The Hollywood trope of the midlife crisis (cue the film American Beauty) is all about blowing up a suburban, stable life and giving in to impulse. In many ways, it was about the middlescent (usually a man) going back to adolescence. Yes, buy the red sports car and have an affair with the head of HR in your company (cue the former CEO of Astronomer). You’ve played the Game of Life well. You went to college, you got married, you had kids, you’ve successfully navigated the career treadmill, and you hate your life! Be bold and brazen in creating a new script for your life (cue Jeff Bezos). You deserve it, dude!
But, many Millennials chose not to take the one-dimensional Game of Life path and they’ve dealt with an American economic and social upheaval that has been anything but stable. Think 9/11, the Great Recession, the pandemic, etc… They’re getting married later (if at all). They’re having kids later (if at all). They’re not moving to the suburbs and their life feels anything but stable. They’re also feeling disappointment that they’ll never be a billionaire like so many of their high-profile peers who got internet-rich early in adulthood (cue Mark Zuckerberg and Brian Chesky).
In many cases, midlife is when they yearn for some stability. It’s when they finally have saved up enough money to buy a home. No generation has ever scored lower when it comes to the question, “Will you be as successful as your parents?” So, for many Millennials, it’s not about chasing the American Dream, but instead about screenwriting their own dream.
But, that dream can be expensive. How much do you think the average American life costs? Raising two children, putting them through college, owning a home, having one annual vacation and a funeral – what is the price tag on it all? I learned from NPR that this package costs $4.4 million. Geez, no wonder Millennials are either junking this idea of normal life or stressed to create the money to afford this. On top of that, they have accumulated a huge amount of debt and are often juggling multiple jobs. And, then, there are the variety of existential crises from climate change to AI to an unclear world order that adds to the angst.
Now, you can understand why we’re creating our first MEA workshop exclusively for younger adults, ALIVE: Building a Life That Matters In Your 20s, 30s or 40s. It’s a 3-day workshop in Santa Fe for Millennials and GenZ (adding GenZ to this because the Quarter-life Crisis has now been well-documented). So many MEA alums have asked for this as they want their adult kids to have an MEA experience with their peers. You asked for it, you got it! Hope you’ll spread the word on this January 8-11 workshop.
-Chip