5 pitfalls to be avoided by Millennials

If you are a Millennial (born after 1980) or you know somebody who is; then you will realize importance of reading this article 5 years from now; when you know that it was valid, if you don’t READ IT NOW!

Background – Everywhere in workplace, to discussions, to movies and to marketing; people are talking about this buzz word – Millennials.

Let’s understand who are Millennials – They are Generation Y & Generation Z who have seen the best of technology and the best of complexities of the changing world which started with 1980s.

The world was never like this before and Millennials saw advent of technology, internet and information revolution. Suddenly internet has connected us to everything and everybody, making us more distant from ourselves.

If we continue to lead our life in this way, we will surely get all those great ‘offers’ but miss the mark, by not being present in ‘here and now’, as the Mindfulness practitioner says. The very first definition of ‘sin’ is ‘missing the mark’.

So, in this short article read on to know the 5 pitfalls set by society, technology and world for the Millennial and some recommendations to avoid them.

Pitfall # 1 - Falling for the sales trap: Have you ever wondered why we have all those great sales and offers on online shopping coming at the middle of night and at constant intervals during the day. Well, research supports the fact that finding something new which our brain decides as useful for our survival releases a chemical called ‘Dopamine’ which has an addictive effect on neurology. When we have these constant messaging from the sales software of Online Shopping Portals, it destroys our critical judgment, more so because during the night, our critical faculty of brain is at rest.

This has been validated by The University of California, Berkley and also by all those non-essential, useless and used-less things that we Millennials have hoarded during many such late night shopping sprees.

Recommendation: Delete the shopping apps – yeah you won’t miss anything. Make an annual list of things you want to buy like ‘an annual wish list’ and only go buying those things (you can obviously add any more things basis ‘Need’) and buy these things in morning only when you feel logical and attentive.

Give away all your non-necessary, used-less stuff to needy, this will release the empathy hormone ‘oxytocin’ that promotes well-being!

As it is said –

“There is enough for everyone’s need, not for someone’s greed”

Pitfall # 2 - Changing jobs too quickly: Yes! That’s right. Many of us don’t stick around too much to any job. The average job tenure has come down from a Life time (Lost Generations to Veterans) to decades (baby boomers) to 3- 5 Years (Generation X) to a 1 – 2 years in Millennials.

We do see a lot of change and we see a lot of new ideas coming up and changing our workplace. We grew up finding Instant gratification like Instant Noodles and Certificates at our Schools and colleges for just participating and showing up. However, the job and career space doesn’t work like this. We need to have knowledge and expertise before we venture out and in this case our predecessors were correct. 3 – 5 years is a good time frame to learn new things. This will help us pick skills and projects important for our career and profession

Recommendation: So stick around a bit more – not to earn but to ‘Learn’.

As some wise person once said,

“The more you Learn, the more you Earn”

Pitfall # 3 - Getting married to an idea and not testing – to Google something is NOT a test: This is in continuation with the previous point as one of the major reasons that we find people quitting is they want to start ‘something of their own’; the key word there is ‘something’. This reminds me of the comic act of a well-known comedian Russell Peters who said ‘Somebody’ J. Well we Millennials have high expectations when we want results for our effort so much so, that we want ‘something for nothing’.

Some of my friends want to get paid for just being a ‘Movie critic’ writing blogs. But what we lack is the ‘CLARITY’.

I have written it in bold and I wanted it to be in font 72, reason being we do not do proper research to figure out that “Something”. Leaving a job and getting married to an idea is a good thing but provided you do the broom work as well. Well, just like getting married does not mean being on a Honeymoon forever, it also brings along responsibilities like household work, cleaning our kitchen, preparing the dish and once the food is over cleaning the utensils as well.

Doing a Google search, doesn’t qualify as research, before we get enchanted by an idea and a dream,  a thorough research is needed from scientific and credible sources (my next door neighbor and friend or my favorite uncle doesn’t qualify here); also be prepared to answer the following 3 Litmus test questions:

·        “Are you ready to work 1 year without any returns?” - Most businesses need a gestation period that can be that long or longer.

·        “Have you done at least 2 months of market research and made a contingency plan?” – If you don’t have research and plan B then you just have ‘wishful thought’.

·        “Do you have a business that you can ‘sell off’ after 5 to 10 years?” – Yeah! Eventually it has to be a saleable business; if you are ‘so-married’ to your idea that you don’t want to sell it even if it runs in losses then; in Psychology we have a term for it called, ‘escalation of commitment’ that results in the losing gambler lose more.

