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Being in your twenties isn’t all fun and games, you’re still in time to have fun and mess around but you also need to start laying foundations for the rest of your life and you’re well aware that time flies, so here are ten hard life lessons you learn in your 20s!

#1 Friends aren’t forever

It’s not like it was in school, friends don’t stick around if you don’t make the effort and everybody becomes so busy having fun and making new friends that staying in touch is hard. Your old friends will drift away eventually, but new friends will come into the mix. Check out our guide to making new friends in your twenties, if you’re struggling to find friends.

#2 You can’t please everyone

Friends, family and strangers all have opinions on what you should be doing. People will be puzzled by your choices, they might tell you you’re going in the wrong direction or try and force you to do something you don’t want to. You need to realise that along the way you’re going to ruffle some feathers. You can’t please everybody and it’s your life so the decisions you make have to be ones you believe in.

#3 You won’t have a perfect life

Don’t expect your life to be marbled floors, a cute dog and more money than you know what to do with. Most of your twenties will be conducted from a parents house or a questionable flat with cheap rent, your hair and makeup won’t be immaculate all the time and you’ll just start to realise that perfection isn’t easy. Give yourself a break and enjoy your time lounging around with unwashed hair on a Sunday. It’s okay to be normal!

#4 Most things require effort

Keeping fit, eating healthy and having a great work balance all require effort. It’s an effort to prepare healthy meals for yourself and it’s an effort to keep up your yoga routine, sometimes all you want to do is relax and not have to make that effort, unfortunately everything in life requires you to be a little bit put out. Laziness is easy to fall into in your twenties but you need to find ways to give yourself energy, check out our guide to feeling energetic all day long if you struggle with this like I do!

#5 Spending is easier than saving

When you rely on yourself financially, saving is so hard. Every month the list of things you need grows bigger, and sometimes you have to cut back in order to survive. Saving is actually really hard, but preparing food with fresh ingredients is much cheaper than buying ready made sauces and meals. If you need a little help with saving, why not read our guide to saving money.

#6 Planning ahead makes life so much easier

Planning your meals, your strategy, your outfits and your work commitments ahead of time might seem like a chore in itself but, you’ll be much happier when the time comes and you know exactly what you have to do, it takes all the elements of last minute panic away. Spending at least one day planning your week is the best thing you can do, it will feel annoying at first but will become part of your routine and will revolutionise the way you think about the week.

#7 Partying gets harder

We all love a good party, from a family get together to a good old fashioned girls night, but one thing you start to realise in your twenties is the older you get the harder partying becomes. You can no longer keep up with your younger self, hangovers get harder and you start to get more tired as the night goes on. If you’re still youthful, party hard while you can!

#8 You are responsible

No longer can you blame your sibling or friend for anything you do wrong, you have to own up to your mistakes and take responsibility. As scary as it is, you are now the only person who can answer for your mistakes. Which means that if you’re going to make a decision that will annoy people, you have to stand by it and be prepared to justify it to others. It also means you’re responsible for your own health and wellbeing, nobody will be around to make doctors appointments for you anymore!

#9 Your expectations are too high

In your twenties you are at your most insecure, you constantly judge yourself and compare your achievements and looks to others, possibly because for the first time you are out on your own and you have no guidepoint on what you should be doing. You start to realise as you get older that your expectations of yourself were a little too high, and you should start trying to love yourself!

#10 Getting older is what you make of it

In your twenties you start to become aware of the fact you’re aging for the first time. Your body changes, your metabolism gets a little slower, overall you’re still young but you become aware that you’re aging for the first time in your life, and you kind of realise that you don’t want to. If you give in to the thought that aging is the worst thing ever you’ll feel older than you are, but living joyfully and youthfully will preserve you for years!

We’re so exited! Career Girl Daily is nominated by Bloglovin for the Best Life Improvement Blog Award 2015! We started this journey 7 months ago. Our mission still is: motivate women to be the best they can be! With a team of 30 contributors and an editorial team we work very hard to create exciting and inspiring articles everyday. We’re so honored to have grown so much the past 7 months and being able to motivate all you girls(and guys) is our drive to continue this journey.  It would mean the world to us if you would vote on Career Girl Daily! You can vote here.

 

Featured Photo: Giggles & Dimples