“Ours Has Been Built off of Looking Back” — Man Explains Why the Millennial Midlife Crisis Is Different

The midlife crisis isn't a new phenomenon: Folks between the ages of 40 and 60 usually come face to face with their own mortality. Upon doing so, they begin to reflect on their life choices, and it's categorized as a period of uncertainty that hundreds of millions of people encounter.

Comedian Mike Mancusi (@mikemancusi), however, posted on Instagram that this crisis looks a bit different for millennials.

In a recent Instagram post, he explains why. At the top, he says that millennials are "coping very differently" than their predecessors. As he puts it, he says folks used to purchase a "Lamborghini" or start "a second family."

He quips that most millennials can't afford either of these options, prompting a lot of them to, instead, "go back to Disneyland and relive [their] childhood[s]." This example, he argues, is an indication that previous generations would use their midlife crises to "look forward," whereas millennials use the nostalgia of their youth to "look back" and regress.

I.e., our ancestors would come to grips with the fact that they're going to die and say, "I'm going to live it up. We look back and go, 'Wait a minute, I was told to do all these things, I did them, and still I'm not happy.'" According to Mike, this makes the problems millennials face "a way different crisis."

He doubles down and states that what really fills millennials with dread is that what they received turned out to be bad advice. That they were ultimately sold on a dream that didn't pan out the way they thought it would. And now, as a result, millennials are left grasping at straws.

As a result, he says that many millennials have found themselves at the nexus of a "career crisis." Throngs of people who earned degrees or stayed in what was perceived as a stable job for "10 to 15 years" are now questioning their life choices.

According to Mancusi, his solution to this problem of not being fulfilled in the job or work that you're doing is that you need to pick a new vocation. "And if you find yourself in this position, this is my recommendation to you. You have to find something else to do."

He says that this even extends to hobbies, as long as whatever it is you're doing is deeply personal and a thing that you solely want to do for yourself. "But it's something that's for you. It's not to make you money ... Please your family, it's for you."

He goes on to say that millennials going through this crisis must work to incorporate this new personal endeavor into their daily lives.

"Something that you are just intrinsically drawn to that you absolutely love to do every single day. You need to find that thing and build it into your life."

He says that over time, this newfound endeavor might "eventually ... be a career" for the people who take it on. "But the more that you allow some job that you don't even like to define your entire existence, the more it's gonna crush your soul," he warns.

Mancusi stresses that these passions are imperative for folks dying to "find meaning elsewhere outside of just your family." He then highlights that for him, it's comedy, but for others, it could be anything. "But you need to find that thing and build it into every single day because that is what's going to allow you to move forward," he tells his audience.

And by moving forward, he says that because these new passions are coming solely from you, that you're going to be the one who is "in control" of them. So any progress or advancements you make in this career will be ones that you'll value exponentially more than a career you never even really wanted in the first place.

And there's data to suggest that folks are succeeding in turning their personal passions into paychecks. The Hickory Record highlighted how accessible tech tools are turning more and more people into entrepreneurs. Accounting business Patriot Software also echoed these sentiments in a blog post on the same subject.

There's also data that shows a massive uptick in independent contractor agreements between employees and employees between 2017 and 2023. Although a lot of these jobs could just highlight how businesses are shifting away from footing the bill for benefits for their workers and opting to terminate contracts at their whim, too.