While the word ‘adulting’ is new, being a grown-up is not, and it’s not easy.
In a recent survey, sixty-three percent of Gen Z and millennials said they didn’t feel prepared for the responsibility and were burnt out by the time they reached adulthood. Feedback like that became motivation for a former Stanford University dean, to write a how-to book on how to grow up and act your age.
No matter how old you are, being an adult can be tricky. Author and former Stanford dean, Julie Lythcott-Haims understands why. In prior generations being an adult was a little simpler. You were expected to leave home, get a job, marry and have kids. Nowadays there are challenges that were not present.
Lythcott-Haims realized that while times have changed, many are still defining adulthood by these outdated markers.
“There are a lot of messages that imply if you haven’t done those things, you’re a failure. You’re not a failure. Society has changed,” says Lythcott-Haims.
She is spreading that message in her book, “Your Turn: How to Be an Adult.”
According to Lythcott-Haims “It’s not about achieving this and that. It’s really about, are you showing up in your daily life no matter where you live or with whom.”
You must realize that things may not always work out perfectly. That notion rings true with Jamie Nunez.
Nunez shared that his father told him, “You need to understand work by going to help your grandfather in his peanut farm.”
Lythcott-Haims wants us to know that being an adult is not a checklist, but a process. So, no matter how old you are, it is something that you’ll get better at and more comfortable with over time.
“It’s on me to be responsible and accountable for my own stuff, my deadlines, my belongings, my business, my bills, my body. It’s not about salary, title, where you live or with whom. It’s ultimately knowing this is my one wild and precious life and I’m going to figure out how to live it. And I am rooting for you,” said Lythcott-Haims.