Will I Peak in My 20s?

hether you’re a teenager looking towards your future or a young adult in your 20s doing some introspection, many people ask themselves this question. Let us start off by saying evaluation of one’s life and future is a great sign. It shows that you care about yourself and that you seek fulfillment in your life. If you're asking this question it likely means that you have ambitions and goals that you want to achieve or at the very least you want to have ambitions and goals and you want to achieve something in life. You probably want to leave some kind of impact on the world, do something great, and be remembered as a person, not just a number. If this is the case, settle in and keep reading. 

When is Your Physical Prime?

If you’re wondering about your physical prime you can rest easy. While there is no set date for when the body's physical peak is, the age range is said to be the 20s or 30s. This is entirely dependent on your body, your family's medical history, and your dedication to maintaining and improving your physical health. 

Our 20s and 30s are when our bodies have fully developed and aren't begging to slow down due to the effects of aging. Something to keep in mind is that plenty of Olympic and sports athletes are in their 30s. Even after you hit your 40s your body doesn’t immediately start to disintegrate. Depending on how well you take care of your health you may not feel too much of a difference in your physical health until your mid to late 40s or even your 50s. Here are some things to keep in mind as your body ages into its 40s:

Slowing Down

It isn't as if all your physical talents vanish with age. It’s more like you can’t do them as well or as often as you could when you were younger. If you could run a mile in 8 minutes in your 20s or 30s by your mid-forties you’ll still be able to run that mile, but it may take you 10 minutes instead of 8. You don’t lose those physical talents, you just slow down.

Reflexes

Similar to the section above, except this deals more with your hand-eye coordination and reaction speed. If you play a lot of video games you’re likely to see the effects of this when playing competitive games like first-person shooters and fighting games. There is a reason most E-sports teams are composed of athletes in their 20s and 30s.

Fertility

‍ It’s easier for a woman in her 20s or 30s to have children than it is for a woman in her 40s. All is not lost though, modern technology has made it much more common for women in their 40s to give birth successfully, especially with modern female fertility tests and programs available. Men also suffer from similar fertility issues. Around the age of 40 sperm quality begins to decrease, reducing the chances of pregnancy. The chance of miscarriage also increases as a man gets older due to lower sperm quality. This isn’t to say one can’t have or make children at this age, it just comes with substantially higher chances of complications or failure. 

Why Aging Isn’t Such a Bad Thing

For most people, their 20s are some of the busiest years of their life. Maybe you’re working hard in university or maybe you’re grinding hours out at your job. Maybe you’re learning how to talk to people and develop friendships outside of work or school. Generally speaking, your 20s should be spent laying the foundation for how you want to spend the rest of your life. You'll be learning a lot about yourself. Breaking bad habits and developing good ones. Learning to love yourself. Recognizing what you want in friends and relationship partners, etc. For many people, they aren't the truest version of themselves until after their 20s when they have themselves and life more figured out.

There are plenty of things to look forward to as you age past your 20s. For most people, their career really starts to take off in their 30s. By this point, you’ve likely finished college and gotten a good bit of experience in your field of choice. With that experience comes confidence, competence, and respect. This is also the point in time when your finances should be fairly stable as you’ve spent some time out on your own and understand the basics of adulting.

Things to Look Forward to Past Your Twenties

Stable Emotions and Stress

As you grow older your ability to regulate your emotions and stress will improve. While you're still in your twenties you are susceptible to strong hormonal and emotional influences. Many of us have suffered from a bad breakup and wished we handled it better. As you enter your 30s and 40s you learn to deal with upsetting situations better. Perhaps this is because you have a strong friend circle at this point in your life. Maybe it’s because between work and other adult-related responsibilities these kinds of things don’t seem like the world-ending events that they used to. Or maybe we’ve just learned better, healthier ways to cope with stress and emotional trauma.

Improved Finances

When you're in your 20s you're likely still at the bottom stages of the career path you’re pursuing. For some, you may not even know what career path you want to pursue in your 20s. Some people spend their twenties figuring out what they enjoy doing or what they are good at and then make moves into that career path in their 30s. 

Once you find that career path you want to pursue you may find that you need to grind out some experience in that field. Perhaps this is to improve your craft, such as working as an animator or musician. Or maybe you just need some real-world experience in how the job is done. Regardless, it is necessary to dedicate time to your job no matter what it is. By the time you’ve built a name for yourself in a company or in your industry, you’ve likely aged into your late 20s or mid-30s. By this point, you can command higher wages and even think about relocating to different areas or companies. For some this is where the peak of their lives begins, being happily settled in a career they love, and making enough money to support themselves and their family.

Traveling

Once you’re in your 30s and settled nicely in a career or job and have your finances in order you can start doing things like traveling during your time off. You’ll often find that many of the people who go off on vacations every year are actually people in their late 30s through 50s. That's the power of stable finances and proper planning.  

Travel is something you can do in your twenties with proper savings and working hard but depending on your situation you may have other financial responsibilities to deal with like student loans, rent, and other bills. The kind of work available to those in their 20s who are just getting started doesn’t offer the same financial rewards or security as the work provided to you after spending years working hard at a job or in an industry. Even in the situation where it does provide those benefits to those in their 20s those benefits are still less than those who have been working for years at a job or in an industry. 

Your 20s Don’t Have to be Your Peak

Let’s end by readdressing the question that brought us here. Why do we have this expectation that our 20s are our peak? Perhaps societal and familial pressures are to blame? Many of us love spending time on social media. Seeing the lavish lifestyles of social media influencers and young actors and actresses plants the idea in our heads that we're not living life to the fullest, that we're missing out. The truth is that everyone walks their own path in life. For some that is young stardom and being the center of attention, for others it’s a slower-paced lifestyle that brings you joy in the way that matters most. 

The key is to focus on getting the things you want out of life and then working hard towards achieving those goals. Do that and you’ll feel as though each day of your life is fulfilling. When you accomplish one goal, set a new one, this way the peaks of success aren't a one-and-done thing, but more like a mountain range of achievements that you can look back on in life. At that point, it doesn’t really matter if you reached a peak in your 20s or not, because you have so many other peaks to reminisce on from different points in your life that just one doesn’t matter as much. You only reach your final peak when you decide you have.