Building a Career In your 20’s

Building a career in your 20's can be a challenge. Growing up, we were part of the generation still told we could be doctors, astronauts, celebrity footballers, and the rest. We weren't taught about the long hours we needed to put in even to begin to climb the ladder in life.

I'm not afraid to say I feel like I've worked harder than most people my age, but sometimes I still feel like I've barely got off the starting line in my professional career. I run a freelancing business and work as an executive in the capital, but it all feels frivolous and delicate. A minor personal hiccup could send everything tumbling.

Recently I feel like my head has been in the clouds, my business is slowing, and my output is effectively in the gutter. Whilst it's normal to go through these stages of burnout, there's always a feeling of failure and defeat that comes with this need to rest.

As I sit writing this week's slightly incoherent blog post, I'm dwelling on all the other stuff on my to-do list, but I don't have the motivation to attack it just yet.

Why? I'm hungover from going out with my friends, heartbroken because the guy I like at work has started getting with another girl, and I feel like I've made so many tough choices this week. I feel lost and fucking alone.

But that's the stuff we deal with in our early twenties. We're young and getting used to the world. We're making tough choices left, right and centre and nine times out of ten, they end up being life lessons.

We're young, still learning the do's and don't of life, but we're also expected to churn out excellence and strive for perfection from an early age. We still feel like university students, and there's so much responsibility.

This month has been slow and complex, but I want to make the next one much better, a chance to build back my freelancing business and finally feel more confident in the work I'm creating. I've strayed away from my regular work this month, but I think I can get back into the swing of things again.