The Great Balancing Act — Life of a Millenial
Many Millennials — myself included — feel a bit overwhelmed at tines.
Everywhere we look we are bombarded with images and stories of massively successful people who seem to have it all figured out. People who are more fit, richer, and seem to be enjoying life more than we could ever dream of.
And what are we doing?
No wonder we feel lost and insecure and uncertain.
I went to a job interview yesterday, and I was interviewed by an HR-person who asked me if I knew what I wanted to do with my life, and my answer was basically “Lol, fuck no”. I almost felt like asking her if she knew what she was doing with her life.
Most likely not.
We’re all just trying to do the best we can here.
We’re all just trying to get by.
And yes, we all want to be financially stable and in shape and have amazing careers with beautiful girlfriends and a thriving social life, while we are free of the normal trappings of life.
Usually this is not how it works.
Usually, we need to give up something in order to get something else.
I gave up sleeping in, because I want to work out in the morning. Is this good? Well, I’m in fairly decent shape, because I prioritize it, but I also have fewer mornings with my fiancee. This is quality time for us, and so this is a huge trade-off.
What I’m saying is, that it is close to impossible to do everything we want at the level we want. If I had it my way, I’d work out, read, spend time with my fiancee, hang out with friends, work my butt off, run my own company and build a career as a writer.
Oh — and I’d very much love to have kids in the near future.
All of that might not be realistic at the same time.
The balance is missing.
So what to do?
Give up?
Accept that we can’t have everything we dream of?
Or do we chase the one thing that we want the most and give up everything else?
Or do we chase one thing at a time until we establish ourselves in our field?
And what to do about the nagging uncertainty? Do we learn to live with that? Is that just a fact of life, or do we at one point feel like we make it?
I have no idea.
If I could give you all the answers, I wouldn’t be writing this.
Instead, the reason I’m writing this, is to let you know that you’re not alone.
I feel you.
And it’s ok to feel uncertain about the future.
It’s ok, to not have everything under control.
None of us do.
We pretend we do, but we’re not fooling any one.
And that’s ok too.
