal and psychological basis for this. See, men and women ARE different, contrary to Western educational fads that would deny it, and if you come to realize this, you will likely be happier, as is explained here. My dear, you are worth more than being a booty call. If, for him, you are just 'scratching an itch', it is unlikely to turn into something more when the other parts of his brain kick in and he associates YOU as BEING EASY. And, at 1AM, are you really in your best frame of mind to determine if he is worth your time? Focus on your goals, on real people and not players, and stay healthy and childless until you find a real partner - a man, not a boy. If you don't know, watch how he acts when under stress, or how he treats strangers. Don't make excuses for him: either he is ready for real life, or he's still in the nest. Maybe what he really needs is for you to walk away.

Especially for young men, a "coming of age" experience is crucial to our psychological development.  I hitchhiked across Canada. Leaving the safety net and going it on one's own is an important step for how a boy becomes a man because it gives us a foundation for our own self-reliance. A man will remember it when he needs a boost of courage.  Where others have suggested 'travel' here, that's fine, but just another spring break trip to a beach hotel is almost certainly a waste.

There is a psychological basis for this, and by pointing out what young men need in their development, I'm not saying anything derogatory about women. Generally, women are progressing better in western society than men, these days. I'm personally very worried about how we teach young boys, and the lack of ambition seen in many teenage males. It's led to a vast lost generation of aimless men in their 20s and 30s, and it is the reason why there are far more undergrad women in college now, than men. This is a topic for a different post, but if interested, read "Boys Adrift" by Leonard Sax MD PhD.  The summary: Boys and girls develop at different rates. At kindergarten, some kids are 'ready to learn,' while others need another year of playtime. This is normal.  But we harm those who aren't ready - as it turns out, this is mostly boys - by forcing them to sit at attention in school when their brains still have minimal (~toddler) attention spans. (They'll catch up, sometimes surpassing girls, sometimes falling behind in all areas of development, but the error comes in thinking both sexes are the same.) Boys at the age of five need more physical activity or playtime as they transition into schoolkids. Without it, school becomes a chore, and an unhappy one, where they turn off to learning, and turn away from achievement and ambition, for life.  This isn't a reflection of natural 'smarts' or 'stupidity.'   Many smart boys can quickly make a habit of turning off when it comes time to learn, when if they'd waited just a year to start school, their lives would be completely different.  Sax's book also outlines several other disastrous errors in how we teach boys compared to girls.  The concept I raised earlier about changing the mind's habits can be seen in effect from these early experiences.   New parents, this is a very good book for you to read. 

If I've described YOU, hear me: it's not too late. I promise: knowing all this, you can change the way you think, but it's hard. It will be some months before you begin to see the rewards of denying bad habits with disciplined attention to productive pursuits. Don't focus on the time you lost, but on the future you can still gain.

Have you hurt someone recently?  Yes you have.  Face it.  Find a way to make amends, and explore and exhibit genuineness, kindness and empathy.  Let the other person's emotions wash over you, and get a sense of their perspective. Breathe it in, and let yourself feel bad.  It's human. Self-focused narcissism that would discount the feelings and needs of others is an utter epidemic right now; a little reasonable guilt, then forgiveness, is a healthy thing. And learn to be courteous to everyone.  You would be astounded to realize just how many people you pass every day who are suffering.

Finally, a habit of clear-eyed self-talk is incredibly valuable, and incredibly hard. If you can learn to put your B.S. excuses aside, and make agreements with yourself that you live up to, you will set yourself up for a far better life than you would have, giving in to every temptation that comes your way. When you realize that YOU OWN your life, and it is yours to create or destroy, that is the beginning of adulthood.

Source Tom Jackson Quora