1. Build Your Professional Network. By the time the average person reaches age 25, they have met more than 4,000 people through their childhood, family, schooling, work, the military, the neighborhood, social activities, and most recently, social media. As early as pre-school when you were learning socialization skills, you were networking with play-mates and discovering things you had in common. By the time you hit your 20th birthday, turn your focus to building your professional network, comprised of people who are currently (or preparation to be) in the working world. Add just 3 people per week, and by age 25 you’ll have a professional network of nearly 800 people. Great sources to consider:

a. People from Your Personal Network – this includes family members, people in your community, friends, and people with whom you socialize.

b. People from Your Educational Network – including people with whom you went to school, attended training programs and study groups with you, and met in e-learning programs.

c. People from Your Employment Network – includes people with whom you worked, served as fellow interns and volunteers, and spent summer and part time jobs working alongside others.

d. People from Your Social Networks – any and all social network connections who are also part of the professional world.

2. Serve for the Benefit of Others. Have you noticed that over the past 20 or 30 years society has become more and more me-centric? We’ve become masters of the personal pronoun, haven’t we? Now…here’s the real get honest question, Does anyone who is me-centric ever truly feel fulfilled?

Fulfillment comes from serving others. There is no denying the sense of purposefulness when you shift the focus of your life from all things self, to investing part of your life serving others. Ask any nurse, firefighter, teacher, janitor, parent or grandparent. The world out there is full of needs, so you won’t lack for opportunity to serve. Pick something you care about and serve with no expectations of anything in return. When you do that, you’ll become less selfish, more grateful for what you do have, and find the inner peace that comes from making a difference in someone else’s life.

3. Purpose to Be a Lifelong Learner. My grandfather lived into his nineties, and nothing made his day more than learning something he didn’t know. A highly respected business and community leader, he believed every person in the world could teach him something. And they did. Truth be told, most of us could learn something from everyone we meet. One of his favorite sayings: In life, just like a summer garden, you’re either green and growing, or ripe and rotting, and the choice is pretty much yours. Lifelong learning keeps you green and growing!

4. Discover What You’re Really Good At, Then Do It. By the time you’re 25 you’ve accumulated anywhere between 750 and 1,000 skills, plus a few dozen God-given talents. Your early jobs while in school, and perhaps the one(s) immediately following it, have helped you to identify the ways that your skills and talents can be put to work. You’ve lived long enough to realize that when you do something for a living that you really don’t like, neither you nor your employer enjoy the results. Life is too short to be miserable. Conversely, when you love what you do it really isn’t work at all…it’s an expression of your passion. It is only then that you’re at your most creative, and you never watch the clock.

5. Know and Live Your Unshakeable Values. We all do (and have done) crazy stuff when we were kids. That is just a part of growing up. As we matured, we began to recognize the value and wisdom of limits, of respect and reputation, of trust and trustworthiness, and of doing the right thing even when it’s hard. We learned that saying it and doing it were two different things. Rudyard Kipling offers this incredible gem: Sooner or later each of us will sit down to a banquet of consequences, most of our own making. So by 25, having a well-defined set of unshakeable values, and living by them, can and will bring about a more pleasant life banquet.