Can any of you relate to this article? I think all of you can, whether you are still in school or working in the industry that you want to be in. Continuing with the theme we have going on, which is all about advice on living the life you want to live, this article talks about how we have been ill prepared for the task of starting off in the real world. It's not playing the blame game, though, which I am not interested in. It is saying that the mantras we have learned, the importance placed on picking a dream job or career or occupation before we know what it entails, is faulty.
Brooks argues that the whole idea of finding yourself and realizing a career path afterwards should be, and often is for successful and happy people, the other way around. This doesn't mean settling for a job that we aren't interested in, it means that many external factors are going to effect our lives and take us in different directions—looking inwards only is going a disservice. Individual gen Yers feels like we are at the centre of the world, Brook explains, because that's what we've been taught. But this will only bring us further away from the qualities we admire in others.
I know that this is not an easy article to agree with whole heartedly, but it really spoke to me. What do you guys think? Are we too self-centred or is this a bleak view of the future?
Brooks argues that the whole idea of finding yourself and realizing a career path afterwards should be, and often is for successful and happy people, the other way around. This doesn't mean settling for a job that we aren't interested in, it means that many external factors are going to effect our lives and take us in different directions—looking inwards only is going a disservice. Individual gen Yers feels like we are at the centre of the world, Brook explains, because that's what we've been taught. But this will only bring us further away from the qualities we admire in others.
I know that this is not an easy article to agree with whole heartedly, but it really spoke to me. What do you guys think? Are we too self-centred or is this a bleak view of the future?
I don't think it's a bleak view of the future – it's stating a reality most people aren't willing to face.
ReplyDeleteI think Brooks is saying we were ill-prepared for the world because we weren't prepared for uncertainty. We weren't prepared to challenge ourselves and discover what interests us – we were taught that there are objective truths about ourselves and the world when that's no longer the case. We were taught to fear failure.
I think our greatest privilege is that we're coming of age in a world where everything is being redefined. Our hindrance is that we're the generation best indoctrinated in the ways of the past. Gen Z, the generation just behind us, will be better prepared for this new world order, being raised by the tradition-adverse Gen X.
If we can let go of our need for certainty, our craving for stability and learn to trust our guts in spite of failure, we'll be capable of much more.