Your Motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert-Your host: Dr. Jason Wiggins
I focus on the motivational aspects with a high emphasize on motivating Gen Z and Millennials (GEN X will also find great value) and the employers who employ them for continuous improvement. This podcast focuses on motivating Gen Z and Millennials to empower to overcome obstacles within our everyday lived experiences. I have a passion for educating, speaking and guiding Gen Z and Millennials to achieve great things. Gen Z and Millennials have experienced so much in a short amount of time as the world continue to move faster. Self-Awareness and belief in our abilities provide a strong foundation for health, happiness and prosperity in a world that offers continuous challenges.
This is a motivational series for Gen Z and Millennials and those who aspire to do great things, while interested in understanding these two great generations and how we can aspire to be better because of the value of motivating through life experiences.
Life is hard, but when we challenge others or ourselves to be successful, then the world demonstrates the value of those who put in the effort. My hope is that each listener will find value and then share that value with others. I am a change leader that is passionate about life transformations and taking our passion and motivation to the next level. YOU CAN DO IT! Remembers Dreams without Goals are just Dreams.
Your Motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert-Your host: Dr. Jason Wiggins
Motivational Myths: Why Traditional Success Advice Fails the New Reality (Episode 173)
We're clinging to outdated beliefs that are sabotaging our success in a world that has fundamentally changed. The road to fulfillment looks nothing like it did for previous generations, yet we keep following their maps and wondering why we're lost.
Remember being told "work hard to be successful"? That advice now needs a critical update. While dedication matters, blindly working harder without strategy leads nowhere in today's economy. The modern version demands we work smarter through organization, efficiency, and leveraging technology—not just putting in more hours.
Those white picket fence dreams? They've collided with economic reality. Housing costs have skyrocketed beyond what even two incomes can reasonably afford in many areas. The stable 30-year career path has dissolved into gig work, entrepreneurship, and job-hopping. Mental health challenges are finally recognized as legitimate medical concerns rather than character flaws. Even our definition of success has transformed—shifting from material wealth and status to purpose, balance, and meaningful contribution.
None of this means traditional values are worthless. Rather, they need thoughtful evolution to remain relevant. Instead of discarding old wisdom entirely, we must adapt it to new circumstances—taking the essence of what worked before and reshaping it for today's realities. The path forward requires flexibility, continuous learning, and willingness to challenge assumptions that no longer serve us.
Have you been holding onto outdated beliefs that are holding you back? Subscribe, share, and join our conversation about building success frameworks that actually work in today's world.
Hello friends, welcome to your Motivational Gen Z and Millennial Expert Podcast. I am your host, my name is Dr Jason Wiggins and it is absolutely amazing to be here today. I could not be happier. I hope everybody is enjoying whatever they're doing right now, wherever they are. Let's get our heads right and let's jump into today's episode.
Speaker 1:The world continues to revolve. It revolves, it evolves. The pieces are always moving and things that used to work don't always work today, and things that work today will not work tomorrow sometimes. So this podcast is about continuing to motivate, continuing to find direction in our lives. And let's go back to looking at what old-fashioned beliefs that we thought were useful back in the day but they can actually do more harm than good in today's age. And you think about that and the first thing that comes to mind is well, how is that possible? Well, think about how we need to evolve. With time, everything changes Technology changes, circumstance changes, monetary substance changes, work changes, the different type of jobs, the different type of equipment that needed to be used then that's not used now. Things become so, either transparent or continuing to evolve, or they just become archaic and there's no reason for them to continue to exist. But these old fashioned beliefs that I'm going to talk about, and I'm going to talk about a significant amount of them. There's approximately 17 of them. I'm not going to do a deep dive into every single one of them. There's approximately 17 of them. I'm not going to do a deep dive into every single one of them, but what I am going to provide is a quick snippet of why it was so important then and really it's not important in today's age. We can utilize some of the continued values of the meaning behind it, but not necessarily the results of what it would mean today.
Speaker 1:The number one you hear when it comes to old-fashioned beliefs that are more harm than good is work hard to be successful. Work hard pays off. Work hard to be successful, work hard pays off. Well, the problem with work hard pays off it doesn't discuss the important part of work smarter, not harder. It used to be. You get a shovel and you dig a ditch as hard and as fast as you can and do the best you can and come out and sweat and wipe off the sweat. You did a good job. That was hard work. Well, now hard work can be at a computer, it can be doing something that's a gig, work, or it could be something that's passion or passionate about. So the same thing doesn't bode well for that. Work hard pays off, because sometimes you can work extremely hard and not get anywhere. Why? Because sometimes working hard is about working smarter, organizing, finding ways to do things in a better and quicker fashion. So that's number one.
