Being in your twenties means being told, constantly, to be present — usually by people trying to sell you something. I've found presence to be quieter and stranger than the pitch. It arrives in the middle of a dinner you weren't expecting to remember, or on a walk you almost didn't take.
The small things that pull me back
- Ordering a drink at the bar instead of a table
- Walking home instead of getting the Tube
- Reading a menu properly, not just for the price
- Saying yes to a swim you weren't planning on
- Sitting through a coffee without checking the time
On phones
I'm not going to tell you to delete Instagram. I make part of my living on it. But I've started leaving my phone in the other room at dinner, in a drawer at the pub, in the hotel safe on the first evening of a trip. The difference is embarrassing.
On saying yes
Most of the moments I count as the best of this decade have started with a slightly inconvenient yes. A last-minute train. A friend of a friend's birthday. A restaurant with a two-hour wait. My twenties will be, in retrospect, the sum of those small acceptances.
On slowing down
Presence isn't a mood you can force. It's a byproduct of moving slowly enough that the day has time to land. If you only take one thing from this: walk somewhere today you would normally get a bus to.
“Being present in your twenties isn't about doing less. It's about noticing more of what you were already going to do.”
“Being present in your twenties isn't about doing less. It's about noticing more of what you were already going to do.”
Want to see how I put this into practice? Take a look at my services or get in touch to talk through a project.
