On air: Do you expect too much from life?

My generation is the tail end of the baby-boomers. There seems to be a big difference in level of satisfaction and happiness in just a ten year span. Not sure what causes it, but people have less time to spend with family and friends due to work and children's activities. Thats why social networks are so popular. You can keep up with people you don't see very often. I have alot of friends on medications. Makes you wonder.

If you think this is bad, wait until the Gen Yers reach middle age, if the world still even exists. They are the most entitled and spoiled generation ever.

Maybe people are changing? Both my parents died in their early 40's and my brother didn't live to see 30. I had a major life crisis in the beginning of my 40's and it really re-arranged my life and my values.
My generation comes between the Baby Boomers and their kids and they all seem to take up so much room, so we have been squeezed.
My generation started out working and being told that we would have to work for 25 years at the job before anybody would listen to our opinion at work. 20 years on from when I got my first post-university 'real' job, that workplace no longer exists. It is strange to have grown up in the 1960's when there was a boom and experience the present, which is more like the 1930's.
Having been burnt-out and gone into deep depression more than twice, I don't think that any job or romantic relationship is worth that anymore. I am passionate about what I do and love learning. I love my friends and hope to meet a lovely man when I am 67, but for the time being,I don't even want to own a goldfish!
So let the crisis come on early and work through your issues. For me, post crisis, life is so much better now than it was in my 20's and 30's and the awful 40's.

I don't want to sound smug, but most of my friends who are professional people between the ages of 40-63 are pretty miserable. Keeping up with the demands of their professions, unable to cope with the way that the world has changed and being used to being able to being really good at what they do -most of them work with people- the pressure is great in these times.
A lot are back at school. The changes in the way people are expected to bring up children from when we were children is also a stressor.
Love is not what it was when we were in our 20's....
I think that most people keep hoping that it will get better as the summer vacations get shorter and the things one owns get wonkier.

To bad it's not even a cliche yet, but apparently the secret to happiness in life is wanting what you have, rather than having what you want.

In today's society, there's so much materialism, so little loyalty. People think "if I had this, then I'd be happy" and nothing is ever enough. They're constantly looking to upgrade in relationships too, hence all the cheating. Too much sense of entitlement, yet remarkably, so much low self esteem.

Do you expect too much from life? No I don't. There is a Latin saying - what fits a Jupiter does not fit an ox. My late Professor, who was an aristocratic model of the classical culture, explained to students at their last lecture: be reasonable - do not think all of you can become ministers as only one per the Republic that is required. All must aim at something more moderate. This is so. But it is a tragedy when a person aspires to great goals, does everything required and achieves the aim, and is finally found redundant and thrown out. The misery increases when society keeps harping how cheap and unnecessary, for instace, language study is, how unwanted the professionals and their works are, etc etc etc.I call this the gravest abuse of a person, a crime even. Thank you.
Marija Liudvika Rutkauskaite

I don't expect too much from life, I deserve it! I'm special, one-of-a-kind. Nobody is as brilliant and handsome and I don't understand why everyone in the world doesn't recognize my exceptionalidity. How can it be that all of society's institutions and forces of nature haven't eagerly conspired to make my life exactly as I want it to be at every moment? By the way, I'm half of conjoined twin girls with cleft palates in Honduras.

In 2004 (two weeks before my 51st birthday) I came within minutes of dying due to a bleeding ulcer. Once recovered, I evaluated my life, and found out, first, that despite some flaws, it was a pretty good lifeon the whole, and second, that I had the power make it even better.

I don't think you need a near-death experience to trigger your self-inventory; but I do believe that an honest self-inventory is a healthy antidote to your mid-life crisis.

One must look into their own version of what the word success means in order to really delve into this topic. Luckily I was raised to believe that success is a highly personal term, so for example, Mom used to say,

"If being a big CEO of a multi-national corporation means success to you, then that it is. If being a janitor for that company means success to you, then it is. Success in life means being happy, truly happy, with your decisions and how you live the mundane daily rituals."

I have managed several businesses, I have owned restaurants, and yet have never been happier, and in my opinion, than I am now, working part time for an NGO making very little money. My job is the most fulfilling work I have ever done. I will never get recognition for what I really do. I will never gain prestige, glory, nor fame for working here. Yet I feel more successful than I ever before have. I spend most of my time with my terminally ill husband and our kids, we have a roof over our heads and food in our bellies every day. That is far better than what more than half of my fellow human beings have.

