If I had a pound for every time, I heard the phrase “I don’t know where the time goes” I’d be set for life. In fact, it’s a recurrent question I ask myself and still yet to find the answer. However, for millennials, the pressures of not having enough time are becoming problematic.
On the one hand we have older millennials questioning career choices (“I wish someone had of helped me figure out the right job,” or “It’s too late to start a new career.”) and on the other, younger millennials struggling to make decisions (“I’m getting older”, “I’m not sure what I want to do” or “What happens if I make the wrong decision?”).
Countless questions and pressure that is causing a huge amount of anxiety and stress for this generation. Now if we were to look at the age of millennials comparative to a lifespan, it doesn’t seem to make sense. Especially when the oldest millennial is just shy of 40!
But irrespective, there are legitimate reasons why millennials are feeling this way.
Pressure from society. Millennials are a generation who were (and still are) pressured to pursue four-year degrees without always knowing if a viable career is possible post-graduation.
Expectations. Millennials are a generation who are dealing with a lot of internal challenges. Think high expectations, overachieving personalities, instant gratification complexes, social media comparisons and FOMO.
Lack of support. Despite the pressure to attend some form of higher education, the support provided by institutions is few and far between. Most higher education providers don’t set up graduates with expectations of what the job market is like comparative to their chosen degree. As a result, many graduate directionless and with limited options.
The Recession. The impacts of the 2008 Recession are still being felt. For millennials who graduated between 2007-2008 when the economy began to crash, many jobs that would have originally been available, disappeared. This forced many to take jobs they hadn’t expected (or wanted) and changed the course of careers.
The Pandemic. Like the 2008 Recession, the 2020 pandemic has added another spanner in the works. Younger millennials – even Gen Z – who are newly graduating or entering the labor market are already having to re-think pathways and options.
What do we do about it?
The lack of time dilemma may continue to be elusive for all of us. However, the challenge for millennials is to understand the factors at play as to why they’re feeling the pressure, why time does feel increasingly ‘of the essence’ but rather than waste it on regret, wishing that things were different, or better, or remaining stuck, accept things are as they are, and move forward.
Because at the end of the day, we all get equals share of it. It’s what we do with it, that matters.