I’ve been hearing lots of complaints from business owners, parents, and community leaders about the generation known as Millennials.
Things like:
Millennials are entitled.
They don’t think they need to prove themselves.
They don’t want to put forth any effort.
They don’t want to earn their way.
The narrative about Millenials fascinates me since my generation (Generation X) embodied the opposite characteristics. We suffered from “not enoughness” or low self-esteem. We believed that we needed to prove our worth, work for our place, and earn our keep. We associated doing with value.
What’s so interesting about this pendulum swing from one end of the spectrum to the other is that Millennials embody the energetic answer to my generation’s asking. My generation as a collective (consciously or unconsciously) wanted to feel worthy and valued for who we are and not what we do. Somewhere deep within us, we knew we were worthy just as we are. As a group, we began asking for this transformation for ourselves and for future generations.
Remember, Source always answers.
Millennials’ attitude about life is a collective answer to my generations’ hopes–Millennials know their value and do not feel the need to prove it to anyone else.
You can see this collective phenomenon of asking and answering occur over and over again. Each generation asks and the next generation embodies the answer. As a culture, we experience it as a generation gap. Science defines it as evolution. Sociologists see it as progress.
But what if it is just an answer? A group answer to a group asking.
It will be interesting to see what Millenials will ask for as a group. What will be their collective desire and how will it be answered?