Every young adult is going to find their breaking point sometime. I found mine at age 22 and a senior in college. I talk about it with Michelle and then we look at "wellbeing". What areas of our life do we need to focus on and balance if we're going to thrive!  If you listen closely you might hear me make a brief Buddhism reference.

When you go from pre-teen to young adult you have to change your relationship with your parents. Cassidy has navigated this and has a few stories to share. I talk about how different every child and parent-child relationship is, and we start to agree at the end that a lot of the responsibility falls on the child.

Megan has experienced the good and the bad of college friendships. So have I as a matter of fact. In this episode, we talk about how to find friends, how to start and grow friendships, and how to end the ones that are toxic. Many young adults only know the "friendship stories" of their acquaintances and maybe their parents. There are thousands of different friendship stories, if not millions. It's a lifelong quest to navigate friendships. Let us help. (College - this is one of our "College-specific" episodes, though anyone can learn from our discussion.)

I know as a 50+ something that I'm going to have to adapt to the fact that many people use THC, the chemical in marijuana that gets a person high. Many states have legalized it, and I predict the rest will follow. So how can my generation, probably your parents' age, and the younger generation have a reasonable dialogue about this? I give it a try with Steve. Though he doesn't smoke, he explains to me how common it is and I try to explain that I'm slowly adjusting. This isn't the first conversation I'll have with young adults about marijuana, but it gets the dialogue started.

In this weeks' podcast, Brooke is deciding whether to get a credit card in her name. She's nervous for several really good reasons, but in the end, I think I convince her that it is a good idea - with some advice. We discuss what kind of card and how she should manage it if she gets one.

Michelle tells me about a workplace relationship that didn't go very well. Turns out someone was stabbing her in the back, but being nice to her face. I talk this out with her and then we get into just a few of the ways workplace relationships are different, and how to handle them. I introduce the two kinds of work orientations that researchers have known about for decades: a task-orientation versus a relationship orientation. We talk about the implications of this. And then I talk about how our theories about our co-workers are often very wrong. And how we can help ourselves get along better at work.

Megan recalls how she used to suffer a great deal from FOMO in high school. She still feels it sometimes in college. I help her process those feelings and we discuss strategies for avoiding FOMO as much as possible. Then we discuss the wonderful power of a gratitude journal.

Steve saw some serious gambling by his friends in high school. Now he sees it all over in college. Unfortunately, not everyone can stop when they start to lose. We talk this out and I eventually start talking about the smartest “gamble” in America if you want to become wealthy. It’s called investing long-term in the equities markets.

Cassidy is dealing with a death in her family for the first time since she “grew up”. We talk about how to handle this and the wonderful impact this person had on her life. Then we discuss how this person influenced Cassidy’s career choice and we get into some advice about choosing a career.

Yes, growing up sucks. But it doesn’t have to. There are many solutions to the dilemmas you face, both the every day and the life-changing. In this introduction, I explain who I am and what I think you will get out of these shows. I also explain why I think I can help. Check it out. And get in touch if you have a topic you think I should cover. I’m trying to target the young adult age group, maybe 17-25 yrs old, but anyone is free to listen and participate.