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Millennials, Failure and Perseverance

Perseverance

By delilah tannerPublished 4 years ago 4 min read
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Millennials, Failure and Perseverance
Photo by Greg Rosenke on Unsplash

Millennials, Failure and Perseverance

As I write this, I know three things for certain; One is that it won't apply to everyone. The second is, it will apply to most more than they care to admit. The third is we can grow, overcome and adapt.

We are the Millennial generation. We have spent our entire lives being told failure isn't an option or that it's not possible. Some even have been granted a safety net to ensure this. A lot of people would blame our parents, and even our grandparents. Most of our parents took what is known as the "helicopter" approach when raising us. This means, we got participation ribbons for showing up, our teachers received phone calls if we made a bad grade to ramify the situation and ensure we succeeded in our educations, even if that meant doing the work for us; I've known college age adults whose parents did their online work for them because the adult child had "better" things to do. In actuality or parents did this out of love, out of fear of watching us fail. But how can you persevere with out failure? Failure creates growth.

We are the generation that started analog and finished digital. We saw the entire world change in our clammy hands. This created something known as instant gratification, but the thing about instant - it usually means temporary as well. We flock to all of these different social media outlets looking for some sort of approval, only sharing the highlight reel of our lives in hopes that we will be validated. What does this create? This creates an entire society unable to be truly authentic, to show themselves as they really are, vulnerable. We make memes and gifs poking fun at the things we are suffering from the most to hide our insecurities. This is both disheartening and contagious.

We have so many choices in this world, most of us; myself included will tell you "I'm indecisive, please make the decision for me." We were told our entire lives, we can be anyone, we can do anything. While this is true to some degree, it is absolutely impossible for us to become what we want if we can't make up our minds. Too afraid to try, too afraid to fail. We've learned, for the most part now, failure is real and we are failing in some form or another. This makes us uncomfortable and so we hide away behind our technology, again only giving the highlight reel to get that instant gratification- or pat on the back.

We are the largest generation thus far - but yet what have we really contributed? Some of you reading, no doubt have done great things. Anyone reading who feels like they haven't; YOU have the ability to. The first step is dropping your preferences for things. All you need to do is actually stay a little uncomfortable, do something you normally wouldn't.

We seek happiness more than we seek meaning, but how can you be happy with out a meaning and a purpose in life? We define our happiness by giving ourselves off to different types of people, hoping for their approval and when we don't receive it (instantly, enough) we move on. In reality our relationships are becoming shorter and shorter, and less authentic. Meaning is what actually drives a person to succeed, meaning is different for everyone though. Some find it in their families, more often most find it in their hobbies or things they are truly passionate about. But what is meaning exactly?

Meaning is literally living, loving and doing for something and someone bigger than ourselves. This seems an impossible task to most, for how can I live for something bigger than myself when I feel so lowly about myself?

Well let's take it back even a step further. I guarantee the majority of you were raised in some sort of Religion or community aspect. But yet we're do stand with that now? Our generation is the least religious, spiritual and community involved ever. But what did our elders teach us as children? We are to live for love, for something bigger than ourselves and yet here we are, self centered, self serving and not self sacrificing. As a Catholic I find my meaning in God, and this guides every action I make. But I don't expect you to all jump on board with that. What I do expect from each and everyone of us is to be for someone else. Love is literally an action, so are you ready to take action?

We have the ability to overcome the shortcomings given to us out of love and an even greater ability to change our dynamic from preferences to perseverance. The first step in this is admitting, we failed. It's a hard pill to swallow, but truthfully we all need to.

What do you actually want to leave as your mark on this world? I know what I want to leave behind as my mark. It's nothing physical, it's literally love. I know we can change the world. We just have to get up and do something about it.

In the wise words of Steve Jobs; "The ones who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do."

Let's change the world. Persevere.

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