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If you’re a part of the millennial generation, you are most likely a dreamer, a go-getter beaming with ambition. As inspired as you may be, you are also probably constantly stressed. Millennials are currently aged 18 to 33 – the years in which young people enter the workforce and begin carving out their careers. However, this generation seems to be more stressed about their careers than previous generations.
Rose Kumar, M.D. writes on the Huffington Post that the millennial generation shows the highest level of stress compared to Generation Xers (ages 34 to 47), the Baby Boomers (ages 48 to 66) or the Matures (ages 67 and older). “One would think that with all the conveniences and perks of modern living that were designed to make our lives easier, stress levels would decline,” says Dr. Kumar.
However, it appears that millennials are never satisfied; settling is not part of the plan. These young men and women put tremendous pressure on themselves to reach higher and dream bigger. But when things don’t pan out the way they expect, they aren’t prepared to take a step back.
Many millennial kids grew up thinking that the “sky was the limit,” points out Psychology Today. Their parents instilled the idea that they could do anything with their lives. “Our attitude growing up was perhaps therefore not so much ‘I deserve it’ but rather ‘I can have it,'” Caroline Beaton writes.
Additionally, they receive a lot of outside pressure to succeed at an earlier age. Much of the pressure is due to the fact that social media has created a false reality. Nowadays, the average millennial spends 18 hours per day using any type of digital media. This statistic from the Pew Research Center shows that millennials today are more globally connected, but with this connection also comes jealousy, competitiveness and a drive to exceed one another.
Not only that, but more young celebrities and businessmen and women are highlighted for their early achievements. At just 24 years old, Taylor Swift, for example, was on the cover on TIME for being the new “queen of the music industry.” On the other hand, Malala Yousafzai won the Nobel Prize at 17 years old, Sara Blair became the youngest American lawmaker at 18 years old and fashion blogger Tavi Gevinson took up a second career – as a Broadway star – at 18 years old.
Although you would expect these women to set positive examples for their millennial peers, Dr. Carol Dweck, a professor of Psychology at Stanford University, tells TIME, “You see someone so young, your age or even younger, being so wildly successful, and you think ‘they just have it, they have something I don’t have.’ You think, ‘I’m so young and already I’m doomed.'”
Melanie Curtin from Inc. conducted a poll of 300 millennials on the pressure to succeed and 67 percent of them reported feeling “extreme” pressure. When you’re constantly exposed to stories of other young people being so successful, it’s hard not to feel like you need to “catch up.”
“The fact is, we live in an increasingly youth-obsessed culture. We put 22 year olds on the cover of business magazines and look up to celebrities like Jennifer Aniston and JLo, who never appear to age,” Curtin says. “Then we measure ourselves against them and find ourselves wanting.”
Millennials are so eager to climb the ladders of their careers that they are more easily stressed. But as Curtin suggests, they have to remember that they can attain their own versions of success, regardless of whether or not they’re on the Forbes’ list of 30 Under 30.
