Growth In Your 30s: Pivoting, Learning And Prioritisation

It dawned on me recently that I spent a good 20+ years of my life in school. Even when I finished grad school eight years ago, investing in myself and my learning was a huge goal of mine. My fitness journey was a big part of twenties alongside getting my mindset right through self-help books and podcasts. That didn’t change at all throughout that decade. I tried to get back into reading fiction for fun, keyword: tried, because reading hundreds of pages on various topics in International Affairs can ruin the fun of reading. I’m not a 100% there but I like to read fiction in the evenings whether they are physical books or web novels. At 32, I’m realising growth in your 30s looks very different than how it was in the previous decade.

You are still investing in yourself but in different ways. As responsibilities pile up, depending on the chapter of your life, it can be difficult to schedule time for learning.

The Unknown

At the same time, I’m realising that it is very easy to become complacent in your 30s. You get comfortable and are used to a certain routine. The days, weeks and months can blend into each other and then, you suddenly realise it’s August. Next you ask yourself, what have I learnt or done this past month or quarter that has made me better? For some, you may hear crickets. For others, you can list a couple or more things that have moved you to the next level. I must admit it that I don’t want to hear crickets. I want to look back and see each day as a growth opportunity and celebrate a win at the end of each week. Each month, I want to look back and cherish the beautiful things that happened.

What Growth In Your 30s Means To Me

Growth in your 30s is a journey about welcoming change, embracing adaptability, continuously being a student of life and growing in a new direction. It requires you to step outside of your comfort zone a little bit more. Cultivating a mindset that seizes exciting possibilities and opportunities. It’s not about upgrading certain areas of your life, like your career or material experiences. It’s about levelling up your entire vibe. Stepping into the person you were meant to be and pushing yourself to your fullest potential.

Identify Your Goals and Priorities

One of the ways I believe that growth happens is by identifying your goals and priorities. This doesn’t mean that you choose one goal for the entire decade. You choose something that you want to achieve in a year or two years that is important to you personally or professionally. It can be something that is completely new that requires you to pivot. Or building upon a skill or an experience that you want to develop into something more.

For example, it’s no secret that I found my confidence through fitness. It has been a big part of my life. From the very beginning, I knew I wasn’t interested in personal training and that hasn’t changed. That is one of the reasons why I don’t share full workouts online because I don’t enjoy it. However, I knew I was interested in behavioural and lifestyle changes that impact overall health and well-being. It took me years to develop the courage to go for it and eventually I did it. Finally, I became a certified nutrition coach this past April.

Identifying your goals and priorities can lead you into understanding yourself, your values and your life better. By discovering new interests and engaging in things that are meaningful to you will lead you to a more purpose-driven lifestyle.

Choosing Learning Approaches for Growth In Your 30s

There have been so many technological shifts and advancements in the last five years. That has opened up a plethora of methods to learn new things. During my formative years, learning in a class setting was my main approach. Once I got out of grad school, podcasts and self-help books became another avenue for me to gain knowledge. Your life experience and situation may be completely different to mine. You may have additional stressors and responsibilities that I don’t have, which can limit your choice of learning approaches. However, going to back to school to obtain a degree, a diploma and certification is not the only learning approach to choose from.

There are so many professional and personal development courses that you can find online whether they are free or paid through Coursera, Edx etc. Certain university institutions offer courses such as Harvard or Stanford and I have benefitted from taking courses on these platforms and institutions for my corporate job. Lately, I enjoy going to conferences, workshops and lifestyle events to learn from experts and people doing better than I am. I have found that incorporating a variety of these learning approaches allows me to experiment and connect with people in a way that I haven’t done before.

Managing Your Time & Resources

One of the things that I have learnt about time management and organisation this year is to do what you can with what you have. If you don’t have 90 minutes in a day to prioritise your learning, but you can schedule 30 minutes a day. Do it in 30 minutes and do it well. Schedule your learning time in your calendar like it is an appointment that you cannot afford to miss. Those 30 minutes a day is better than nothing and can compound into something meaningful in the future. That is something that I consistently forget. It is better to do something each day consistently, than do something infrequently. Time and resources are of the essence for growth in your 30s.

Minimising your distractions go hand in hand with organising your resources. We live in a heavily digital world where technology is the distraction. You can use it to your advantage to both manage your time and stay focused.

Cultivate A Mindset of Growth over Scarcity

It all starts with changing your mindset. It is so easy be negative and allow fear to direct your life. That feeling of fear can easily slip through the gap and stare at you. Our minds are a powerful tool. If you feed it negativity and scarcity, you will start to live your life like that. If you believe that you are not good enough and have what it takes to change your life, you won’t do it. How do you get out of a place of scarcity and cultivate a mindset of growth in your 30s?

You feed it with positivity and belief. The best way that I have been able to do that is by leaning into affirmations. I used to say my affirmations out loud facing my mirror every day from my mid-20s until I actually believed in everything I was saying. Honestly, I saw my biggest growth in my mid-20s because I cultivated a mindset of growth and gratitude. This moment of my life, I’m in my pivot season. I don’t know where it’s going to take me but I know it requires me to feed my mind with more positivity and belief. At the beginning of this year, I bought myself affirmations cards because I knew this upcoming season of my life is going to be tough. It requires me to embrace resilience and confidently tackle obstacles.

The power of language and the mind are a force that cannot reckoned with. The magic happens once the mind believes that good things can happen to you.

Prioritise Self Care For Growth In Your 30s

Lastly, pivoting, learning and prioritisation takes work and a lot of discipline from your side. To have that balance between work and play, you have to prioritise your self care for that growth. When I talk about self care, it is not reduced to skincare, spa dates and bubble baths. It is doing the things are going to overflow your cup, the things that are going to rejuvenate you and leave you refreshed. Rest is revolutionary. Whether that means you spend a day doing absolutely nothing, travelling or setting up space for your existing hobbies. You can’t grow if you are treating yourself like hamster in a wheel. The mindset shift and learning go hand in hand with adequate rest. Make sure to take care of yourself.

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Apologies for the late post this week yet I’m proud that I’m getting this out to you today. Another post will be out on Sunday, I hope to get back into my weekly flow this month as I miss posting on here. Make sure to hit that subscribe button to join the community and never miss out on a post. Find me on Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok for more powerlifting and wellness content.

Until next time,

Folakemi