A friend of mine and I were talking this week, and at one point he laughed as he said, "You write books and I barely even read them."
My two recent book projects are very different - one’s a research project involving several languages (luckily, the primary sources of these several hundred-year old documents are written in a foreign language that I speak). But, there are a few other languages that “pop up” as I follow this factual trail back four hundred years. It slows my progress, and sometimes - if I’m honest with myself - derails me for several days or even a week or two.
Thinking more about what he said over the week (knowing he indeed reads yet still making a good point), I realized that “Millennials” get the bad wrap for being disinterested, wrought with attention deficits, or other self-absorbed entitlement descriptions. Think about your own ascribed attributes for your “class” - economic category, race, gender, sexual orientation. How many things about you are wrong because they aren’t about you but rather statements of perception?
Maybe ‘millennials might not read’ because there isn’t much worth reading. Short lack-luster articles are posted by news outlets for rapid-fire consumption. Truth be told, I don’t read those things much either - so why would I assume it’s the person’s fault and not the access to quality items for this problem?
Being more considerate and thoughtful about “problems” (i.e. millennials have attention issues), it might be the definition is wrong… bored with what is being spoon-fed, they need challenges and seek their own path when not supported by the mainstream community - and by not letting what others say hold them back - Hello, Google!
It’s easy to fall into the “trap” of using ascribed status (meaning that which is written or said about “your kind of people”) than blazing forward to do more for your personal achieve status (the things you earn by your talent and vision). If you can dream it, you can do it.
Yes, things slow us down. For me, it was language - but I recently got inspired again and have set a deadline to add another achievement to my dream list. It’s not a bucket list - that’s doing what other people have done before and you’d like to try. A dream list includes things YOU want to do for yourself.
These six women show how someone dreamed it and they did it - being recognized isn’t the reason for doing things. Sometimes, you just need to prove to yourself you can. Change your attitude and amaze yourself at what you can do. Break through a wall, even if it’s accomplished one hit at a time.
