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Generational Health
When I was younger, my parents would sit us down at the dinner table on New Year’s Day and ask my sister and I what goals we intended to achieve within the next 365 days. Goal-oriented and numerically driven, baby boomers were the generation that was continually rewarded for their hard work. Because of this, as a NewsNation study revealed, “boomers are most likely to stick to their New Year’s resolutions with 42% of them admitting they followed through with their resolutions as of November.”
However, for us youngsters, working hard was never a guarantee that your goals could be achieved, so in order to avoid disappointment and that dreaded “resolution failure,” we sought instead to improve ourselves rather than our circumstances. “New Year’s resolutions may be a thing of the past. People still want to set goals for themselves, but they are taking a different approach,” said Bonnie Taub-Dix, a registered dietitian. In fact, according to George Ziogas’s exposé on the millennial self-improvement obsession, “[young people] were spending twice what boomers were on self-improvement despite earning half the income.” This just proves that the social value of self-growth was more important to younger generations than it was to boomers. Because when it comes to internal growth, young people have gone all-in on investing in themselves.
Although many of us grew up with the classic New Year’s Resolutions echoing in our heads–reminding us to lose 10 pounds or pester our boss for a raise–zillennials have prioritized more tangible, daily goals like mindfulness, being kind, and drinking enough water. Young people are more encouraged to improve themselves and their personal well-being before tackling larger ideas because they’ve been consistently disappointed with worldly woes out of their control like the floundering economy, seemingly lawless political climate, and crippling student loans.
Goals Schmoals
Zillennials have seen it all... And by that, I mean, they’ve witnessed every societal horror imaginable yet reaped none of the promised rewards. However, it’s not all doom and gloom for millennials and Gen Z. Many folks from this generation have turned their lemons into lemonade, extracting nuggets of wisdom from each shocking turn of events and pivoting their persona accordingly. This has since affected the way that young people approach each new year.
Younger generations no longer set typical New Year’s resolutions in January because they expect their plans and goals to be swept out from under them. For example, back in our parents’ day, a person could plan out their whole future and plausibly achieve every goal on their list without a hitch, but nowadays, the nuclear family, the stable job with benefits, and the manicured lawn are far more complicated to attain. Younger generations have accepted that and sought to attain a different level of success.
So while we can’t control the weather, we can certainly prepare ourselves and pack an umbrella.
In preparing themselves for oncoming storms, this self-improvement has given young people the tools to grow in their own way. According to Medium journalist, George Ziogas, “[Self-improvement] was baked right into the millennial subconscious and it was clear that while dissatisfaction could fuel the desire to improve, it was sometimes just about being your best self and learning how to leverage every opportunity that comes your way.” While millennials seemed to be capitalizing on every meager opportunity and simultaneously preparing for the worst, the only way to be truly ready for whatever curve-ball life throws at them, they needed to take the reins on the one thing they had control over: Themselves.
Playing the Cards in Hand
When it comes to the game of life, millennials and Gen Z got dealt a pretty challenging hand. Promised the fortunes of their elders, whose success was directly tied to their work-ethic, young people were trained to work hard and set goals at an early age. But as the years wore on and the reality of our collegiate loan debacle set in, the dream of the white-picket-fence drifted away and was replaced by something else–a newfound goal of just being a genuinely better person instead.
Becoming a good person may not be as simple as clicking ‘Subscribe’ to join your local gym, but the ultimate outcome of self-improvement is far more beneficial. Bettering yourself holistically is more abstract than an uncomplicated goal-oriented check list, but as a whole, benefits everyone you encounter.
Although it’s significantly more abstracting, the traditional New Year’s Resolution has been replaced by continued betterment. New York Post journalist reports, “Fifty-five percent of Americans believe that the concept of New Year’s resolutions is outdated… [and] millennials, in particular, are the most over the classic ‘resolution’ (66%).” Society is finally ready to become the theoretical “bigger person.”
So when the cards you’re dealt are less than ideal, the objective of the rigged game shifts. We are looking outward to validate our successes no longer, and instead, are assigning merit to internal qualities that benefit our immediate sphere of influence. Young people are more interested in self-improvement than superficial New Year’s Resolutions, putting mind over matter and trying to wake up every day with a positive attitude and a mindset to do their best.
Because at the end of each year, with nothing but misty uncertainty on the horizon, it sure feels good to be certain of one thing: You’re doing your best to be a decent human being in this world. And that’s all most of us can truly hope for.
