Happy, Slash

I've been in an information-gathering mood of late. Talking to people about their experiences, learning about different ways to live and dream, and taking advice that inspire how I can achieve my goals. And then, I stumbled across an article the other day in AdAge - an interview with Nancy Hill, that spoke about my generation's talent pool and how we present ourselves and self identify with occupations. The article calls us the "slash" generation... meaning when you ask someone today what they do for a living, you get an answer similar to "well I am ___ slash I do ____ slash also ____" a long list of qualifications. No longer do titles and nondescript credentials satisfy this generation.

It's like, if our personal stories and qualifications exceed the standard answer then it leaves us with no choice but to over-divulge information. The article calls this a "collective experience" essentially we identify ourselves not only as one thing or occupation, but as multiple experiences that add up together to make one complete picture.  But is this schizophrenic passion to be great at different things revealing my generation's inability to commit? Or is it a result of a bumpy path triggered by a less than desirable job market?

I can only say that in my experience, I have only wanted to do and be one thing -- a great writer. Now, if someone asks me what I do today -- am I a slash participant? Initially, yes, because part of my job now might be writing, but it's also managing projects. Until one day, I met someone and I gave them the slash schpeal and they told me I should stop watering down who I am with other attributes that hardly describe my interests and dreams. So, that's a piece of advice I took.
I sometimes feel like our generation over-compensates for their current positions because they are not doing what they dream of and therefore add specialties and skill sets to a seemingly straightforward answer.
It's one of those things, if you are living your dream -- then what else is there to reveal? This is all a part of that trite saying when you start to do what you're passionate about it stops feeling like work.

So instead of people in my generation being happy, they are happy slash ...

So I'm going to leave you with words of wisdom from another friend of mine. He said to me, decide today what you want to be the greatest at and make a declaration, for example, "I will be the greatest female creative writer of my generation." Now, whenever you're thinking about a decision or what to do, think, "what would the greatest female creative writer of her generation do?" And then act. So, slash generation -- pick your greatness today and lose the slash anything that looks like a division sign has to be divvying up your passion.

The Physics of Dreams

Dreams, goals, ideas, and happiness; all ethereal aspects of life that keep us in a constant state of evaluation for change. These are all catalyst for life-changing actions, regardless of how they are categorized.

The impulsiveness of ideas and dreams make them what they are, but the self-negotiation could stifle that very pursuit of happiness and that's what we have grown to call decisions. So it goes like this the fire for change is ignited with a dream, goal or want for happiness, then you immediately enter a linear process where we evaluate a full list of criteria of the negatives and positives. Once you've analyzed and weighed the benefits you arrive at a decision to act. But, the action doesn't seem as life altering when it was just a dream because you've rationalized it. The fact-finding stage allows you time to be comfortable with a proposed action/decision or to declare it a good or bad idea.

But the very definition of movement is founded in the propellant, not ruminating. Hello, law of motion: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Pretty sure it doesn't say every thought results in an equal and opposite awesome list. 

Why is a woman like me, who took exactly one semester of "How Things Work", so intrigued by this simple equation? Well, I have a friend who just left her job as a PR executive and she's now going to be a nanny. Of course the initial reaction is to be floored, but I just kept thinking about how much I admired her gumption. She could comfortably say "I'm not sure what's coming my way, but now I have time for it, since I won't be stressed at an alleged 9-5." And it made me think, no matter what people might perceive of this decision it was hers and hers alone, she sought a way to be happier and the obstacle was her job, so she mastered that hurdle and found a new method of income. Given her open ended responses to her decision and what she would do about this or that, she spent exactly enough energy thinking about her decision and the rest making it happen. She's going to be happy with her decision and I couldn't be more proud to tell her story. Her energy behind her want for happiness created a progression forward that created an action. What's not to be impressed with that?

It's not easy and I'm not saying you should do things without thinking about it, but I am saying it's worth trusting your dreams a little more. To add another well known fact for support I can't help but point to Nike and the most popular ad campaign: "Just Do It." If this is good enough for the Goddess of Victory to live by that motto, then where can you go wrong?