Hope you all had a fabulous 4th of July!! I am sunburnt crispy from being on the lake all morning and then had to work last night so I am holding onto the hope that someone somewhere still has fireworks to set off so that I may get to watch them. At the very least I will have to buy some sparklers to play with:)
I came across an interesting article this morning on Liene Stevens blog Think Splendid. I have shared my love for Liene's articles on my blog before (see here) and how much I love reading her interpretations of wedding industry based purchasing and decision making stats. She pegs "millenials" (those born from 1979-2000) with an eerie 100% accuracy, at least I feel that way when I read them. It's like she can read my mind! Below is an excerpt of her post "Why Millennials Need So Much Praise and Feedback":
Millennials (born 1979-2000), on the other hand see the world as a series of interconnected networks, and feel that a
victory is not as sweet if it does not involve everyone on their team. Hierarchies represented by ladders hold little
value to them. Millennials are not compelled to work upward to a more important level because they grew up being
told they are important simply because they exist. They do, however, feel the need to be valued and appreciated as
significant and as a member of the team. They need to know that the group could not function without them.
Because of this, withholding praise and positive feedback does not entice a millennial to work harder for you.
Instead it produces the opposite: "If they don't value what I do, why
am I here? Does my work even matter? Life is too short to do
something you don't love and to do work that doesn't make a
difference. I'm going to go find a job where my contributions bring
value and if that job doesn't exist I'm going to create it."
Read more: http://www.thinksplendid.com
See what I'm talking about?! I certainly feel that she has picked through my brain, reiterating statements that I have made numerous times when sizing up a job I have had on wether or not I was in the "right spot" for me. This article was such a nice read this morning because...well...it was reassuring. Reassuring that maybe what I constantly struggle with is normal. I struggle to find a work/life balance that works for me, and I'll be honest here and state that I still have yet to find it. A sense of fulfillment from my work is so important to me and such a powerful, at least for myself, measure of success that sometimes it's hard to articulate why that even though I may have a job with a paycheck, a loving and supportive family and great group of friends, that I am still not "happy". I want to have a sense of pride from what I do and really, because we are being honest today, if we will spend a vast majority of our lives "working", shouldn't we love what we do? Or at the very least, not dread it?
I'm going to go for it here and do some quote dropping, we've all heard it before but Confucious said "Chose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life". I know that not everything about every job every day is going to be wonderful and sugar coated but is it possible to be overall "happy" with your job, and if so what does that feel like? I have come to realize that a major source of my "un-happiness" is that maybe what I am desiring is less of a "job" and more of a lifestyle. I want to lead a life that when I look back on I don't regret my use of my time here. I don't want to bounce around from profession to profession and company to company, each time I do so I feel a bit more lost. Up until the last couple of years I have always maintained a positive outlook on my goals and my direction knowing that I was working toward my goals that were just on the horizon. No, I didn't necessarily know exactly what I wanted but I knew that by putting in the leg work then that I would have an opportunity to cultivate something meaningful for my future. Yet, some days that horizon seems just as far away as it did to begin with, prompting me to ask what have I been working towards and where has all the effort gone?
Really All, is it possible to have a mid-life crisis at 25? HA!
Yes, my darling - you can have a mid-life crisis at 25, it's just called a quarter life crisis instead! :) (And yes - there's a book about it too. Read it, it's ok - Keep reading Bethenny instead, got me MUCH farther!) Keep your chin up and just keep going. It's all going to fall together as time goes on. I'm with you on all of it - I just know there's a PLAN for both of us. And we get to chat it up about it ALL this weekend! YAY!
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