Last week I wrote about what a middle age guy in his 50's like myself could learn from Millennials, the new wave of generational twenty year olds. Today I am going to take a stab at what those twenty-years olds could learn from 50-somethings like myself. The group of Millennials are more educated, more dedicated in their relationships, more cosmopolitan/urban, are more in tune with popular culture that their 50-something counter parts, but can learn from each other if both will take the time to do so. So, here we go....
1. Morals Are Important
One of the areas that most 50-somethings have deeper roots than Millennials are morals. While, Millennials are not immoral, it seems that they don't place a high priority on the morals of their parents or grandparents. The learning point here is that morals drive every day decisions in your home, your job, your friends, and just life overall. High morals will deliver high results.
2. Work Ethic Matters
While Millennials are not lazy, what they need to realize that for the most part, it takes hard work and sometimes many years to achieve the success they long for. We live in a time when internet millionaires are being made every day and the lure of becoming an overnight success is strong. You have read before that many Millennials want what their parents have achieved in twenty-thirty years of work. That is not realistic and will cause frustration and disappointment when you are twenty-seven and don't have the material things your parents might have. There is no substitute for hard work .
3. Faith Is Not Archaic
One of the things that amazes me about the Millennials is that they are very interested in matters of faith. Another way to explain this, is they are interested in spiritual conversations. What they clan learn from some 50-somethings is that the faith of those who came before them should not be shoved to the sideline and forgotten. As a follower of Jesus, I am taken back by the trends of Millennials in the way they handle faith. Faith is not something that is not only important to our grandparents, it must be important to us.
4. Learn To Appreciate Our History
This has become more evident in the past few weeks since a visit to Washington D.C. a couple of years ago. I have been someone who has appreciated our family history due to being a descendant of Daniel Boone's daughter Jemima, one of my grandfathers being a WWI hero, my Dad serving in the Japanese Reconstruction, and a brother serving during the Vietnam War. We are a "now" society, only thinking about the here and now. It is smart to know and understand the events that have brought us to where we are today, whether it is American History or your personal history.
5. Don't Give Into Political Correctness
I grew up in the latter years of the hippie movement in the 60's that transformed into the love generation in the 70's. Trust me, this group of people did not give in to being PC. As a matter of fact, it amuses me to see many of today's hipsters flying the PC flag today. We as Americans, should thank God for the first amendment to our Constitution, but when truth becomes offensive, people or groups are classified as being hateful. When we move in that direction it will take us down a divisive path of being PC.
[callout]There are many areas I could focus on that Millennials could learn from 50-somethings and vice-versa, but I wanted to keep it simple and short. I hope you are open to learn cross-generationally and work hard to become all that God wants you to be![/callout]
