The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now

by Meg Jay

The one thing I have learned is that you can’t think your way through life. The only way to figure out what to do is to do—something.

I learned to not worry about how to make it to the next level and just focus on the job at hand.

But doing something later is not necessarily the same as doing something better.

Making the best of things is a damn poor way of dealing with them. My life has been a series of escapes from that quicksand.

A life built on top of “Maybe You’ll Do” simply may not feel as dedicated as a life built on top of the “We Do” of commitment or marriage.

There are other ways to test a relationship besides moving in together, including doing a wider variety of activities together than dating and sex.

Never again will we be so quick to learn new things. Never again will it be so easy to become the people we hope to be. The risk is that we may not act now.

Twentysomethings who don’t feel anxious and incompetent at work are usually overconfident or underemployed.