We are not all going to be big and famous and that, but we CAN all find happiness. It starts with "accepting your lot in life".

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I agree with steve, there is so much materialism in our lives; advertising telling us which product will make us happy, how many houses we need, which clothes, which cars, what kind of lifestyle etc. These are impossible targets, and are they even desirable targets or our own targets? When you look through history, the happiest people were the ones who detached themselves from material dependencies and found fulfillment in giving and serving mankind.

Yes, people take everything for granted. Everything is easy; they no longer have to farm, barter or think hard.

Its nothing to do with 'baby boomers'! Deterioration into Global chaos has been around since WW2 -possibly earlier, and caused by technology, too much introverted leisure, and the media shrinking the world to a selfish, small-minded, little 'me' place. It possibly stems from the invention of TV! From that moment on, one half saw what the other half had, wanted it, and became unhappy. We now all want to be someone else and won't be content until we are!

MATERIALISM is the word you are looking for! It causes greed, stress and unnatural behaviour! The thing is, people don't have to do much in this Western lifestyle to get on and be happy, yet consumerism and the media promise a wonderful Fairytale if they just buy this or do that. It's our own unnatural 'expectations' of what we think we need, and that no-one can possibly live up to or survive, that makes us unhappy! (and the stupid thing is, we already have the Fairytale!)
Everyone nurtures the *Stress* industry but what is it? Its getting your knickers-in-a-twist because you can't get the outcome you want! It's the equivalent to a thinking man's Tantrum! We should not nurture this behaviour. We need to be invaded by War or Aliens or anything that gets us off the 'feeling-sorry-for-our-poor-self-centred-butts' gripe.. Better still, go live in Afghanistan or Haiti or Namibia etc and see what you think about what life owes you then?

The best way to confront life is to be realistic. Life is a series of phases which makes certain things look important in one phase but of little importance or ridiculous in another phase. Wearing fashionable clothes can be of paramount importance when one is still young but in adulthood or old age there are other things that are of importance such as assuming responsibilities and being up to them.

Some feel their life is a waste because they didn't find their soul-mate or society doesn't welcome them for what they are because of their character or status.

The beauty of life is to be reborn again and again by devising different styles not to feel bored. If people can't be materially satisfied, they should enrich themselves spiritually and culturally, as long as they have the basic needs. There is no limit to one's desires . Having a broad mind can help one be free from set notions imposed by markets and trends. One can hover over them instead of being tied to them. In life everything maters and nothing matters. It is this paradox that perhaps keeps people going.

My father-in-law used to say the ideal way to live is characterized by "Simple living, high thinking." I think the fact that I'm very happy with my life, despite being in the 35-44 age group, can be partly explained by this approach to life.

It seems far too many of my fellow Americans subscribe to the "Simple thinking, high living" philosophy. A recipe for disaster on an individual basis, and large numbers of people living like this is not auspicious for a democracy.

@ Nate from Portland

You're absolutely right. We live in a nation of "high living & simple thinking" instead of the opposite. Unfortunately, that will be pretty hard to change since the average American is a "C" or "D" student. As a result, all this advertising and propaganda is readily swallowed by the masses and consumerism flourishes while dreams are shattered. Maybe a philosophical revolution would help.

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Every day can be a crisis or it can be an experience to grow by! It's all how you see the experience of life!

You can be freaking out at 26 or skateboarding with your grown children and grandchildren at 51.

seriously, think about society today. I recall after Avatar came out, there was a rash of "depression" because Gen Yers were upset they couldn't live in a fictional place just like that. How rational is it to get depressed that you cannot live in a world that doesn't even exist? it's FICTION! Yet people were getting all depressed over it...

have i arrived where i wanted to get to, no. have i achieved more than I ever thought i would 30 years ago, ABSOLUTLY. it is a matter of glass half full or half empty.

"The optimist asked for a taste of the pessimist’s wine
And the madman said “Son,
How do you feel?” I said “Me? I feel fine"
Emerson Lake and Palmer

I have found acceptance to be a constant companion throughout my life. That is easy for I have never been hungry or in the midst of war. I have often wondered how I would fare under difference circumstances.

Life is good because of the circumstances of my birth and my ability to give thanks for small mercies.

And I am not religious.