Baby Boomers were among the first to redefine traditional values and truly believe they could change the world; does this sound like a generation(s) that we frequently reference these days?

As every generation progresses and evolves, we all have the same feeling of ‘being special’ or ‘entitled’; the feelings could be associated with the ‘coming of a new generation’ and being young, open-minded and having a fresh/green outlook on life & the workforce.

All generations can relate to feeling that they had it harder, and the funny part is, I already find myself saying or thinking such things; “If only you knew: what I had to go through, what the expectations of my boss were, what it was like to grow up when I was a kid, what my starting salary was, how hard it was to go to college and work full time, what it was like to have to pick up the phone (land line) and call someone vs. text, how hard it was to get somewhere using an actual paper map vs. google, waiting for dial up, etc…”. Even generation Z will have these same feelings, maybe different scenarios, but the same thoughts.

Bottom line; as technology rapidly advances, as controversy over war weighs on all of us, as our core values change, as our constitution and civil rights are revaluated, as new presidents are elected, as human interaction evolves, as new ideas are curated and innovation takes hold, as companies big and small are formed, as education and testing improve; our generational expectations and characteristics will change. Weird, right…(sarcasm)?

As we get older and become wiser, what can we do? Keep an open mind, an open heart and try and learn from younger generations; if you can’t beat them, join them! Try and share vs. teach younger generations about the traditions, the struggles, the experiences, that made your/our generation unique by shedding light on the fundamentals they each hold. We’ve all been in another's shoes in one way or the other no matter what generation your a part of; we are not better, we do not know more, we just had different experiences and outliers.

Did you know that Baby Boomers, yes, Boomers, were the wealthiest, most active, and most physically fit generation up to their time, and they're among the first to grow up genuinely expecting the world to improve with time. They achieved peak levels of income, and have been criticized for being excessive, acquiring the motto: ‘buy now, pay later.’

One feature of the boomers was that they tended to think of themselves as a special generation, very different from those that had come before them. In the 1960s, a large number of boomers became teenagers and young adults, causing a "shock-wave" of change known as "the pig in the python,” due to their direct effect on consumer spending and society; causing a huge demand for material possessions generations before them didn't have.

Ever wonder where the term ‘keeping up with the Joneses’ came from, or ‘I’m jonesing’? Baby Boomers had their generation divided, and the term ‘Generation Jones’ is used to distinguish those born from 1957 onward from the earlier Baby Boomers. This is what GenX - Millennial need.