Two things you should be doing at 25

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In many countries, an adult is someone that is above 18 years. By this age, the person is thought to be capable of making his own choices and living with the consequences that come with them. For many, that is an age of transmission to adulthood. Nature gives people the advantage of time and that time sometimes bought them a certain degree of clarity. That is why many times, older people understand things better than their younger counterparts. This is not because they are smarter or more intelligent but because they have the advantage of getting to the world first.
While it is easy to use your age as an advantage in beating off competition from other people because age sometimes gives a certain degree of clarity, that advantage has an expiry date. For example, if you bag your first degree at 28, many companies might not likely consider you for a job when many of your contenders are between 21 and 23. Although you carry the same degree as they do, they are considered to have a longer work life than you. You could beat them in school but reality gives them an advantage over you. Have you ever wondered why many football teams always want to buy players when they are young and energetic and are always ready to let go of old players? This is because energy of humans tends to reduce as they age.
At 25, your attention should be on these two aspects of social development:
One, at 25, you must have an economy of some sort which means have a regular source of income. You should know how to make legitimate money on your own no matter how little. Don’t be a deaf and dumb young adult by making academics your primary goal at 25. There is more to life than academic degree that it shouldn’t be your primary goal at 25. Academics is only one of the ways to succeed and not the only way to succeed. The most successful people in the world are not those with the best academic degree. If truly academics is the only way to being successful, professors would be the most successful in the world.
At 25, it is unwise to make academics your primary goal if your purpose is to use the certificate to get a job. This may sound absurd but it’s a bitter truth. Look at it this way: if you get a fulltime admission to the university at 25 and above, graduation for you would be at 29 and above depending on the nature of your course. In a country like Nigeria, you could only know when you start but uncertain when you would finish because of incessant strike actions by lecturers. And while you are getting in at 25 for example, half of the people in your class are getting in when they are less than 20. By the time you all finish, you would be greatly disadvantaged because when you are close to being 30, they are not close to 25 which is the age you get in. However, this is not to say you should abhor any form of academic training. But instead of making it your primary concern, it should rather be secondary. You should not be pursuing an academic degree with vigour at 25.
Two, you should build relationships that serves your cause in life. This means when you turn 25, you should be very mindful of the type of relationships you keep. It is not the size of your friendship circle that matters but what those friends are carrying in them. Wisdom is rare and is therefore not found in most people. If you boast of having a lot of friends, it means you have a lot of fools as friends because foolish people are more than the wise ones anywhere in the world. As a matter of fact, I consider having more acquaintances than having a lot of people you call friends. This is called the weak-tie. Most of the times, you and your friends have the same information, hangout in the same place and also hear and know almost the same thing. But your acquaintances have information you are not privy to and they hear and know many of the things you don’t. Instead of going about parading many people as friends, strive to stay connected to the right people instead.
Also, people must qualify for the investment of your time and energy. If they must qualify, it means you must have a standard for accepting people into your life and establishing relationships with them. Your life cannot be better than that of those you surround yourself with and cannot be worse than that of those you surround yourself with. The type of people you keep around yourself is a reflection of the type of person you are. Thus, the quality of life of those around you would determine how far you would go in the journey of life.
If you don’t have standard for admitting people into your life, you will spend time gathering fools around yourself. When you have foolish people as friends, becoming foolish is inevitable. Your best friend cannot be a fool and you claim to be wise. Like minds always have a way of attracting one another.
At 25 and above, you should not be available to everyone. Your standard must be to help you attract the right people into your life. There should be a protocol for friendship because many people and relationships are toxic. You must know who can help you and who cannot. If God wants to help you and if Satan wants to destroy you, they both send people to you. It takes a great deal of wisdom to decipher the mission of everyone that comes your way, either to make or mar you. This starts by knowing yourself and then determining what you want. To get better in life depends on the value you place on human beings and the premium you place on your relationship with them. Yet, this would not matter if you don’t have quality thinking and strong character.