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.”
Want to see how I put this into practice? Take a look at my services or get in touch to talk through a project.
