Do you have “over 30 syndrome” ?

Do you have “over 30 syndrome”? There’s a new kind of syndrome around these days. Well, it’s not really new. But it’s seemingly been amplified in recent years. People can experience quite a bit of moods throughout a lifetime. If one was to judge based on a most dominant trait then the average person can contestably be summed up as follows.

They are more naive when they’re younger than 10. They are more indecisive when they’re younger than 20. And they are more experimental when they’re younger than 30. But suddenly when they hit 30, if certain conditions are not met, they tend to become “more crazier”!

So what’s “over 30 syndrome” ?

“By 30 you must have X amount of money, X amount paid down on your mortgage and X number of children. You should also have X years of work experience, had X with X number of partners and know where you would end up 20X years later.” Seriously? What the X is wrong with you?

Yes, we get it. Time is of the essence, particularly for women who feel angst against their biological clock. We never have enough time as we think we do. This is why it’s constantly promoted that we should just race towards the finish line. This is understandable … to an extent. What is not understandable, however, is just how many people are willing to accomplish their goals by a particular age, despite the negative consequences they can often foresee long in advance.

The consequences of “over 30 syndrome”

I’ve encountered so many people who got married in their 20s and were not happy in their 30s. People who have acquired several masters degrees in their 30s and were not happy in their 40s. And some people have had children before their 20s and were not happy in their 50s. Is this going to be the case for everyone? Definitely not.

But when you grasp how the above ended up happening to the aforementioned people, it really makes you look at things in deeper retrospect. The people I referred to above all had a choice. One felt she was 28 and decided to sleep with a random man to get her long desired baby; then she broke up with him. Another believed that education was the key to success; so he refused to stop pursuing degrees because he felt time was running away. And another thought if she had a child young, her man would stay with her forever. Well, the man did stay, up until the child became a teenager and ran away.

Too hung up on the number 30

We as a society tend to place way too much emphasis on the values of numbers. Becoming 100 years old is highly celebrated, so is a 50th wedding anniversary and 20th birthday. Quite frankly, these numbers mean nothing really from a realistic perspective; the numbers just sound nice, big and even, just like the number 30.

People are so hung up on the numbers and what others are doing by a particular age that they are unable to look at the facts relative to what they really should be doing.

You can be fulfilled any time over 30

Having plans for your life is good but one must also remember that life can be very unpredictable. Furthermore, the world has so many people, so limited resources and a blatant disparity as to how some people are able to access those resources at a given time. It is just unfair to hold everyone accountable or for them to even account to themselves to have what everyone else has by a particular time.

The best thing you can do is to stop mindlessly living your life based on the notions of meaningless numbers. And start putting in the effort to accomplish your goals in the healthiest manner regardless of age. Also, consider that with the harsh realities of life you can literally die today and everything you are constantly worried about achieving can literally mean nothing tomorrow. If that does not ease your mind when you’re over 30 then good luck finding happiness when you’re over 50.