40 Things to do before you're 30

“…take time to grow personally and professionally; take time to make mistakes and learn from them; take time to laugh; time to love yourself and those who support you; time to stop and listen and most of all, time to appreciate all that life can give when you are open to it.”

One of my most important mentors shared these words with me upon my entrance into a new chapter (graduation).

These words are placed on the mirror in my bathroom, ensuring I see them daily.

Time.

Now, allow me to take you back to my headline.

40 things to do before you’re 30.

I blame these types of headlines, in part, for much of the discontentment and restlessness you may see in “millennials” (I dislike the term).

We are, so statistics say, processing the most information daily than any other generation prior. Each day, we are given messages to “travel while we can,” “be entrepreneurs,” “do it while we’re young.” Our newsfeeds are flooded with people our age that are either millionaires because of their new startup app, or telling us to rid of everything and travel the world with our backpack.

With all of this overwhelming our information load, it becomes difficult for us to just be.

It becomes difficult for us to simply enjoy our morning coffee and watch the sunrise, it becomes easy for us to chug it down (burn our tongues) and think about all of our goals for the next three years while we pretend to listen to a podcast because “that’s what the great ones do.”

It becomes difficult for us to enjoy our daily jobs and tasks, it becomes easy for us to sit and day dream of adventures abroad—the ones all of the people in the blogs are having.

I do not write this to disregard those who are extremely successful or traveling the world at this young age, because, there’s a reason these stories takeover our day—they’re awesome.

I write this because I know how it feels to crave being on the “30 under 30.” I know how it feels to go to bed each night wondering “did I do enough? Am I doing enough? Am I enough?” I know how it feels to have a bucket list go unchecked year after year. I know how it feels to yearn for something else, to feel overwhelmed with pending accomplishments.

I also know how it feels to go to bed after a day of hard work—one where I worked toward my goals, one where I saw my dreams coming to life, but more importantly, one where I took the time to breathe, to enjoy my coffee, to smile as the sun rose in the morning, and to stare at the stars as they took over the night.

Whether it’s a goal, an amount of money, a relationship, or a bucket list of recreational activities, make sure you allow yourself the time.

If we are rushing to get things done by a certain age, how will we enjoy them? How will we be there rather than thinking of the next thing?

If you are working toward what you want, if you are honoring your goals and dreams daily—then you did enough, you are doing enough, and, I can assure you, you are enough.