Recommendation: I am not against Entrepreneurs and Innovators, in fact I would like to call myself a Disruptor, Futurist and an Innovator. But only thing that is lacking here in most of us aspiring entrepreneurs is thorough research and business acumen. I recommend following two simple tools:

1.    Wolfram alpha and other websites for some serious market study and demographic study, feasibility study for the idea

2.    Customer empathy map – A Tool created by Dave Gray which enables one to ‘get inside the head’ of one’s prospective customer.

As we all know that,

“Nothing worthwhile achieving in this world has come for free, it takes blood and sweat to make an empire”

Pitfall # 4 - Letting Technology invade privacy: Out of all the mistakes this is the one that is alienating us from our friends, family and loved ones.

When I was around 10 years of age Sundays were fun and we used to have our family friends visit us and bring in some home cooked goodies or some fruits.

Today I had one friend, Ajit do the same for me when he brought some home cooked ‘pakodas’ (Indian snacks) which were very delicious. Eating those ‘pakodas’ I thought, we somehow have a lot of information coming our way but are further detached from the ‘emotions’ or our ‘emotional brain’.

As per one research we are exposed to the information equivalent to 728 newspapers everyday by our social networking Apps and mobile phones.

I was even flabbergasted and surprised that as per one of the data; people were even using their phones while ‘making love’ to their partner??? (Source: The Science of Happiness – MOOC on edX, Daily check ins)

Recommendation: I will keep this one short and simple, as the more I write, the more, it will make you fall prey to this syndrome that I am trying to define. So, as a recommendation, have a “Technology diet” and “Technology Detox” it simply means switching your mobile phone off when you meet a friend or a loved one, giving your complete attention, keeping a day off from technology and devices and making your mobile phones rest in a different room while you sleep comfortably. (Yeah! This means we have to buy an old time alarm clock)

As we all know that,

“When we waste time, then we waste life; as time is what our life is made of”

Pitfall # 5 - Mindless eating with no focus on health: Me and my brother when we were in primary school used to have ‘milk and cookies’ watching our favorite cartoon show on TV. Then we used to get into a ‘competition’ – ‘Who will eat the maximum cookies?’

Well at the end of that mad competition we were left bloated!!

Near the place where we live there are many fast food restaurants and lot of eating joints that serve processed sugar and flour. The junk we eat as Millennials is leaving us unhealthy, tired and malnourished. The Gymnasiums and fitness centers run a marketing campaign to sign you up for a year with discount as they know that 80% of people who sign up don’t show up eventually.

We go from a health drink to diet supplement to magic diets to treatments but, we don’t find a healthy body. The ‘Technostress’ at work and on our devices leaves as exhausted day in day out.

We make plans for our weekend getaways with friends but, when we are there we are busy on our devices clicking ‘self-ies’, ‘us-sies” and uploading them online. First half of the trips get exhausted in discussing the monotony and rest half in getting back to monotony. We are never in the moment and we never pay attention to our health and health of our loved ones.

Recommendation: Well I don’t follow a diet and I am also on my journey to have this balance, so don’t expect much as a recommendation here. But, I will tell you three things that have worked for me immensely in last 3 years:

1.    Mindfulness – Mindful breathing and ‘being in the moment’ has allowed me to enjoy some of the amazing moments that ‘technology’ or ‘worry of past/ future’ would have snatched. The practice is simple – relax, relax some more – take a deep breath – take three deep breaths – focus on the here and now!

2.    Mindful Eating – This is just like the above but, more focused on chewing your food properly, being conscious of what you eat and how much you eat and drinking a lot of water during the day to stay hydrated!

3.    Exercise or be in motion – Do anything that you like doing, which is something in motion and that brings ‘sweat’, ‘energy’ and ‘enthusiasm’ out of you. I practice martial arts whenever I get time and do an evening walk and climb down stairs from 7 floored building when I couldn’t.

Yes these techniques are simple, and/ or may require some effort as well but; as the Zen master Thich Nhat Hanh says:

“Keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos — the trees, the clouds, everything.”

Finally, as a last thought I want to leave Millennials reading this article with is; that this is the best time and era that we have in hand, don’t waste this opportunity by the 5 mistakes that we all have experienced. Don’t believe anything in this article, if you have not seen it and don’t take any recommendation if you have not ‘tested’ and ‘experimented’ with it.

Take what is useful and make it yours, share your ‘gifts’ with others and make it a better world than you found it!

The best place to start is – HERE; the best time to start is – NOW!

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The views expressed are of my own and have no connection to my current or previous organization what so ever.

?Copyright 2017 ANUPAM RAWAT. All rights reserved. Reproduction in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of Author is strictly forbidden. For more information, contact [email protected]. 

Information in this document is subject to change without notice.