100 things you need to hear when you turn 20

How you can improve your life in 100 steps

1. The hardest is the start

I won’t lie, the start is the hardest part. Everyone makes plans, and has ideas. I remember talking to classmates during my studies. Luke talked about how he will create his own company that will become the next Facebook, make enough money to retire at thirty and live on the French Riviera surrounded by models. Anne discussed her plans of travelling around the world, two years in Asia, in Africa and in South America, where she will discover her inner self and write a book about the adventures she experiences. Mattias was going to stay at school, do groundbreaking research, and earn the Nobel prize.

When we met ten years later, it turned out that Luke was climbing the corpo-ladder, Anne never left the country, had a husband and two kids, and Matthias hadn’t finished his PhD. Their dreams had faded away. Now they only discussed practical things: mortgages, apartments, spouses, kids. When I mentioned their old plans, they laughed and said they were kids then and didn’t know that life is different than they imagined.

Yes, life is different. Life can be anything. No, I am not going to say that you can do anything, and you only have to want it, because you will end up like Luke, Anne or Matthias. I am…