how often do we pause to ask ourselves if the life we lead is the one we truly desire or maybe it's time to change your path instead hi there in this video I want to share an ongoing journey of self-discovery in my 20s one that might hopefully resonate with my new over the past 2 years my life has undergone through significant Transformations I Left My Home Country to go and study in a university in the United States and I immersed myself into a vibrant new culture but somewhere along the way I lost touch with myself
I was so swamped with Studies classes social life and work trying to maintain at all that I felt like I did not have enough time for self-reflection and did not have enough time to understand what exactly I wanted to do with the future it felt like my identity was sort of getting diluted in a mixture of other people's goals other people's ideas and expectations from life and I was just desperately trying to to find the authentic self my authentic self during my psychology classes I first discovered the term of quarter-life crisis which is the period
of intense introspection which occurs in your early 20s to early 30s and as soon as I learned about this term I knew I had it instantly I knew that I wasn't sure what my passions were and I was trying to figure it out out and I was trying to figure out my authentic self as I said before it felt like I was standing at a Crossroads and seeing no Clear Directions according to one LinkedIn study that they did in 2017 around 75% of people from 25 to 33 years old feel like they have a quarter-life
crisis which again says that if you're experiencing these feelings you're not alone this is extremely common and I guess most young people have to deal with the feeling of being overwhelmed let me to think about the Paradox of choice in a world of Endless Options making a choice can be very much paralyzing this Paradox applies not only to choosing the outfit for the day but also to making larger Life Choices like choosing a country to live in or choosing a career to pursue it's very difficult when you have so many opportunities and you don't know
which one would be the best in long there's this rule that really helped me with making decisions it's called 10 10 10 rule here's how it works when You Face a difficult decision split it into three parts and ask yourself how you will feel about it in 10 minutes 10 months and 10 years this helps you eliminate options that will not be good in the long term and just makes it easier to figure out what you want to do for example this spring in college I was thinking if I should take a gap here so
I decided to use this rule thought if in 10 minutes I decide to take a gap here I'll be happy because I'll know that the next year I'm going to be spending in Europe and in 10 months I know that if I do this Gap here I will be in Europe traveling and enjoying my life and I'll be very happy about it and in 10 years I don't even know what the impact of this decision will be make on my life in 10 years it's very much possible that this Gap year will potentially help me
to stir myself into the direction um of the career that I want it's definitely a win on three of the dimensions so I did decide to take this Gap so now I'm on this Gap here exploring Germany with a new job new culture new country and I've really been enjoying it this whole European Rhythm has given me space to realign my focus on the things that matter to me and the things that I find interesting and if you're looking for perhaps taking a sabbatical gap here or any sort of pause from your career or studies
I would say you should embrace it so travel to a new country learn a new skill just do something that is new and different and I think it will definitely help you with understanding who you are and what you like and an important thing to keep in mind is just taking time off school or off work is not going to help you instantly ReDiscover yourself uh you actually had to have to have clear goals in mind of what you want to do during this period of sabatical so yeah first of all set a goal goals
for what you want to have done during this period set a goals of what interests you want to explore Hobbies career paths and preferably doing new activities or things that you've always wanted to explore but never have the courage to do second is budgeting if you don't have a source of income during your sabatical or Gap year or a job or some savings I don't recommend you do it because you're going to end up being even more stressed and lost if you have Financial um difficulties and the third part is regularly reflecting I suggest journaling
or maybe keeping blog of your activities and your experiences um because it always feels very nice to clean your mind space of all of the color that you have and sort of like organize all of your information your brain into like clear shelves and also in the future when you're going to be older you can look in these notes and see how beautifully all these events have turned out and although I love setting goals for the future I realized that the events of Life are so random that you just can't know what you're going to
be doing in a few years so I heard this great quote on one podcast which says don't ask yourself what you want to have accomplished when you're 50 ask yourself what you want to do in a boring Thursday afternoon when you're 50 and I thought wow what a great way to think about your future you're not just thinking about the Milestones but you're trying to figure out what are the ordinary moments that could bring you happiness and I think this is actually the absence of personal fulfillment so not focusing on the Milestones ugly I think
it's very important because once you achieve one goal you're going to get used to it before you even know it this quote of George Bernard Shaw really speaks to me which says life isn't about finding yourself life is about creating yourself it's a reminder that our lives are not pre-written stories that are waiting to be discovered they're actually lay canvases and we are the people who are holding the brush so you the person who are going to craft your story and in this process of creating we're finding ourselves so if you're in your 20s and
you're feeling lost you're not alone I myself I'm still in the process of overcoming this quarter life crisis but with this Gap here I've actually had a much better time with understanding who I am as a person and finally having more time to explore my interests the key is to understand that this SP is just a part of your growth you're going to get over it and for me personally it's been a turning point and I hope this becomes a turning point for you as well into a positive direction thank you for watching and I
really hope that this video inspires you to start taking action and if you are looking for that perfect moment or a message from the universe that will tell you to change your career or take a sabatical or do something else and you're looking for a message this is my message for you to do so thank you
