How did generation Y turn into a burnt-out generation?
- Transfer
Why do we burn out and do not even suspect it? A brief translation of the article by Anne Helen Petersen, a reporter for BuzzFeed News.
In the past decade, the term “millenials” has been used to describe all the good and bad things that exist in young people. In the meantime, the millennials have matured: the youngest is now 22, the most adult is 38. But they continue to be said about them that they are spoiled, lazy and cannot grow up at all. Growing up implies independent existence: paying bills, going to work, buying and preparing food, remembering that all actions have consequences. Growing up is difficult because life is not an easy thing. Although it all depends on your attitude to this.
Our parents always did everything they were supposed to do, and they didn’t always like what they were doing. But they still did. But why then for us simple things in one action are so painful? Why is it so difficult to sharpen knives, carry shoes to a shoemaker, schedule an appointment with a doctor, answer letters? What is there in them that introduces us to the “task stupor” when things from the task list for a week wander from sheet to sheet and pursue us for months?
And yet none of these matters requires much time or effort. Yes, and you do not seem to idle, do not wallow in seasonal depression - no, you are writing a dissertation, planning a trip, preparing for a marathon. But as soon as you get to the daily business, you start to avoid them.
All these tasks can be reduced to a common denominator: yes, they are useful and necessary, but they will not change life radically. These are matters that will require more from you than they will give as a result, and they will put you in a stupor.
And the more you try to analyze this stupor - the more will appear the features of burnout. Burnout, as a diagnosis, was first mentioned in 1974 and was defined as "physical and mental collapse due to processing or stress." A related term burnout is exhaustion; however, when exhausted, a person finds himself at a point where he can no longer move forward, when burnout, he reaches that point and continues to push himself forward: days, weeks, months.
Let's try to unwind the spiral: so why are you putting off the routine? You burned out. Why did you burn out? Because they imposed on themselves the idea that you have to work all the time. Where did this idea come to your mind? From childhood - everything is hidden and clearly expressed exactly that.
When risk management, a business practice aimed at reducing the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome occurring, migrated into the educational process, parents began to issue a clear set of rules about what can and cannot be done. The children's game has been optimized, the free schedule of the day is only allowed to the nursery group, parents began to carry out their duties intensively, and even the unbridled flow of children's energy was handled by medicines and called hyperactivity.
Children learned to do without what does not help them come closer to success. And they learned: college students, seemingly the same yesterday’s graduates, in general resemble learning lessons: they take studies very seriously, almost do not skip, get ready at night, worry about grades, cling to the thought of graduation, any creative task puts them to a dead end. They are scared, but why? They were sent throughout life, and now they are waiting for new instructions. They are convinced that the first job will determine their future career, that work cannot be easy and fun, that life cannot bring pleasure, that life is an endless series of optimization of everything that happens, if you stop to rest, everything will collapse.
On the surface, it worked. We did not try to break the system, because we were raised differently, we tried to defeat it. The system was not fair, but the flywheel was launched in my head: “If you optimize yourself, you can become one of the few who will win it.” Then the stereotype that became the source of burnout strengthened: all that is good is bad, and all that is bad is good: rest is bad because you do not work, work all the time is good, because only this way you can succeed.
Optimization has become an integral part of the millennial life: pants for yoga must be suitable for subsequent meetings on Skype, and in order to pick up the child. Online services were created to save us time for work.
People are increasingly asking themselves such conditions in which they can not "jump" - they can not admit that they are tired and relax. Instead, they continue to move, even when all reserve stocks have already dried up.
On the "help" came social networks. We know that virtual reality is sometimes very far from the ordinary, but how to stop comparing yourself with the perfect picture? And what to do if you have not found a balance between work and family, you can not clearly build a schedule of work and holidays, if you do not have the strength to serve dinner and you raid a pizza from the nearest cafe to work? The best way to convince yourself that you are experiencing this is to demonstrate to others. And here we are a step further from the coveted tranquility. Burnout intensifies.
OK, so what now? Do you need to meditate more, rest more often, delegate more, engage in self-care, or set up timers to stay in social networks? How to remake all the daily affairs and cure your burnout? The answer is still no - maybe we are just asking ourselves the wrong question?
There are several ways to look at the problem of “task stupor”. Many of the “paralyzing” tasks cannot be optimized (for example, sharpening knives), others have too many solutions (for example, finding a doctor in a new city where you recently moved), and some of them are just boring.
Yes, these are not the most rational reasons to avoid doing things that still need to be done, but stupid, illogical decisions.just are a sign of burnout. The person starts up all serious, or just hides to avoid all the tasks from the list.
Burnout can not be cured by the seaside resort, meditations, books from the series “How to take life into your own hands,” cooking courses and anti-stress coloring. There is no solution to burnout. You can not optimize it and forcibly complete. It cannot be prevented. The only solution: to accept that this is not an acute infection, but a chronic disease, so you need to identify the main features and find the root.
In order to accurately describe the burnout of millennials - one needs to be aware of the diversity of the current reality - we are not just graduates, parents, employees. We are in debt, we work for many hours, and not at the same job, they pay us little, but we struggle to achieve what our parents had, we are physically and mentally unstable, but we were told that if we work hard - good will win and we will live. Our blue dream: the to-do list is finally over, or at least reduced by several times.
Our main value for society is the ability to burn, continue to work, so you should not expect that someone will help with this. It is unlikely that there will be a clear plan of action to “tame” the burnout, but you can start by honestly answering the question: what tasks do you immediately accomplish, and which ones do you postpone and why. And yet try to get yourself out of the trap "all that is good is bad, and what is bad is good." And no, this is not a goal for a year, not a task for a week - this is an approach to life, having introduced it, you can save yourself from burning out and enjoy not only optimization, but life in general.
