Your twenties are not meant to be spent sitting on the couch waiting for life to happen to you. This is the decade where you have just enough energy, freedom, and time to shape the person you are going to become for the rest of your life. Not everyone’s twenties look the same, and that is perfectly fine since some people chase careers, others chase adventure, and some focus on building a family. Whatever your goals may be, the key is to actually pursue them rather than letting the years slip by without intention.
One of the first things worth doing is developing your own personal style, not the one your mom picked out or the one your friend group follows, but something that feels uniquely yours. Around the same time, it is worth pushing yourself to travel somewhere completely alone, even just once. Solo travel forces you to rely on yourself, solve problems on the fly, and discover how capable you actually are when nobody else is around to help. Learning a new skill, whether it is a language, an instrument, or a craft, adds real depth to your life and keeps your brain sharp and engaged.
Moving out of your parents’ home is another milestone that changes you in ways you cannot fully anticipate until you are the one paying for groceries and fixing a clogged drain at midnight. Living independently teaches responsibility in a way that nothing else quite can. Taking calculated risks in this period is also important because the consequences of failure at 23 are far less permanent than they are at 43, and the lessons you pick up from those stumbles are worth more than any classroom could offer. Learning to cook at least a handful of solid meals is a practical skill that pays dividends every single day and saves a surprising amount of money over time.
Scheduling regular checkups with a gynecologist and dentist might sound boring, but building these health habits early is genuinely one of the most important things you can do for your future self. Starting to save money, even in small amounts, is equally critical since compound interest rewards people who start early and punishes those who wait. Meeting new people and building friendships outside of your existing circle broadens your perspective and opens doors you did not even know existed. And if you are in a relationship that does not make you happy, this is the time to find the courage to walk away from it.
Volunteering somewhere, even briefly, shifts your focus outward and often gives you clarity about what actually matters to you in life. Chasing at least one big dream, whether that is publishing something, starting a business, running a marathon, or learning to surf, gives your twenties a sense of purpose and gives your future self a great story. Regular physical activity, whatever form you genuinely enjoy, is a habit that becomes harder to build the older you get, so planting that seed now matters enormously. If a job is making you miserable, this is also the decade to pivot, explore, and find work that aligns better with who you are becoming.
Investing in your relationship with your parents, if that is possible and healthy for you, tends to become more meaningful as you age and as you begin to understand them as people rather than just authority figures. Experimenting with your hair, whether that means chopping it off or going a bold color, is the kind of low-stakes, high-fun risk that fits perfectly into this chapter of life. Learning to genuinely like yourself, including your weird habits, your quirks, and your imperfections, is perhaps the hardest but most rewarding thing on this entire list. Getting into a reading habit, even just a book or two a month, quietly builds knowledge and empathy over time in ways that accumulate beautifully. Going on dates, even awkward ones, and getting your driver’s license round out the list with experiences that help you grow into a more confident and self-sufficient adult.
From a broader perspective, the concept of the “quarter-life crisis” is well-documented among young adults in their twenties, a period of uncertainty and self-examination that researchers and psychologists recognize as a normal developmental phase. Studies in psychology suggest that identity formation, a process first described by Erik Erikson, continues well into early adulthood, meaning the twenties are literally the biological and psychological window designed for exactly this kind of exploration. Financial experts consistently point out that someone who begins saving even $50 a month at age 22 will end up with dramatically more wealth at retirement than someone who starts at 32, thanks to decades of compound growth. The twenties also represent peak neuroplasticity in terms of skill acquisition, meaning your brain is particularly well-suited to learning new languages, instruments, and complex abilities during this time.
Share which of these resonates with you most, or tell us what you would add to the list, in the comments.