Speaker 1:Number two, they would say buy a house as soon as possible. Have you looked at the cost of housing? These days you can't buy a house by the time you're 50 hardly, depending what geographic you're in. By the time you're 50, harley, depending what geographic you're in. The days of the white picket fence and the house with the family of four and two cars and all of that jazz. That stuff is ancient. It doesn't happen anymore. It does happen if you have a, a multi-million type of savings or you are just cashing in on all your stocks or you made some lucky break, or you made a youtube video, made a lot of money. It just doesn't happen with your average annual salary, even two salaries, because back in the 1950s and 60s, when our baby boomers were born, it was okay to be able to afford a life on one income. That was usually the husband was working, supporting the wife and their 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 kids. It is insane. Things have changed.
Speaker 1:The other one is you need to have a steady job. I would love to say that I think everybody should spend 20 years working at their job, but that's not the reality. The reality is it has changed. People are job hoppers, right or wrong, learning new skills or stating they're learning new skills, but sometimes you're working your job so quick. How do you even learn a skill that quick? So, when it comes to steady work pays off. It means earn a steady check. You'll be able to buy the house, the white picket fence, when you are growing up as a baby boomer. That doesn't really curtail to what we have now. So now it's about entrepreneurship. It's about your passion and gig work. So it's about maybe you have multiple jobs, maybe they're part-time jobs or maybe you're an entrepreneur. So things just a steady paycheck doesn't really make a lot of sense for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:The other one is you don't talk about money. Well, guess what? Everybody talks about money. You don't talk about how much money you have, but you're transparent and you try to mitigate your economic challenges because you're. We've discussed many, many times on this podcast. Things are difficult, times are hard and sometimes, if you just don't talk about money, people don't know where you stand, they're not willing to help or they're not willing to put you in the right direction helpful to continuing to be successful and gain a network of people that are that have your best, that have your best. You know the overall care about you. They have the things that they believe that are important to you. They understand that.
Speaker 1:The other thing is I love this one. The other thing is I love this one retire early. Who the heck can retire early? What a myth. This is an old-fashioned belief that does not or seem even fathomable anymore. Why we live longer and there might not even be barely any social security by the time we do get there. So it's going to be really difficult to retire early or retire at all. Maybe you plan to work part-time in your elder years, which is fine. I plan to teach, I plan to write books, I plan to maybe do podcasts. I'll never retire. Why? Because we have so much profound knowledge out there, so why not continue to share it with anybody that wants to listen?
Speaker 1:And the other one is stick to what you know. I remember this one growing up. Stick to what you know. Why go out there on a limb and try to learn something new? We live in the golden age of technology. If we're not learning, we are dying. We have so much opportunity to continue to learn new things, be able to branch out into other fields, find stuff that we don't know and learn about it. The only excuse to not learn is you don't want to learn or you're dead. Those are the realities of stick to what you know. It's what I don't know is what I want to learn. Respect your elders that's what I believe in. That's an old belief myth, not even a myth. That's one I believe in. That's an old belief myth. That not even a myth. It's important, but you need to adapt what your elders stated to fit the new reality. So all of this that I'm talking about when it comes to you know work hard to be successful. You know Buy a house, you need a steady job. You don't talk about money. You stick to what you know Retire early. Well, all of this is not part of the reality that we live in.
Speaker 1:Another one was it wasn't even heard of then, but it's so important. It's something that everybody needs to pay attention to it's mental illness isn't a real thing. This is the old-fashioned belief that used to be a concept. It was. You don't talk about mental health. Nobody really has a mental health issue. If they do, they're in an insane asylum. They're locked up because they're mentally crazy. Well, guess what? We have a lot of stress in today's society and at some point people just crack, or they get overwhelmed or they just cannot, you know, handle basically a bunch of different things. You got people with ADD, adhd, anxiety, whatever it may be. It's all of these different issues that need to be addressed and they can't be hidden like they used to.
Speaker 1:College is the only path to success. I remember a teacher telling me when I was in first grade. I'm not joking. This teacher said you will never amount to anything if you can't write, and what she meant was my penmanship was not good. Well, guess what? My penmanship is not good today, but we have computers. I don't have to write penmanship anymore. I'm not writing much cursive, I'm not writing, you know, like that back when we were learning, when I was in first grade. So for her to say you will never be successful without good penmanship is like you'll never be able to call anybody without a telephone book. You just hop on the computer or you call. You ask Google what's so-and-so's number? Call so-and-so. So therefore, I was scarred for a long time because that teacher said that to me and I think I did. Okay, I'm not tooting my own horn, but I've been fairly successful in the executive leadership world. I have a PhD and I get a platform to talk to you.
Speaker 1:At the end of the day, we can't worry about what everybody else says. Another one money can't buy happiness. You know what? No, excuse me, it was money can buy happiness. I was about to say you're right, money can't buy happiness. But the old-fashioned belief myth was money can buy happiness. There is no amount of money that can buy happiness. I know some extremely wealthy people and they're absolutely miserable. Some of the most wealthiest people, famous people, have took their own lives. They're not happy why. They got everything they want. They can get anything they want, but the reality is love, friendship, health. Those are the things that people truly care about.
