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The Truth About Millennials: A Baby Boomer’s Perspective

baby boomer_millennial

How this sensitive and passionate generation is changing the world as we know it.

Like every generation before them, Baby Boomers want their children to have a life better than their own. They raise their children giving them what they didn’t get from their parents; deep caring, money, safety, positive attention, freedom to express their needs/desires/wants, validation, encouragement, discipline, after school programs, education, travel, self-expression, happiness, and various life opportunities.

Like every generation prior to Baby Boomers, parents end up thinking the 20-somethings they raised are narcissistic, self-absorbed, spoiled know-it-alls who “think they can be anything.”

I believe a lot of the millennials are here to help clean up the mess previous generations have created.

I believe millennials are a unique combination of their parents’ DNA, what they have been taught and learned, and that they are enlightened spirits. My intuition early on revealed to me this generation is here to transform and transcend the negative and limited perceptions of our planet at speeds never seen before. We are playing a new game of life with the millennial generation. They have more power than they yet know and understand. They are coming into their own.

The Real Millennial Persona

Science says our DNA evolves through time for our species to better adapt in response to our environments and challenges. This is survival of the fittest. Through the evolution of the Baby Boomer’s mind, body and spirit, we have an advanced generation called millennials. They are more conscious, connected, educated, sensitive, intuitive, and technology oriented than any other generation.

I believe a lot of the millennials are here to help clean up the mess previous generations have created. Some are here to stir up the pot of life – so we can see the shit – and then there are others who are here to transform it. They are here to wake up the sleeping Boomers and Gen Xers who have been living unconsciously and habitually to the determent of our land and humanity.

Millennials’ environmental influences have grown from hometown to global via technologies and education. As a result of being so well connected to the world with social media, Google and YouTube, millennials are growing up with a lot more exposure to the challenges of our world and feeling inspired to solve the problems.

Raising Millennial Children

I think back to the early millennials (1980s) going to school; there were a lot of them disrupting the classroom because they were bored and couldn’t sit still for five to six hours. They were diagnosed as ADHD or ADD and were then being medicated in order to keep them still. I intuitively felt they were here to teach us that our way of teaching school is unnatural and lacking inspiration and innovation.

Boomer children didn’t have a voice like millennials do.

I also noticed that a lot of the millennial children were “sensitives.” These children could feel other people’s feelings, processing information more deeply than adults. They were psychic or intuitive, and deeply moved and connected to nature and animals. They also didn’t want to do things that weren’t meaningful or things that didn’t bring joy; to me, this means living your purpose.

These millennial children were deeply disturbed by unfairness or cruelty. They saw a lot more of the world’s problems and injustices via the various medias and their parents’ own challenges than most of the Boomers ever did in their childhood. A lot of Boomers were not included in the “family issues” and rarely watched the news on TV. Boomer children didn’t have a voice like millennials do. Boomers gave their children more options and opportunities than they ever had.

Seeking a New Direction

As the millennials grew up, they learned to hide their gifts of sensitivity and spiritual passions, because Boomer parents and teachers value intellect over the heart. Millennials were programmed to get what they wanted through doing what others asked them to do, rather than being inspired by their passions and intuition. They were taught that they would be rewarded for taking action and if there wasn’t instant gratification, it wasn’t worth it. They learned to work for others, not for themselves. This is why millennials need validation and direction at work; they weren’t taught to be their own inspiration, to trust their decisions, and to value their work process.

I am in awe of this generation’s ability to transcend and transform and their capacity to love and compassion.

This is one of the biggest challenges for millennials to overcome today. As 20-somethings come out from under the direction of their parents and teachers they are drawn to reconnect to their passions and purpose, yet confused about how. They are inspired to help others change the world, create beauty and love, but because of their parental and educational programming, they don’t know yet how to follow their purpose, passions, and intuition.

Once a millennial learns to trust their inner voice, know the gift of their sensitivities, know they’re purpose and their ability to create, positive change will come very quickly and we all will benefit. I know because I interview amazing millennials who have done just this in my Millennials and Money Café podcasts. I am in awe of this generation’s ability to transcend and transform and their capacity to love and compassion.

I made lots of mistakes as a Boomer parent; my millennial children and clients have been my greatest teachers.