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Failure to launch isn’t just the name of the Matthew McConaughey and Sarah Jessica Parker movie. It’s a real issue that plenty of adults face. I don’t know if it’s gotten worse recently or if this is how things have always been and I just wasn’t around to witness it, but it sure seems like I know a lot of peers who are struggling to launch. There is some arrested development going on there, and they aren’t really breaking away from their family (to a healthy degree) and forming their own lives.
I could see it being particularly frightening to go off on one’s own today, in this political climate, and in this economy. Our parents got to count on things like pensions and great benefits like 401K matching and incredible health insurance. It seems that a lot of companies are cutting back on that, or being very stringent with it. And, people just want more than a life of sleeping, eating, and paying bills. We are the chase your dreams generation. Getting a great-paying corporate job with benefits seems frowned upon these days if it isn’t your dream job. Of course, only idealists who don’t really have a grasp on reality get to bash that lifestyle. Not everyone has the option to just pass up on jobs that pay the bills until that dream job comes along.
All of that aside, what I mean to say is that I can understand that if the expectation today is you better go out there and create the next startup that changes technology forever or be a famous YouTube star or start the next explosive line of food trucks, that one might be a little afraid to even get started. What I want every young person who is perhaps still living at home to know though is that, you don’t have to figure it out all at once. I think the fear that it has to go from zero to 100 is what keeps people from taking that first step. People understand there will be a learning curve, and years of struggle. If one doesn’t understand that, she can fail to launch. And here are signs that may be happening with you.
You only have childhood friends
It’s good to have childhood friends. It’s great, even. There’s really nothing like a friend who has known you forever. That being said, something is up if you’ve struggled to make any friends as an adult. Childhood friends will stick around because you have that life-long bond. But adult friends will challenge you to overcome behavioral issues and to really grow up. Never making adult friends is a way of getting off the hook for growing up.
