How To Overcome The Quarter Life Crisis
First of all, are you having a quarter-life crisis?
The signs and symptoms:
You are in your twenties to thirties
You feel financially unprepared for life on your own.
Your self-esteem could use a boost
Thinking about the future results in anxiety.
You don’t know what you want to do with your life or you know what you want to do, but can’t seem to make a living at it.
You feel pressure to get your adult life in order and plan your future.
You feel entitled to or long for a life much grander than the one you are living.
The choices you make now will seemingly affect the rest of your life. This stresses you out.
Things are not turning out like you thought they would. You are dealing with disappointment or confusion
You are in a funk; nothing is terribly wrong, but nothing seems right either.
You feel a lot of pressure and expectations to do, have or be something. You haven't figured out what that 'something' is.
Unmotivated, directionless or passionless describes you all to well.
A breakup, romantic relationship, or lack of one is causing distress.
Other people your age are doing things and you feel like you don’t measure up.
You are still at home with mom and dad.
Does this sound like you? Don’t despair if it does.
If you are having a quarter-life crisis, this is not bad news.
In fact, if you recognize what is going on in you, you are on the right track. It’s good to be self-aware. Our emotions are like the check engine indicator lights on our dashboard letting us know something is wrong, but not necessarily giving us the details of what is wrong under the hood.
The Quarter-Life Crisis simply means that you are alive and breathing and recognizing that this isn’t the life you want to settle for. You are feeling that untapped potential welling up inside of you. Guess what? It’s time to tap into that potential and let it transform your future.
It starts with laying a solid foundation of knowing who you are today and why. How do you do that? Here are three ways that helped me to get started laying that foundation:
1. Take a personality test. I recommend 16 personalities.
2. Write out your demographic. (Age, gender, ethnicity, marital status, etc.)
3. Write out your interests, the things you are drawn to or love to talk about.
To find out what I personally used to lay a complete foundation, enroll in my free 5 day mini-course Mark Your X: How To Find Your Strengths-Based Evergreen Niche. It walks through identity establishment in way more depth with lots of questions to prompt your creativity.
Enroll Now
Once you know who you are, do you like the person you see in the mirror? If you don’t like some things, that’s ok. Make a note and look back in the mirror. What things DO you like? What are your strengths, your assets, your abilities, natural or trained? Could anyone benefit from your strengths?
I would venture to say that your strengths, in combination with your personality and demographic paints the perimeters of a blank canvas.
That perimeter represents your identity.
The blank canvas is where you are going to paint the possibilities of your future in light of a solid understanding of who you are.
The canvas is your future.
If we aren’t confident in our identity, we can’t be confident of the kind of adventure we should undertake. Everest shouldn’t be your first climb if haven’t even walked the nature trail at your local park. But if you have a couple fourteeners under your belt, Everest could be what you paint on your canvas.
Don’t set yourself up for failure. Live with passion. Take risks. BUT KNOW YOURSELF. Know your limitations. Do not succumb to comparison. Break free from the comparison by embracing the unique positives that you can offer.
When you start channeling all your abilities, and strengths into something that captivates your interest, and then you throw in the incentive of the profit from this endeavor being all yours, you’ve got yourself an entrepreneur in the making.
There isn’t time for comparison or dissatisfaction when you’ve found purpose in being uniquely you.
Your self-esteem boosts a little bit every time you have little successes and learn something new. This is being an adult. No more trying. You are being an adult that is taking small, manageable risks, taking responsibility for your financial future. Now the future has all the hope of growth, success and profit and you aren’t looking toward some foggy, grey, indescribable entity that is causing you and your loved ones indigestion.
Becoming an entrepreneur really is one of the best solutions to the quarter-life crisis I can find. I started Adventure of Existence shortly after a quarter-life crisis myself, so I speak with authority on the subject.
And honestly, with everyone hating on millennials in the workplace and writing an insane amount of articles about “how to manage millennials”, who would want to stay in an environment where their natural giftings and abilities are being stifled and untapped?
Millennials are really better suited to being their own bosses or being coaches because they they know what it is to be coached. We’ve been coached our whole lives. Why stop now?
We millennials thrive in communities where they continue to both give and receive coaching. I love the movement that encapsulates this idea so beautifully-Community Over Competition.
I say it's time to finally break off the shaming generational identity that brings death to our creativity and that is a curse to our energy and embrace a new, emerging identity that will revolutionize what millennials are known for in the history books! #stopshamingmillenials
So, dear reader who is saying, 'Yes! This is me!', go enroll in Mark Your X and feel the anxiety begin to float away and discover your identity, passions and potential entrepreneurial direction. It’s free. What do you have to lose except living with mom and dad and that funk you’ve been in?
I’m over this funk enroll me!
Have you had a quarter-life crisis? Are you currently in one? What's been your experience? Would you add to any of the above symptoms?
