City energy

Living in a city that you can draw your energy from is not such an easy thing to find. Having lived in several cities before of different sizes (from 40.000 inhabitants town to a city of 2 mio. inhabitants), I noticed that my energy and motivation has varied. Counter-intuitively, it is not direct proportional to the dimension of the city in terms of inhabitants. Rather it is the atmosphere that the city conveys.















In terms of energy, the city that would fit me best is Vienna. To me, this phenomenon is rather interesting and not completely explainable. What I feel is only the outcome of this atmosphere, namely that: the city belongs to me, that I am free to enjoy it and live it; it invites each one of you to discover it, to relax in the atmosphere of its imperial past and be a contemporary princess. Vienna is not too poor, but not too luxurious. To me, this is what assigns it that feeling of a city which belongs to everybody.















Not the same feeling is born when I am in Frankfurt A/M. The spirit of intensive corporate financial environment is everywhere and to relax in this city is not that easy. A totally different situation offers Zurich, which is a small big city, which means it is not a town, but also not a true metropolis. In Zurich you have that safety feeling that nothing can happen to you no matter where you walk or at what time. On the one hand it is a comfortable feeling, but on the other it can become a bit boring. Furthermore, leveraging all the amenities seems self-understood and you take the "luxurious" features (such as a ceramic water pipeline system) for granted. However, the significant difference versus Vienna is that all that high class features that you find in Zurich makes it obvious that the city belongs only to chosen ones.



















What is the city that supplies you with energy?

Quarterlife crisis

What I thought to be a personal crisis is apparently a more wide spread phenomenon with people of my age. Until now, I've only heard about the midlife crisis, but never of a quarterlife crisis. This seems to be a quite new phenomenon in line with the increased mobility and increased career opportunities that high potential graduate students have.

The quarterlife crisis is characterized by "unrelenting indecision, isolation, confusion and anxiety about working, relationships and direction", which affects "people in their mid-twenties to early thirties who are usually urban, middle class and well-educated".

What's the explanation?
Briefly said:

"They can’t make any decisions, because they don’t know what they want, and they don’t know what they want because they don’t know who they are, and they don’t know who they are because they’re allowed to be anyone they want."

To this I could add that, when they know what they want, they are not sure that it is the right way and they are highly risk averse regarding their career. Thus, they are proofing their decision by trying out other areas of business with the result that they don't like it that much and so they become more certain that the initial plan is the right one to pursue. Nevertheless this is quite a costly way to test whether a decision is right or wrong.

What to do about it?

Some thoughts:

1) The first job is usually not the ultimate job. Job changes are possible and normal during a career development.
2) The sooner you take the chance, the better. As a young adult, you don't have too many responsibilities towards a family (spouse / children), household, bank credits, so you can afford to take the chance and do what you are in the mood for. It may be the only chance to do this in your life.
3) Follow your gut feeling. After you have analytically and structurally evaluated some opportunities and still don't know what to do, just let the information process unconsciously in your brain and follow your gut feeling. What is known as gut feeling is in fact the result of the unconscious work that our brains are doing while we are sleeping or relaxing.

I welcome any other suggestions!

May you have a smooth Quarterlife Crisis!

Source for some info: Carraway, K. (2009). Welcome to your quarterlife crisis, Eyeweekly.com