Gen Z’s Crisis For a Purpose
By James M. Rink
Gen Z is in crisis for a Purpose. This generation was born into a time of global societal crisis, and it will not end for years to come.
This is my message and calling to Gen Z young adults. Now is your time in history to rise and find hope in your Purpose. Your personal Purpose is your True North to your dreams and the greater good of mankind. In doing so, you are humanity’s greatest future generation.
In Neil Howe’s 2023 best-selling book, ‘The Fourth Turning is Here’, he documents that our societal turn into crisis began in 2008’s real estate collapse and will not end until 2033. Howe writes in detail that this season is of crisis and destruction. Like the prior Fourth Turning, which started at the Great Depression and went until the end of WWII when America and its Allies won the war with a united Purpose of Freedom.
Today’s Fourth Turning is filled with terrorism, wars, COVID, banking failures, gun violence, global workers disengagement epidemic, climate change and A.I.’s rise. Our Institutional life is being disrupted, destroyed, and will be rebuilt with a sense of global Purpose.
Gen Zs leadership of Purpose is paramount to our future existence. The faster we can define our individual Purpose, team’s Purpose, and societal Purpose, it will help us to transcend the chaos of our times. Purpose will help all of us to survive and thrive.
My great optimism is in the hope of Generation Z to fully live their life’s Purpose transforming their work, family and personal life and empowering humanity to do the same.
Gen Z (born 1997-2012) is on the front line of this crisis. A recent Harvard Report states alarming data of depression and high anxiety of 18–25-year-olds. 58% of respondents said they lacked ‘meaning and purpose in their lives’. 34% reported feeling loneliness, 44% reported feeling a sense of not mattering to others, and 50% reported that financial worries and pressure to achieve is having a ‘negative influence on their mental health’.
‘They don't know anything else but chaos’, says Kathleen Johnson, McMahon Centennial Professor, Gaylord College, University of Oklahoma. Johnson continues, ‘a significant amount of time is spent trying to help students navigate their mental health issues’ and ‘this generation is at least willing to talk about and address it, and that's a big step in the right direction. We must work now to get them the necessary resources to help them’.
Defining your personal Purpose will help immediately fix each of these pain points. Are you tired of your aimless and purposeless drift? Are you needing help to overcome feelings of depression and anxiety? Do you believe your life has a Purpose?
I have seen people’s transformation to improve their mental health and wellbeing once they are connecting to their life’s Purpose. I believe discovering, defining, and living one’s life Purpose only improves their mental health and wellbeing because it forces someone to live the way they were designed to live.
If you are a Gen Z, a parent, teacher, or employer of one, it is time to face the facts about Gen Z’s Crisis for a Purpose. If this article rings true to you, please help others, and share it.
I believe Gen Z’s longing for Purpose is a response to the world and disruptive times they were born into. Gen Z is the first generation to prioritize Purpose over money. They are often called the ‘Change Generation’ due to passion and desire to make a difference through work. They want careers of social purpose and consistent application of values. They are the most entrepreneurial generation yet, 72% say they want to start a business and believe the world’s problems can be solved by doing so.
Your Purpose is True North to Your Dreams.
Step One. Define Your life’s Purpose. Use my Purpose of You Formula to do so…
Feelings + Actions + People = Purpose™
Start identifying the people, memories or moments in your life that have deeply influenced or inspired you. How did these moments make you feel? Identify your core feelings.
Humans are reproductive beings. The feelings you love to feel are also the feelings you love to give to others. You do this thru your Actions + People = Purpose.
This strategy helps fight the ‘lack of meaning and Purpose in your life’. Just knowing that you have defined your Purpose can silence the negative voices in your head.
Step Two. Think differently about Your Purpose. Your Purpose is a business and lifestyle strategy that is founded in Neuroscience. Here’s how...
Feelings + Actions + People = Purpose™
Feelings are emotions and foundational to Purpose. Neuroscience teaches us that all human behavior and decision making is done in our Limbic or Feeling part of the brain. Neurologist, Antonio Damasio says, ‘We are not either thinking machines or feeling machines, but rather feeling machines that think.’
Knowing that humans are ‘feeling machines that think’ reprioritizes feelings more than thinking. Or rather, humans make decisions on how we feel about knowledge. This is base line of Emotional Intelligence.
Purpose is foundational to Emotional Intelligence since Purpose is rooted in Feelings. When you know your life’s Purpose you are increasing your Emotional Intelligence.
Emotional intelligence is the ability to understand, use, and manage your own emotions in positive ways to relieve stress, communicate effectively, empathize with others, overcome challenges, and defuse conflict.
When we give positive Feelings to people, we connect on a visceral or the feeling part of the brain with another. When you connect a positive feeling to another it also connects with your visceral receptors. For example, a smile is contagious. This strategy trains and empowers your Emotional Intelligence. It helps reduce your feeling of loneliness and that you don’t matter to others.
Training and strengthening your Emotional Intelligence today will create greater opportunities tomorrow to lead technology and people.
Step 3. Knowing your Purpose increases your value.
Your Purpose is more valuable in the marketplace than your talent. This is essential for today’s job market due the rapid rise of A.I.
Artificial Intelligence does not have emotions, feelings, or empathy. A.I. does not have a soul. As Artificial Intelligence increases in the market so does the need for Emotional Intelligence to counterbalance it.
In the industrial age we hired for muscles to build factories, railroads, and high-rise structures. In the computer age, we hired for brains to figure out complex uses of technology. We are in the A.I. revolution and we need leaders with high Emotional Intelligence to lead people and technology. If not, A.I. will lead humans.
Your Purpose will also help you to pivot and change with the A.I. revolution.
By 2030, the World Economic Forum (WEF) says that A.I. will cause the emergence of 69 million new roles globally. Jobs will be changing and reinvented on an ongoing basis. Your Purpose with high Emotional Intelligence will help you to adapted.
For Gen Zs that are burdened by financial pressures and expectations to succeed it is strategic to know that historically Purpose centric companies are 6X more profitable than their competition. The same can be true for you and your career.
In doing so, you will have clarity of Purpose which will reduce your stress and give you confidence that you are living your Purpose. You will be more profitable, productive and at peace with yourself. You will have a visionary leadership perspective that will transcend the chaos in the disruptive days ahead.
If this article speaks to you, I believe it is because your Purpose is calling you to a better life. For a deeper dive try my Purpose of You MASTERCLASS, 8 Steps to your Personal Purpose Plan, a personal development and coaching program that is designed to create a culture of Purpose for businesses and individuals. Booking Talks to your business at PurposeOfYou.com, Follow at #JamesMRink.
Cheryl Desantis - Chief People Officer calls Purpose of You is THE team development opportunity for our times.
