Opinion
Graduation season is a time to celebrate endings and new beginnings. Amid the gaiety, clinical psychologist Meg Jay’s message from 2013 could not be more timely or more important for our relationships, families, new employees and our future.
As our animal health industry grapples with employee shortages, work-life balance, work ethic perceptions, aging infrastructures, what to pay people and more, Jay’s message is a call to action for twentysomethings AND for those of us who employee, educate and mentor people in their first decade of work and adulthood.
. . . many twentysomethings feel trivialized during what is actually the most transformative — and defining — period of our adult lives.” – Meg Jay, PhD
Jay gives three pieces of advice for how twentysomethings can reclaim adulthood in the defining decade of their lives. She says the 20s are not a throwaway decade, it’s time to start planning now.
- Get some identity capital . . . forget the identify crisis. Explore work and make it count!
- The urban tribe is overrated.
- The time to start picking your family is NOW!
Source: TED 2013, February 2013. Link. (14 minutes) Jay shares these key points to underscore a sense of urgency:
- 80 percent of life’s most defining moments take place by age 35
- The first 10 years of a career has an exponential impact on lifetime earnings
- More than half of Americans are married, living with, or dating their future partner by 30
- The brain caps of its second and last growth spurt in people’s 20’s as it rewires itself for adulthood
- Personality changes in the 20s more than any other time in life
- For females fertility peaks at age 28 and gets trickier after age 35
Also see: Essential questions to ask your future self, Meg Jay, TED Membership, May 2021. Link. Sharing how to close the empathy gap between you and your future selves, Meg Jay PhD outlines courageous questions to ask about how your present and future can align, so you can begin to achieve your goals.