Balancing Guidance with Gut Instinct

The two essential parts of taking advice and making decisions

Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

I’m in my early twenties and I’ve found this stage in life is filled with the paradox of whether to grasp onto the guidance of those older and wiser or completely ignore them to go with your gut and ‘discover’ yourself.

On one end of the rope is the ‘things I wish I knew in my twenties’ lectures that keep coming my way. we all need a helping hand, and often the best ‘hands’ come in the form of a few wise words that give you the guidance you need. When you’re lost and confused, these wise words clear the fog and show you the path, especially if they came from someone who’s already travelled the route you want to go down.

But in a world that is so insistent on sharing their top tips, imposing a timeline, and preaching their ‘how to’s’ at every occasion, often that a ‘helping hand’ starts to feel like a dragging one, taking you down a road you’re not sure you want to be on. Not to mention when advice from different sources is contradictory, pulling you in multiple different directions.

Tugging at the other end of the rope is the framing of your twenties as your ‘selfish years’; your chance to ‘find’, ‘discover’, and ‘create’ yourself. It’s your chance to get to know yourself well enough to create your own…