9 Life-Changing Pieces of Advice for Millennials
By: Jiha Emen
Tags: Life Advice, Life Lessons, Millennials

As a millennial, I believe our 20s should be spent doing something good to prepare us in our 30s and beyond.

When I was 20 years old, I felt lost and confused about what I want to do with my life. Yes, I have big goals and ambitions but I have no idea where to start.

Heck, I didn’t even know how to get out of the situation where I was at that time because I was afraid to lose my job. Yet I was even more afraid to stay in the same situation for a long time.

Not until I started to invest in my personal development and make my self-education a priority over anything else.

That’s why all the things I’ve listed down below are the lessons I learned from reading books and articles written by amazing people, taking courses, and first-hand experiences.

These exact lessons helped me to change my life from a broke and confused private school teacher to become self-employed at the age of 20.

I also used these pieces of advice to start this blog so I can share with you the lessons I learned that might help you with your personal growth as well.

Let’s get started.

1. Learn More About Yourself

For me, this is one of the best if not the best pieces of advice you can find in this blog post.

Learning who you are is a life-changing lesson. It’s something that never ends because you literally can learn something new about yourself every day.

So before you learn anything else, learn who you are first.

In my early 20s, my goal is to have experiences that are miles wide and inches deep.

When I was starting, I didn’t commit to one thing right away.

Instead, I tried out a lot of things and tested what I truly enjoy and what was worth my time.

I went into 8 different jobs and worked in different industries.

Aside from experiencing a lot of things, I also recommend you take personality tests.

You can try out tests like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, DISC Test, The Enneagram, and so much more.

These will help you figure out what’s your learning style, what you’re naturally good at, what do you suck at, what you enjoy working on, and what you don’t like doing.

Take your time to really figure out who you are at your core and how you operate.

2. Save Your Money so You Can Invest Later

Growing in a poor family made me learn this lesson early on.

With the little money that I had when I was in college and even when I was working in a minimum-wage job, I needed to properly budget so it can cover all my necessary expenses.

That’s why even now that I’m already earning for myself, I built a habit of saving money so I can invest it later on.

My savings allowed me to quit my full-time teaching job and pursue my passion, buy a lot of books, and invest in courses to be where I am today.

Live well below your means and save 20–30% of your income so you have money to set aside for your emergency fund, insurance, and future investments.

This isn’t easy especially if you’re not used to saving money so here are some of my recommendations for you to get started:

Pay all your debts first

Start saving a small amount and increase over time

Have a safe place where you can separate your savings from your other money

Set a savings goal

3. Commit to the Long Game

When I first started working for myself, I admit that I was so impatient most of the time. I set ambitious goals and tried so hard to achieve them.

The result? I burned out several times even I haven’t achieved my goal yet. This then led to frustration and quitting.

Not until I learn to commit to the long game. As they said, your goals, the same as life, is a marathon and not a sprint.

Now I fully understand that life is meant to be played in years, not weeks or months.

Yes, I have goals for next week and next month but I’m more considerate of the long-term results of the actions I do daily.

Set some big goals like starting your blog, building a business, or reading a book but be patient in the process and lay one brick at a time.

Every day, start with writing 3 paragraphs, study 1–2 modules of a business course, or read 5–10 pages.

These actions might seem small and insignificant but they will help you achieve your goals in the long run.

4. Your Education Has Just Started

When you think your education is over when you finish going to school, you’re wrong.

In fact, your true learning has just begun.

In school, some teachers give you handouts and assignments for you to learn but unfortunately, that’s not the case in the outside world.

There would be nobody telling you how to do this and that and that’s why you need to be responsible for your own self-education.

Your 20s is the perfect time to invest massively in your self-growth and learning.

Read more books on personal development, psychology, persuasion, peak performance, and success.

Study courses too that are related to your line of interest and put what you’ve learned into action right away.

Your investment in your self-education is the single best investment you will ever have in your life.

5. Take The Risks

One of the reasons why your 20s is the best time to take the risk is that you still have less responsibility compared to when you’re in your 30s or 40s.

You probably don’t have kids to feed or any type of heavy obligation.

Personally, even if I have a big responsibility to provide for my family when my father died when I was 19, I still took the risk.

I quit my traditional teaching job to become self-employed and even though this is probably one of the hardest decisions I ever did in my life, it was worth it and I don’t have any regrets at all.

Pursuing a path full of risks and uncertainties taught me so many valuable lessons that I am sure I wouldn’t learn if I stayed in my comfort zone.

I recommend that you do whatever it is that you want and pursue it no matter how scary it is.

I am sure it will transform you as a person and it will surely make a huge difference in your life.

Embrace the risk and go outside your comfort zone.

5. Develop a High-Income Skill

One of my most favorite entrepreneurs, Dan Lok always emphasizes the value of having a high-income skill in the wealth triangle. And in today’s economy, I think it must be a non-negotiable.

The wealth triangle is composed of a high-income skill, a scalable business, and a high-return investment.

Your 20s is the perfect time to devote yourself to mastering certain valuable skills.

I am with you on this journey. At the age of 23, I am no way near to being a master of my own craft that’s why I’m also in the process of learning new skills and mastering the ones I already know.

Specifically, here are the skills I’m continuously learning:

Content Marketing

Social Media Marketing

Copywriting

Sales

Of course, I would still love to learn more but I decided to just focus on 3–4 skills first so I don’t overwhelm myself.

7. Take Good Care of Your Health

This is one of the lessons I learned early but I implemented it late. Since I’ve been doing a lot of things, I never actually paid much attention to my health.

I didn’t devote time to exercise, I slept late at night, I ate too many chocolates and junk foods, I sat down for a long time in front of my computer, and I drank few glasses of water every day.

Sounds terrible, isn’t it? But this is what my reality looked like a few years ago.

But ever since I realized that health plays a huge role in your personal growth, I became more conscious of my health and wellness.

I’ve been implementing these daily habits to make sure I’m focused, productive, and motivated to do all the tasks I need to do within the day:

Exercise for 20–30 minutes

Meditate twice a day

Apply the 80/20 rule in my eating habits

Take my daily vitamins and supplements

Drink 2 liters of water

Get some sunshine for my body

Sleep more than 7–8 hours a day

They might look simple and basic but remember we are committing to this in the long run.

8. Read Every Single Damn Day

If I could only name one thing responsible for becoming the person that I am today, it would be my love for reading.

As much as I remember, I started reading when I was in elementary. I’m also a voracious reader during my 14 years of stay in school but it’s mostly fiction though.

But when I graduated from college, I’ve been obsessed with reading non-fiction books.

The first-ever book that I read was Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power and it literally changed my life.

Some of the best and most successful people in the world spent years and years learning the same things you want to learn and they shared their knowledge and experience in a book that you can read in a few days.

So please, READ, READ, and READ.

After you’re done reading, make sure to take all the lessons that you learned into action, or else it won’t be that useful.

9. Your Network Determines Your Net Worth

Who you know is more important than what you know. It sounds cliche but it’s true.

I haven’t nailed this one yet but I’m in the process of doing it.

I believe that in your 20s, it’s more important than ever to expand your network and meet as many people who are doing more than you (when I say more, I mean more successful and more knowledgeable) as much as possible.

Learn how to give value and hustle in the heart of service without asking anything in return.

Read books about psychology, sales, and influence.

Final Words

You might have your most ambitious goals as a millennial but seriously, you’re still young and you still have your life ahead of you.

Don’t be so caught up in making a living that you forget to have a life.

Have fun, make mistakes, and enjoy the process.