Having children was the number one milestone that people in their 20s felt pressure to reach with almost a third of us feeling some form of pressure to have children. Marriage relationships, these are a huge source of pressure for us because there is this very repetitive idea and fantasy that love is the point of life. Another one that really deserves mentioned is going to university, but also things like buying a house, achieving a certain level of career success. All of these are not only inextricably linked to this internalised social narrative, but also what we see others doing.
In our 20s, we face an increasing sense of pressure to reach certain important, life milestones, such as getting into our first relationship, graduating university, finding our career path, getting engaged and so many more. When we don't meet the expectations or the timeline that society gives us, we can feel like failures and begin to self sabotage or ruminate on our faults and flaws. This week we're going to explore the psychology behind milestone anxiety - the experience of stress and unease when we haven't achieved certain milestones by a certain age - why it occurs, the influence of social comparison and conditioning, how we can combat this feeling, practice self compassion and be excited by our own journey through life, and our 20s. Listen now.
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