Speaker 1:It's not about, you know, success meaning wealth and status. That's what used to be important. It was. Success means wealth and happiness. No success is the ability to share with others. Success is the ability to help others. Success is the ability to be able to provide for your family and be economically secure. But wealth does not bring success. You can cheat, lie, steal your way to wealth and guess what? Are you successful? Absolutely not. Who am I to judge? But what I can say is success is for those who are willing to share, those who are willing to help others. That's what true success is, one of my absolute favorites, favorites.
Speaker 1:If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I can't tell you how many times I heard that growing up. Well, that means status quo is okay. In 2025, is status quo really okay? Should we just sit on our laurels and never do anything? Should we not advance anything and not really continue to look to find better ways to improve? Absolutely not. This is our time to shine. This is our time to take something and make it more valuable. So, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Well, guess what? Everything's broke and you better find a way to improve it, repair it and break it up to the next level.
Speaker 1:And the other one is you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I don't care how old you are, I don't care if you're a baby boomer, a Gen X, you know, a millennial. Whatever it may be an alpha, everybody has the opportunity to learn. Learning is an important stigma that if you're not learning, you're dying or you're in the middle of nowhere with no opportunity to learn. That's why you just need to be able to continue to learn new things.
Speaker 1:Oh, here's one you just need the tough things out. You ever heard of that one growing up? You just need the tough things out. It was basically if you got hit, you got knocked down, get right back up, make sure the other person has more bruises than you do. Don't cry over spilled milk. Those are the type of things that we grew up on and that's part of the old fashioned beliefs the tough keep going, whatever it may be. Well, guess what? These are cliches. They are beliefs that the baby boomers did have and they're not wrong, but they didn't continue to evolve around today's reality. Because now, guess what? You can't go to the park and tough things out by fighting somebody else in the park. Well, guess what? Now you have a chance to go to juvenile, go to jail, be suspended by your school, whatever it may be, if you choose to hit somebody else in a fist fight or a fight after school, or a circle fight or whatever you called it back then. But now it'll get you in a lot of trouble.
Speaker 1:And another one that I like is if you can't handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Well, what that means is somebody. If they tell you something and you don't like it, you know. It's about having empathy. It's about being able to discuss and talk about it, and if your feelings hurt, then talk about those feelings. But then it was like, hey, if I tell you something, I tell you to bleep off. Well, guess what you should bleep off? Well, now, if you tell somebody to bleep off, you might lose your job. You could lose a lot by saying things that are off the rail. Yes, you could lose a lot by saying things are off the rail, yes.
Speaker 1:The one thing about the old fashioned beliefs that have happened is we have got so sensitive over time and we take everything to heart. Everything hurts. We listen to everybody. We listen to what people talk about us in social media and everywhere else. But that's where the realities have changed from when the baby boomers were talking about these important aspects that I mentioned. But they're not the realities of today. We don't have phone booths anymore. We don't have we don't have a rotary phones, we don't have a answering machines, that we don't have typewriters. All of these things They've. They've aged with time and that's okay. Everything gets out to date at some point. One of these days, the laptop I'm working on is going to be out to date. You know taxi cabs. You rarely see a taxi cab. One day we're going to see a RoboCab, you know, by Elon Musk. They're going to pick us up and they're going to drive us around on computers. The great thing is is technology, all the different things that I've talked about. They're positive.
Speaker 1:Yes, like anything, oversharing is not good, but if you utilize things in the right way and you focus on it and you find ways to improve it, it's okay. But let's not think about the old fashioned values that are now hurtful or won't work in today's society. Let's take those, ramp them up, improve them and find ways to make them the new realities. Maybe buying a house is something you want to do, but maybe you start with a condo. Maybe you move to an area where the cost of living is much better, or you buy, you do the van life, or you buy one of those mini houses I think they call them little houses. Whatever little homes, whatever they cost, whatever they're called. You try to find a different way to make things work, but some of the traditionalist things that we grew up on are no longer pertinent to what we do. So today, what we've learned is there are old-fashioned beliefs that can do more harm than good, but if we take it and we evolve it around today's reality, then we can make it work for us.
Speaker 1:So, again, this podcast is for anyone who wants to be motivated to improve their life. If you're a Gen Z, a millennial, a baby boomer, a Gen X, whatever you fall in, this podcast is for you. I want you to please share and subscribe and hit the notification button If you're on YouTube. Again, please subscribe and continue to share. We really do appreciate the support out there and I hope that you continue to use this information and find ways to improve your life and share with others. So thank you, take care and we'll talk to you later. Bye-bye.
