I spent my mid/later 20s becoming increasingly disgusted & sick of commercial software work, quit a job & ended a relationship, spent a few months somewhat depressed, doing very little, visiting family and friends.
At some point I read a lot about climate change -- not sure if I recommend doing this, but it certainly helps to put things in perspective. What will the world be like in 30 years? What do you want to be doing then?
I found in my late 20s I started to take a much longer term perspective on things. I've re-thought my relationship with work: previously work was kind of a thing i did by default, without really thinking why. Now it's something I do to generate money to invest toward things on a 5-10-20+ year time horizon. Maybe I need to grind away at work for 5 years. So what? Not that long. I did contract work for a couple of years and got a large pay rise out of it, which has stuck in subsequent permanent jobs. Work can still be a grind but it pays more than enough and I largely firewall work away from the rest of my life. If you start trying to save money when you haven't really focused on that before, that in itself can become a bit of a game. What's a good "move" to make? Move house to somewhere cheaper. Ride a bike instead of taking the train. Learn to repair your bike when it breaks. Prepare your lunch instead of buying it. Don't spend money on travel. Don't buy things, borrow library books. Don't pay for the gym, go for a run. Don't pay for a new thing, learn how to fix the old thing.
Some of my colleagues who are in their 40s just work part time, either so they can spend more time with family, or just because a couple of days work a week provides them with enough money, and they're far more motivated by having more free time.
Anyway, enough rambling from me. I'm also reminded of an essay I read a while back:
> My dad went through a period of removal when he
> was my age and working as a technician in the
> Bay Area. He got fed up with his job, and figured
> he had enough saved up to quit and live extremely
> cheaply for a while. That ended up being two years.
> I recently asked him how he spent that time, and
> his answer was that he read a lot, rode his bike,
> studied math and electronics, went fishing, had
> long chats with his friend and roommate, and sat
> in the hills, where he taught himself the flute.
> After a while, he says, he realized that a lot of
> his anger about his job and outside circumstances
> had more to do with him than he realized. As he
> put it, “it’s just you with yourself and your own
> crap, so you have to deal with it.” But that time
> also taught my dad about creativity, and the state
> of openness, nothing, maybe even boredom, that it
> requires.
From Jenny Odell's "how to do nothing". It's worth reading the whole thing.
https://medium.com/@the_jennitaur/how-to-do-nothing-57e100f5...