11 ways to find direction in your 20s and beyond–Part 1

At 26, I had just left missions, started my first “official” job, and was figuring out adulting things like how to pay rent, make a car payment, balance my prayer life with a 40-hour-a-week job, and have a social life. This was a HUGE learning curve for me, and I have to admit that I am still learning every single day. But, I can also say that many of the practices that I worked hard at as a 20-something still serve me well to this day.

I divided this series into parts based on the “aspect” of life each point pertains to—physical, mental/emotional, and spiritual. I’ll cover them in that order, but know that you can work on any area at any time. You don’t have to follow this order. But if you don’t have any of these rhythms and routines down already, I recommend establishing them in this order because it’s very hard to tend to your mental and emotional health or your spiritual life if your physical needs aren’t being met.

So, without further ado, here are some ways you can find direction in your 20s—and well beyond.

There are a lot of budgeting tools out there, so I recommend that you pick one that works for you. I created one you can use if you like the paper route.

Other options you can try are:

• A spreadsheet
• Good old-fashioned pen and paper
• Mint (highly rated by Forbes)
• Envelope method

Make sure you include a category for saving, debt pay-off, and tithing/giving to have a well-rounded budget!

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2. Reap the benefits of meal planning.

 Along the lines of budgeting, meal planning and grocery list making really helped me keep my grocery budget in check. When I knew exactly what I was going to make, and knew exactly what I needed to buy, it was so much easier to stay on-budget at the grocery store each week. That, and not shopping when hungry, amIrite?

Meal planning is one of the favorite tools of people who are trying to lose weight, but even if that’s not one of your goals, meal planning helps you make healthier choices and spend less on eating out or groceries. In my opinion, it also helps with the daily overwhelm of deciding “what the heck should I make for dinner tonight?!” When you’re working full-time, the last thing you need is to drain more time and energy with a daily struggle to decide what to feed yourself.

I like to grocery shop on Sundays after church, so I will often make my meal plan and grocery list on Saturday evening. For each day, I write “Breakfast:,” “Lunch:,” and “Dinner:” and fill in the meal I plan to make. I usually make extra, so that lunches are often leftovers from a previous meal. That makes packing a lunch so much easier when all I have to do is grab a Tupperware from the refrigerator!

Of course, this was all true pre-pandemic, when I actually had to pack a lunch and commute to work. But even in a post-pandemic world, when many of us still work from home, meal planning is just as helpful now as it was then.

Have you ever realized that you’re hungry, and wandered to the refrigerator looking for food, and stare into its depths for way too long because you can’t decide what to eat? When you have easy-to-reheat leftovers, that feeling disappears!

Meal planning is also great because you don’t have to cook every meal in a week. You can plan which meals you want to eat out or order in for.

If you want to take your meal planning to the next level, I recommend using my method for grocery list organization: a quadrant-style grocery list! Get your grocery list template here (plus, 8 more templates to help you in other areas of your life!).

It kind of doesn’t matter what kind of movement you incorporate, just that you move that beautiful body of yours and listen to the cues it gives you every day.

Stretch.

Breathe.

Challenge yourself.

Set timers to move every hour. Listen to your Fitbit when it tells you that you need more steps.

As my physical therapist says, “If you don’t use it, you lose it.” And I see the truth of that with my aging family members.

Even a simple daily walk will help you clear your head and keep your body fit as you age. I know “aging” feels forever away. God willing, it is. But trust me, when you’re 75 and still mobile, you’ll thank me.

Click here to snag a free weekly movement plan right now.

4. Find a bedtime routine that works for you and stick to it.

Okay, in full transparency, this one is both physical and mental/emotional.

Getting enough sleep is 1000% crucial for your physical and mental health.

So turn your AC down, buy a fan (here’s the one I use), set an alarm to remind you to brush your teeth if you need one, and go to bed on time.

Here’s my bedtime routine (at least for winter):

• As soon as my work day ends, I tidy my room and turn all the lights off. I turn my dimmable lamp down to the lowest setting at which I can still read.
• I light a candle.
• I brush my teeth as soon as I’m done with dinner. (This used to seem aggressively early, until I fell asleep multiple nights in a row without brushing my teeth. Yikes.)
• I read by my dimmed lamp and candlelight until 8:00.
• At 8:00 I have a video chat with my cute boyfriend.
• After my video call, I read until I feel sleepy.
• Once I’m sleepy, I go to the bathroom one last time, turn my lamp off, and get those ZZZZs—usually around 9:00, no joke. I’ve literally gotten 8 or more hours of sleep 9 out of the last 21 nights, or 42% of the time! Or, if you want to go crazy with the stats, I’ve gotten 7 or more hours of sleep the last 16 out of 21 nights, or 76% of the time. Y’all. I have NEVER felt better.

I still have hard days, but getting enough sleep and drinking enough water absolutely helps me make it through those hard days with much more resilience than I’ve ever had before. (I use a monthly habit tracker I created to track my daily prayer, sleep, water intake, and exercise. I created a version for you, too, which you can get here.)

Next week, we’ll chat about ways to help your mental and emotional health. In the meantime, let me know which of today’s tips were most revolutionary for you in the comments below!