In the past decade, the term “millenials” has been used to describe all the good and bad things that exist in young people. In the meantime, the millennials have matured: the youngest is now 22, the most adult is 38. But they continue to be said about them that they are spoiled, lazy and cannot grow up at all. Growing up implies independent existence: paying bills, going to work, buying and preparing food, remembering that all actions have consequences. Growing up is difficult because life is not an easy thing. Although it all depends on your attitude to this.
Our parents always did everything they were supposed to do, and they didn’t always like what they were doing. But they still did. But why then for us simple things in one action are so painful? Why is it so difficult to sharpen knives, carry shoes to a shoemaker, schedule an appointment with a doctor, answer letters? What is there in them that introduces us to the “task stupor” when things from the task list for a week wander from sheet to sheet and pursue us for months?
And yet none of these matters requires much time or effort. Yes, and you do not seem to idle, do not wallow in seasonal depression - no, you are writing a dissertation, planning a trip, preparing for a marathon. But as soon as you get to the daily business, you start to avoid them.
All these tasks can be reduced to a common denominator: yes, they are useful and necessary, but they will not change life radically. These are matters that will require more from you than they will give as a result, and they will put you in a stupor.
And the more you try to analyze this stupor - the more will appear the features of burnout. Burnout, as a diagnosis, was first mentioned in 1974 and was defined as "physical and mental collapse due to processing or stress." A related term burnout is exhaustion; however, when exhausted, a person finds himself at a point where he can no longer move forward, when burnout, he reaches that point and continues to push himself forward: days, weeks, months.
Let's try to unwind the spiral: so why are you putting off the routine? You burned out. Why did you burn out? Because they imposed on themselves the idea that you have to work all the time. Where did this idea come to your mind? From childhood - everything is hidden and clearly expressed exactly that.
When risk management, a business practice aimed at reducing the likelihood of an unfavorable outcome occurring, migrated into the educational process, parents began to issue a clear set of rules about what can and cannot be done. The children's game has been optimized, the free schedule of the day is only allowed to the nursery group, parents began to carry out their duties intensively, and even the unbridled flow of children's energy was handled by medicines and called hyperactivity.
Children learned to do without what does not help them come closer to success. And they learned: college students, seemingly the same yesterday’s graduates, in general resemble learning lessons: they take studies very seriously, almost do not skip, get ready at night, worry about grades, cling to the thought of graduation, any creative task puts them to a dead end. They are scared, but why? They were sent throughout life, and now they are waiting for new instructions. They are convinced that the first job will determine their future career, that work cannot be easy and fun, that life cannot bring pleasure, that life is an endless series of optimization of everything that happens, if you stop to rest, everything will collapse.
On the surface, it worked. We did not try to break the system, because we were raised differently, we tried to defeat it. The system was not fair, but the flywheel was launched in my head: “If you optimize yourself, you can become one of the few who will win it.” Then the stereotype that became the source of burnout strengthened: all that is good is bad, and all that is bad is good: rest is bad because you do not work, work all the time is good, because only this way you can succeed.
Optimization has become an integral part of the millennial life: pants for yoga must be suitable for subsequent meetings on Skype, and in order to pick up the child. Online services were created to save us time for work.
People are increasingly asking themselves such conditions in which they can not "jump" - they can not admit that they are tired and relax. Instead, they continue to move, even when all reserve stocks have already dried up.
On the "help" came social networks. We know that virtual reality is sometimes very far from the ordinary, but how to stop comparing yourself with the perfect picture? And what to do if you have not found a balance between work and family, you can not clearly build a schedule of work and holidays, if you do not have the strength to serve dinner and you raid a pizza from the nearest cafe to work? The best way to convince yourself that you are experiencing this is to demonstrate to others. And here we are a step further from the coveted tranquility. Burnout intensifies.
OK, so what now? Do you need to meditate more, rest more often, delegate more, engage in self-care, or set up timers to stay in social networks? How to remake all the daily affairs and cure your burnout? The answer is still no - maybe we are just asking ourselves the wrong question?
There are several ways to look at the problem of “task stupor”. Many of the “paralyzing” tasks cannot be optimized (for example, sharpening knives), others have too many solutions (for example, finding a doctor in a new city where you recently moved), and some of them are just boring.
Yes, these are not the most rational reasons to avoid doing things that still need to be done, but stupid, illogical decisions.just are a sign of burnout. The person starts up all serious, or just hides to avoid all the tasks from the list.
Burnout can not be cured by the seaside resort, meditations, books from the series “How to take life into your own hands,” cooking courses and anti-stress coloring. There is no solution to burnout. You can not optimize it and forcibly complete. It cannot be prevented. The only solution: to accept that this is not an acute infection, but a chronic disease, so you need to identify the main features and find the root.
In order to accurately describe the burnout of millennials - one needs to be aware of the diversity of the current reality - we are not just graduates, parents, employees. We are in debt, we work for many hours, and not at the same job, they pay us little, but we struggle to achieve what our parents had, we are physically and mentally unstable, but we were told that if we work hard - good will win and we will live. Our blue dream: the to-do list is finally over, or at least reduced by several times.
Our main value for society is the ability to burn, continue to work, so you should not expect that someone will help with this. It is unlikely that there will be a clear plan of action to “tame” the burnout, but you can start by honestly answering the question: what tasks do you immediately accomplish, and which ones do you postpone and why. And yet try to get yourself out of the trap "all that is good is bad, and what is bad is good." And no, this is not a goal for a year, not a task for a week - this is an approach to life, having introduced it, you can save yourself from burning out and enjoy not only optimization, but life in general.