I have often read in articles where people are dismissive of advice coming from older people as being tone deaf and out of touch with the current reality - because when they were coming up, the situation was different. Sure, it was - but does that mean that the advice isn't valuable? At least as I have observed, many of the people who dismiss the advice haven't actually tried to follow the advice at all. For instance, one article today had a millionaire (who worked for his millions) say that young people should "live within their means so they can build assets"
Terrible advice?
The advice has always been the same.
And while it might be harder to live within means with cost of living pressures, there is also a lot of expectation about what is necessary to live, with many people making lifestyle choices over wealth choices. Sure, that is not an issue - but one can't then complain about not being able to build wealth, if doing things that are working against wealth building.
I have also seen stories where some younger people have taken the advice and spent a few years "going without" what their peers can't do without, and have been able to invest into real estate, or generative assets like stocks and are doing quite well for themselves.
Is the advice out of touch?
It is not a case that if someone can do it, anyone can do it, but if people aren't putting in the work to even attempt it, they shouldn't be dismissing the advice as if it doesn't work. It is like stretching - anyone can become more flexible than they are currently, unless they don't stretch. And a lot of people wish they were more flexible, but because stretching takes time, effort, and a fair bit of discomfort at times, they don't. Similarly, a lot of people visit a personal trainer for a program, but end up just doing what they want anyway.
Was the trainer wrong?
A lot of the entitlement in today's world stems from a belief that an individual can do as they please, but should still be getting the results that they want to get. Even when what they are doing is counterproductive. A lot of what people are doing these days across many fields of want is counterproductive to what they want to achieve, or how they want to feel. For instance, I wrote a piece about mental health and what I see is a lot of people who want to blame others, than taking responsibility for themselves.
For example, a lot of evidence suggests that one of the reasons that young people are struggling with their mental health is because they have been raised on screens, on social media, on impersonal connections, and have been conditioned to be hypersensitive to how they fell, under the assumption that how they feel is the correct way to feel. Yet, how many young people are getting off their screens? How many are disconnecting from social media? How many are working out how to acknowledge their emotions without reacting to them, to manage their feelings, rather than be driven by them? How many are really working out what intimacy means?
Close to zero.
Because they are under the belief that despite them not getting what they desire in their lives, they still expect to be able to do all the things they want, in a way that they feel comfortable in doing it. This attitude of entitlement is holding people back in so many ways, but because it is there, like a narcissist who can't see themselves as what they are, they believe it is all someone else's fault, someone else's responsibility.
Young people are not alone in this - there are plenty in the older age groups too, but there is a key difference. The young people have a long life ahead of them, and if they don't start working their shit out now, they are going to be in for a lifetime of suffering. And no matter who is to blame, it is of little comfort when life is filled with pain and disappointment - especially without the tools to accept it, let alone be able to have a chance to overcome it.
Simplify.
One of the biggest personal challenges we face today is the amount of choice we have at our fingertips for how we spend our time and money. One of the benefits of the older generations at the same age, is that they didn't have a smorgasbord of options available, so they didn't have to expend as much energy or willpower to make decisions. Simpler times can be created, if we just look at all of the complication and mess in our lives, and clean it up. If we investigate our environment and look at all our activities, unless we are coping well in life, we should be looking to reduce what we do, that we don't need to do.
The idea that we can do anything is a fallacy.
It is not doing us any favours to believe we can have it all in our lives. It is not possible, at least for the enormous majority of us. So, we have to recognise that we can't, and some things on our bucket list will remain in the bucket. Take the top 10 things you want to accomplish in your life. Rank them in importance from 1 to 10, and then cross out the the bottom seven.
Keep it real.
And when it comes to those top three, work your fucking ass off to get them. Perhaps you might do really well and be able to move onto four and five, or perhaps you will only get number one - but it is better than living a life chasing everything, and getting nothing.
But what do I know.
I am out of touch.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
