20 Ways To Adult Like A Pro

Adulting is like nothing I’ve ever seen! There is the professional ladder climb, work politics, crazy-people management, food portion control, dried raisins and carrots as snacks, self-control exercises—such as cutting up credit cards, dependence on reason and a moral code, the ocassional glass of red or two...hundred(kidding), steady-ish relationships, minimal daydreaming(if any), choosing not to meet the expectation of others—but doing you; all this while trying to manage your time the best way you can.

Time was a soothing sea of possibilities when we were children. There was never any hurry, there was ample time to daydream, and yet be productive. Well, now we’re adults, and if you are like me, it feels like time hates you and there’s never enough of it. Not to mention insufficient sleep, that skinny salary due to your sudden affinity for ultra-fine dining, clinking wine glasses and flossy weekend trips. And of course, attending all those weddings and parties.

Well, as adults we need all the help we can get. Here are 20 tips which will help us get through adulthood like pros: 

1. Go to bed early so you don’t feel like a washed-up crab in the mornings

2. Put down your phone and achieve your goals. Don’t have any? Get some, write them down…please

3. Review your work performance yourself every two months. Highlight and quantify your contribution to your organization, update your resume and have a check in with your boss. Did someone whisper “salary increase?”

4. Treat yourself. Yes, you are saving for a rainy day but you deserve to be spoiled, and deserve at least one day when you don’t think about rainy days and Wellies 

5. Reassess your clique from your teenage years, if they are still with you. If “Cool babes” or “True squad” or “Flossy posse” isn’t adding value to your life, you need to put them in the back seat of your life or preferably outside the car. However, if “Cool babes” is still the litest crew and the best friends in the world, then you should shop around for a new name, and forever anahilate that name from the earth

6. Listen to the voices in your head, especially the ones that you know are actually good and add value to our world

7. Get rid of the demon on your shoulder. You know that voice that tells you you can’t make it or that you make a poor worker, friend, wife, husband, mum or neighbor. The one that tells you you can never change or stop bad habits. Yeah, that one, talk back to it and tell it that it’s wrong. If you can, slap it in the face

8. Make good decisions that reflect your values

9. Do not remain in emotionally deficient or physically abusive relationships

10. Eat well. The rule is: whatever goes into your body and acts as fuel for your cells should be good quality. Your cells will dish out what you give them...

11. Call your parents. I can’t stress that enough. They really, really want to hear from you. If that doesn’t make them more loveable I don’t know what will. Call them more and let them talk for as long as they’d like. Remember when you talked their ears off as a toddler? Repay the favor and enjoy it! Also don’t poke around IG or play “Words with Friends” while they are on the line

12. Choose good friends and paralyze them with love, especially when they mess up. 

13. Don’t gossip. Leave the ear-whispering to pimply strangers. There’s no dignity in gossip as an adult. None.

14. Buy a pet or be your own pet. I am my own pet. I love moderately short walks and sugary popcorn, I’d rather throw than catch and I really like taking pet(me) portraits. 

15. Pray and praise more. So many burdens we carry, all because we don’t carry them to God in prayer. Seriously,

16. Save. Whether in a kolo(piggy bank), in the helm of a curtain, in the ground, in the tree trunk of that fruit tree in your compound or simply in a less-dramatic savings account. Save.

17. Travel.

18. Build others up. So your life feels upside down, what better time to build someone else up. You are pretty broke, what better time to give to someone else; you’ve been looking for a job since 2012, what better time to connect a fellow seeker to an employer? Build others up.

19. Find God. He really, really wants to hear from you too. 

20. Know yourself, know especially your strengths and weaknesses. Build on your strengths and don’t dwell on your failures. Stay away from voices that remind you of them always. Listen to voices that encourage and reassure you. Keep your eyes ahead and keep your mind strong and fearless. 

How’s adulting treating you? Have anything to add?