13 Little Ways To Shake Yourself Out Of Your Quarter-Life Crisis

1. Adopt a new little habit that feels like it could be your signature — whether that’s a new perfume or cologne, a certain greeting card you send to people, some aspect of your outfit that people come to associate with you, or anything in between. It might feel a little affected at first, but life is for inventing and reinventing yourself over again. Sometimes you have to try things on for fun until they stick.

2. If you’re not working in your dream field or at least on the way to the career you want, why not? Apply for the dream job, even if you don’t think you’re qualified. Putting it out in the universe is the first step to anything, and the worst case scenario is that you’ll have to do the dirty work to get to where you want to be. (The best case scenario? You’re more qualified than you think and you actually land that gig.)

3. Go sit in the sunshine for an hour. Being in nature is scientifically proven to do good stuff to your brain. Wear sunscreen because you don’t want this little existential crisis to devolve into melanoma, but try to soak up the sun, the park, the grass — and, okay, sure, the patio at brunch counts.

4. Plan a night out with a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Order a cocktail you would never usually try. Because if you’re going to question everything adulthood is throwing your way, you might as well partake in one of the few upsides to growing up there are (and yes, I mean alcohol).

5. Plan a trip — better yet, book it right now if you can — to somewhere you’ve never been before. You might still be the same person when you’re there, but new sights might give you new perspective.

6. Or explore some part of your town that you’ve never seen before. Google a few things to do, a new restaurant to try, or some hidden spot you’ve never thought to explore in your neighborhood because you just assumed it’d always be there. What if it’s not?

7. Volunteer. Get out of your own headspace for a second and lend a hand to someone else. You never know — you might even find a new passion.

8. Dye your hair a color you’ve always wanted to try, or cut it all off. It’s just hair. Even if you hate it in 3 days, it’ll grow back (but sometimes, changing it up is just the boost you need).

9. Give your closet a really good deep cleaning. Try to streamline it down to a few key pieces you can wear with any and everything, and develop a uniform of some sort. Sometimes getting rid of physical stuff helps you emotionally clean house, too.

10. Talk to a friend about it. Chances are good they’re going through exactly what you’re feeling, too — but because nobody’s willing to cop to it, you’re all being alone at the same time, and not alone together.

11. Do one of those social media challenges, like doing something new every day for a month, or reflecting on the little things that make you happy or what you’re grateful for that day. Sometimes you have to go through the motions before that sense of okayness with wherever you are in life feels honest and real.

12. Unplug. Deactivate any accounts you feel like you need to step away from, go somewhere without service for a weekend, downgrade your phone — do whatever you need to do to remind yourself that watching other people live (a filtered version of) their lives isn’t going to make you any more satisfied with yours.

13. Make a date with a mentor or someone you look up to and ask them what they felt like when they were a 20-something, too. Your quarter-life crisis might seem amplified because you have social media at your disposal, but you’re not the first person to go through your 20s, and you definitely won’t be the last.