Just go and get a job!

Teenagers everywhere face the daunting question....what am I going to  do with my life?

Its a problem Parents and Schools grapple with but are adults qualified to be giving life and career advice to GenNext?

Teens don’t want to follow us, Teens see our generation as miserable and who can blame them? Want some more proof? Our generation never have enough time or money. Heck, we even invented Prozac. Teens just switch off and in the end the exasperated parent yells “Just go and get a job!”

This is a common line given to most teens around the age of 17 and 18 mostly delivered from the exasperated parent who sees their teenager laying around home with no direction.

What parents need to know is that teens are worried about their future and money. They just don’t know what to do about it. In fact this is one of the major stresses in their life right now.

Most tend to deal with it by “hoping something falls in their lap”. The future is a major source of stress in most late teens does not stop when they go to University either. You would be shocked to know how many students with a degree (and a large student loan) who still have no idea what they are going to do with their lives.

Most teen’s first experience with earning money generally comes from a negative experience.  This unfortunately acts like a negative imprinting. Work hard to make not much money. JOB stands for “Just over Broke”. Mmm. Not vey appealing.

Take that attitude in the workforce and you have an unmotivated employee.

This is a major concern for Employers trying to attract and retain Generation Y.

Employers constantly talk of unmotivated under 25’s, their incredible sense of entitlement and how they can’t handle “work”.

Something’s going wrong. Why don’t our kids want to work?

Generation Y doesn’t want to settle for what we have. Friends and fun are more important.

The time has come were we need change how we view “work”.

Generation Y have something to teach us just as important as what we have to teach them.

Both sides are right yet neither side is listening to the other.

The answer lies in combining your “fun” with how you earn your money. Find you’re “passion”, your “fun” or even your hobbies and find out how you can earn money from them. Then work hard at that.

Read about wealthy people like Richard Branson and you will see a different picture on work and money. Their first experience with earning money is that’s it's an opportunity with no limits.

JK Rowling and the Harry Potter series of books proves the point. JK Rowling had a vivid imagination. Her passion was her creative ideas. JK Rowling then worked hard at taking her creativity and putting pen to paper. She was not trading her time for money, doing a “JOB”; she was paid for how good she was.

There is a common thread with people who enjoy their career. People who have achieved great wealth and enjoyment in life have done so from hard work doing what they love. They have positive beliefs and habits and are surrounded by others who support them.

Teens are looking to you for that same support.