7 Habits to Develop When You are in Your 20s

Good habits, when cultivated early in life, stay with us for long. Our contributor, Keshav Aggarwal, tells 7 habits you ought to develop when you’re in your twenties. These habits not only will help you live amazingly but will also be helpful as you enter in your thirties. To make your life more fruitful, consider doing these things this year.

1. Develop Creativity

We know that not everybody is Steve Jobs who was blessed with the creativity of extreme levels. That’s why we kept the heading – develop creativity. See, this is the simplest habit to develop and you are the self-trainer. Board your childhood train, go back into the time, and alight your coach in the time when you used to do what you like. Now, bring that habit into your daily use again. Give it 30 minutes every day, then an hour, and then two and increase with the time. You will end up finding that your creativity has improved significantly. Scientifically, writing is the most creative, speaking is the most influential, and listening is the most adorable thing. Walt Disney brought the virtual Disney Land of T.V. shows into reality because of his favorite childhood habit, cycling. He used to wander around the site while the first physical Disney Land was taking its shape in Anaheim, California.

2. Have an Idol

An idol is the one who influences your life journey the most. It could be anybody- your father, grandma, an uncle, an artist, an entrepreneur, a sport-person, or a businessman. But it’s good to have an idol, an idol of your choice, who is a hero in your eyes, who may have performed some wrong things to do one right thing in their life. Read about them, filter, and then learn every good thing of them. Go after every article or a line about them. It not only will improve your research-and-hit skill, but you will also start learning about their profession automatically. Once you do that you will find more new exciting things in that profession. It will make you strong in that subject. Apologies, but I cannot close this point without writing a line about my idol, the creative genius – R.I.P. Steven Paul Jobs. I still remember one of their quotes. It says, “Let’s put a dent in the universe.”

3. Listen well

Read the heading one more time. Listen and listen very well. Listening to somebody is important, but listening to somebody well is the key to make the most of this habit. We believe that’s the reason why almighty God has blessed us with two ears and not one because He knew that many of our big decisions would be affected because of our wrong listening. Pay attention to every damn word somebody is saying to you, and then say your say or do what you’re supposed to. History validates that a simple listening problem had sunk the giant Titanic. Even after that mishap, if the other ship would have listened to the beep message sent by Titanic crew well, the entire story, we know today, would be different.

4. Know What You Are Not

Come on! Accept it or not but down on the inside, you know who you always try to be like. See, we aren’t asking you to stop learning from others. That’s great, but don’t imitate them because you don’t know what they have been through. We all need to understand here that learning something from someone is different, and taking him/ her as your competitor is different. We are always aware of what we are, but we should also learn what we aren’t. Remember you cannot be everything, but you. So believe in your own stuff. Learning is good, but stop turning this thing into an unhealthy competition, a competition other person is not even aware of. John, the brother of Jesus, when once asked by a stranger, “Are you the messiah?” In no time, John replied, “No, I’m not. He’s over there among people.” Why so? It’s because John not only knew who he was (in relation with Jesus), but he also knew who he was not.

5. Prefer being interested than being interesting

One of my favorite habits! Do you know what’s so special about it? It makes you a good initiator. We are all surrounded by people who are interesting in a way or other which is great, of course. But how many of them are interested? Interested in you or in somebody or in a cause? I mean, for an instance, you start doing something and ask for favor or something from the most interesting person you’ve met so far. S/he might not say no, but might also not be interested in your task or even if they favor, they leave you amid. Tend not to be interesting but interested, interested in a start-up, interested in listening to somebody, interested in someone’s interest. Beginning is important, and this is where people need you. Grab the chance with wide open palms when someone’s seeking you. Be interested in them, in turn, you will automatically become interesting.

6. Learn to Give-up on Your Own

Undoubtedly, we are not asking you to drop your weapons, squat down, and give up. Read the heading again. It says give up on your own. Make it your personal habit. Life is full of ups and downs, one good break and two bad breaks. Many at times, we try hard, harder, and hardest to make it through, but all in vain. A point comes when people (including family members) start saying, “You don’t have what it takes, you are this, you are that, you aren’t up to part, you will never success, you should try other profession, etc.” It is easy to give-up. Sometimes, giving-up in an only better option, but don’t do it because someone else asked you to do. S/he might be your well-wisher, might be an expert of that field, but even if you want to give-up, give-up on your own. Let it be your only decision. It’s because once you learn to give-up on your own, you will never give-up.

7. Rely on Human and not Human Nature

We humans are friendly, cooperative, sensible, adaptive, and are good at making relations. But we all have a common void, our human nature. Don’t get distracted and offended by somebody who said YES to you yesterday, but is saying NO today. In such situations, we tend to take the other person as if they are not reliable. Learn to improve your skill of understanding human nature. Work on it. Don’t judge somebody because of his/ her nature. Read the book first, don’t go by its title. Jack Ma, Asia’s second most rich person and the founder of Alibaba.com, says, “Human nature is the most unreliable thing.” Sometimes, we walk out of a relationship or a fellowship just because of unfriendly or unreliable human nature. Remember, humans are humans, but nature gets affected by circumstances. Don’t break a beautiful relation just because of bad human nature you never expected from somebody. Rely on them as a human.