I often sit back and think about how much my parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents (the list goes on) had to sacrifice in order for me to be where I am today. With each generation, the goal is to improve and better the lives of each individual. Although the ones that started the hard working trend are gone, a piece of them still lives on from generation to generation. With these thoughts in mind, I also always think about how different their world was compared to our world today. Most people think that us Millennials have it the easiest and that we are the laziest bunch. Which yes, some of that is true, but only if you make it that way. You can find lazy people in any generation… Although we have a lot more resources at our disposal which make tasks “easier”, I personally think that this makes it harder at the same time. There are many more pressures and different standards today that make life a bit more challenging.

Here are some ways to use these resources to your best advantage and seize the day!

⇢ New Career Opportunities

When I was applying to college about two years ago, I remember looking at the list of offered majors and minors. I was in shock at how long the lists were, there were more opportunities than I could have ever imagined, I didn’t know where to start! What is great about this new mentality is that finding a career that you enjoy is encouraged, rather than the thought of the past which was “Do what will make you a lot of money”. My parents always used to tell me that they felt that they only had very few career opportunities while in college. Now, students are told to pursue their dream careers and explore areas that other generations couldn’t even have imaged.

⇢ Technology

What a blessing and a curse… we can’t live without it, which isn’t always a bad thing. My friends refer to me as the social media queen, I am not going to deny that. But think about it, how many companies would not exist without it? The answer to that question is almost all of them, unless you still do old fashioned book keeping. Technology and social media is an awesome business platform that allows you to reach as many people as possible and get the word out! I have spoken to many business owners that have been in the marketing world before and also in the height of technology and they can’t even put into words the difference it has made for their companies. If people use it the way that it is meant to, I promise it is going to take you places.

⇢ The New Normal

The new normal is that there is no “normal”. That of the past, I considered everyone to be very cookie cutter and trying to pursue the same things. How can everyone pursue the same thing? That doesn’t make for a diverse world and further innovation… Going along with the career topic, everyone is encouraged to do what they love and take risks. Without these risks we wouldn’t have half the companies we have today. “Two roads diverge in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference” Thank you Robert Frost for being the first to encourage individuals to not follow the crowd. Take the road less traveled, I promise you it will make all the difference.

⇢ Healthy Competition

Every millennial seems to have big hopes and dreams, which makes it even more challenging when trying to succeed in your own way. But, this will encourage you to stand out even more with your unique ideas. I am not going to lie to you, you need to be aggressive in this world. Where I first started to see it the most was when I was applying to college. So many people are applying to college today, so use this to your advantage. No matter where you go to school use what you are given in order to be better than the rest. You need to stand out in this world and take others’ successes and failures (along with your own) in order to help you better yourself. This large amount of competition is something that other generations never had, but we do.

⇢ A Global World 

I think it is an incredible thing that exploring the world is highly encouraged. For a lot of majors in college, studying abroad at some point in your college career is now required. Experiencing cultures and other countries, I feel, makes you a lot wiser and puts you ahead of the next person. Especially in careers, since everything is on a global scale nowadays, it is important to know how to deal with other cultures and be able to have some sort of common ground with others. This is a unique characteristic to this generation that no other generation has been exposed to before.

I am extremely proud to say that I am a millennial. We are a hard working and unique bunch of individuals, and as you can see, we have a lot of new resources at our disposal which is going to make for a wiser and more hard working generation.