Life Crisis

Have you heard of “quarter-life crisis”? I don’t know about you but this is an addition to my knowledge, to my vocabulary.  If we have the “mid-life crisis”, the young today are troubled with the “quarter-life crisis”.  My daughter says that this happens from the teenage years to early thirties.  It is the period when this age group goes through the stress of becoming an adult.  It is a critical period because they go through the motions of being unsure about their lives and their life directions.

 

When she told me this, I had my recollections. I too went through this phase in my life but did not really know or even considered it as a crisis. People my generation stuck it out whether we liked the school or not; we did not quit our job even if we hate our office.  We never thought nor discussed about quitting in anything that we were doing. We just knew that there is a certain path that we need to thread.  Life was simple back then; there were no complications or too much demand compared today.

 

Because of the rapid industrialization, life is no longer simple for the young these days. The stress of coping with the unending challenges that face them can be overwhelming. Businesses want more done and delivered at a faster speed. Success lasts only for a while; everything today is measured in speed. There is much competition today than there was in my generation.  The young today are exposed to the rat race more intensely than we were. Have you noticed that they marry much later or probably remain unmarried?  Stress could probably be the reason why heart diseases, hypertension and diabetes are common among the young.

 

I hope the following food for thought can help the people going through their quarter life crisis:

1. Great lessons are learned outside schools. Experience is the best teacher and life is a non-stop learning experience. Invest in time to process the things and events that are happening in your life. There is always something you can learn in everything that happens to you. And once you’ve identified the life lessons, use them; the lessons are too valuable to be wasted.  Use the experience to bring you up the ladder of your dream.
2. Your attitude and character are more important than your school education. When you enter the work place, no one will care about the school where you graduated. Your education may help you accomplish your job but your attitude and character will determine your promotion or demotion.
3. Mentors will help you reach your goals in life.  Make a conscious effort to look for someone who can mentor you.  Hang around successful people and learn their success formulas. Do not have second thoughts in asking a strict or harsh person to be your mentor as long as that person is exceptionally good.  We learned best from our college professors who were the strictest. I remember my college professor; she was so strict that she will embarrass students in front of the class.  Because of this, I studied hard and got a very high grade.
4. Be willing to accept corrections.  You asked someone to mentor you because you know that you will make mistakes.  You will learn only when your mentor will point out your mistakes. Accept the corrections humbly. Reprimands and rebukes are always painful but you need to get over these quickly; don’t dwell on them.  Process the lessons and move on; admit your mistake and learn from it.
5. Success requires hard work.  Most successful people work harder or they may humbly say they work smarter in their jobs.  But they work harder on themselves; they work hard to improve themselves. 

There will always be a crisis in our life. Regardless of which phase you are in, quarter life or mid-life, there is a challenge that you can learn from.

 

Take it from me, a single mom who is now in the mid-life crisis.