Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis: The Takeaway

It’s taken a while (and I managed to finish four other books during the time I should have just sat down and read this one), but I’ve finally finished reading Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis.

Here are my takeaways from the book:

The test I use to determine how much something affects me is to see whether I become oblivious to the world when I’m immersed in that activity. (p.17)

You can still fit your dream, even if it’s in diminished capacity. (p.30)

We pay for everything we want- in one way or another. (p.32)

The price of thinking only about the future is that is costs you the present. (p. 32)
Everyone lives at their own pace. (p. 39)

The most important thing to do is to not settle on anything or anyone just because you’re trying to meet a deadline. (p. 41)

Life just happens. (p. 41)

It’s not what you acquire by a certain age; it’s how you acquire it and if it makes you feel satisfied. (p. 42)

Who are you racing, and what are you trying to prove? (p. 42)

Take pride in your progress… Learning to like yourself is just as important as career achievement, but no one thinks to write that up in a plan. (p. 43)

There is no rush to decipher your identity in your 20’s- you have the rest of your life for that. (p. 44)

You have time- you don’t have to get everything right now. (p. 45)

Nothing is a waste if you learned something from it. (p. 52)

Whatever you did in you past led you to where you are and who you are today. (p. 52)

If starting over is something you’re hesitating about, although you know you need to do it, ask yourself, “What am I afraid of? Is that realistic? Is it likely? Is that situation worse than the situation now?” (p. 53)

It’s better to make a change now than to keep living your mistakes simply because you worked hard to get there. (p. 53)

Life isn’t a race; it’s a journey, a process. (p. 90)

You can’t make a positive impact if you’re not working on something you love. (p. 91)

…you will always look at someone else and think that they have everything going for them, but when you talk to them one on one, you might learn that they have every single insecurity and confusion and lack of direction you think you have. Nobody has it as together as they seem to. (p. 99)

If you hate going to work, you’ll need to isolate which factor or factors are at the root of the cause rather than let one negative aspect of your job taint the entire field for you. (p. 100)

No opportunity is a good opportunity if you’re treated poorly. (p. 104)

Changing your mind is a sign of growth. It’s a sign that you are learning about yourself and getting closer to discovering who you are. Allowing yourself to backtrack opens up more avenues than forcing yourself to stick with decisions you made in the past. (p. 117)

…if you remain in your current state, refusing to change, things aren’t going to get any better. (p. 118)

Overall, I would recommend this book if you’re in your early twenties- just out of school. Use it as a reference as you live your life toward your mid-twenties. Being 27, I did find some of the points in the book useful (as outlined above), but for the most part, this was people in their mid to late-twenties doling out advice. As I read some of the situations written about in the book, I found myself wondering, “What the hell does a 23 year old have to give me advice about?”

On a scale of 1-10, I give Conquering Your Quarterlife Crisis a 6.5. As I mentioned in my previous post about this book, I still believe the quarterlife crisis is real, even if the book didn’t pan out to my high expectations of it.

Again, if you’re interested, pick one up on Amazon- a used copy will set you back about three bucks.