“Your 30s are about discovering the truest, healthiest version of yourself.” ~ Career Contessa

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In our 20s we often think that life couldn’t possibly get any better—and then we turn 30.

Something magical seems to begin to happen in our late 20s, in regards to how we look at ourselves and our lives. No longer are we hung up on how others perceive us, or feel the draw to create a life that only looks good from the outside.

It’s as if we suddenly begin to wake up, not to any new truth or information, but simply to the reality of how amazing we’ve been all along.

We stop chasing those aspects of our lives that don’t align with who we truly are, giving those situations and people who are meant to be a part of our journey a chance to actually catch us.

It’s the blending of experience, knowledge and just enough mistakes that lets us begin to look at the world through different eyes.

To age, rather than grow old, is the experience of living life to the fullest.

As we turn 30, we enter into a different phase in our lives. We are no longer held down by what our families had hoped we would make of our lives, but instead, we are finding exactly what feels damn good for ourselves. We begin to grow in confidence, understanding that everything we have experienced up until this moment has been for a reason.

It becomes easier to walk away from love that doesn’t truly feel like it serves our highest selves, because we are gradually learning that life is just too damn short for anything short of incredible.

Decisions that are the most difficult are the ones that we tend to make the most, because we have learned that anything actually worth getting isn’t going to be easy or handed to us upon a silver platter.

While many of us are still a work in progress—our canvases are far from blank.

We’ve come far enough to appreciate the value of a night in with those we love, versus an overzealous night of partying and drinking with those who are just strangers to us.

We’ve settled into our bodies enough, so that sex begins to glow with the crimson blossoms of exactly what it means to climax fully in the hands of someone who values us for more than just our bodies.

We’ve come into ourselves, and lost all of those aspects of our lives that we had spent time trying on in our 20s because now we know exactly what fits us the best—and what doesn’t.

Our 20s may have been fun—but it’s nothing compared to what awaits us in our 30s.

For many of us, it’s this time in our lives that we find someone we want by our side, but it is only because we have spent time learning about ourselves and what love really means to us.

Some of us may begin families, or will watch the children we’ve already had growing into their own beautiful selves and becoming more independent.

And whether we are still in night school, working our way towards our dreams, or climbing the corporate ladder, we are becoming clearer on exactly what we want to do for a living—and what kind of statement that will make about our lives.

Priorities shift, and we feel our consciousness grow.

No longer are we held down by the selfish tendencies of adolescence, because now we are beginning to see the larger—and much grander—vision of what it truly means to be an adult within this world.

We begin to wonder how we can make a difference, and what sort of impact we want to leave behind.

There begins to be a shift from “me” to “we” knowing that the strength we can gain from the collective is one of the most powerful aspects of humanity.

And though we may have walked away from a sense of spirituality, we can’t help but be drawn back in knowing that regardless of specifics there is some greater force at play than our own limiting minds can sometimes recognize.

We simply let ourselves have faith.

It is the belief that we may not be able to see all the answers, but that doesn’t mean things won’t work out exactly as they are meant to. We have spent time learning the lessons in our 20s that now it’s time to start reaping some of our blessings.

But the thing is that this is only the beginning because if we are doing this life right then no matter how earth-shattering and amazing this decade is—the next one will be even better.

That is the real key of this journey called life—and this is just the beginning.

Our 30s are meant for loving the hell out of our lives—enjoying each and every moment and going to sleep each evening with a smile upon our lips, knowing that we couldn’t have done it any better.

It’s the time to believe in ourselves and all that we have learned.

Our 30s are a time for action, for those silent plans that we are working on knowing that it’s the great things that take the most time.

But regardless of how amazing our 30s can be, we first need to make the choice to shift our mindset.

We aren’t 20 any longer, and therefore we can’t go around approaching life like we are.

Now is the time for action—for taking steps to manifest exactly what we want out of this life.

Because now is the time to grow, to experience love and the richness of family; to work towards and earn success in whatever terms that may mean.

But more than that—it’s a time to live, fully and completely, knowing that the only guarantee is that there will never be another moment like this one.

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Author: Kate Rose

Image: Pexels/Caio

Editor: Yoli Ramazzina