All major life phases bring their own unique challenges, each usually more challenging than the next.
Puberty brings the novel challenges of social awkwardness, self-esteem issues and juggling school work with friends. Early adulthood brings the realisation that we have to be productive components of the national economy, fend for ourselves and stay on the right side of the law. With parenthood we dedicate an enormous amount of time and energy to raising one or more vulnerable mini-humans that depend on us to stay alive, while somehow keeping a number of other plates spinning.
These common obstacles are part and parcel of the human experience. What’s less spoken about are the challenges involved with transitions between major stages of human development – transitions that can take place throughout adulthood. These are yet to be normalised to such an extent that we automatically anticipate the common traps and know how to dodge the blows that come our way.
The transition beyond the mainstream into the postmodern stage brings its own unique challenges. I experienced most of them first hand, and I see them in friends and family. I write this in the hope that others can more skillfully manage their postmodern phase than I did! Granted, I didn’t do a terrible job, but the whole process would have been smoother had I been aware of the potential traps in advance.
The three main challenges I’ve identified are the maintenance of a healthy financial life, managing our relationships with loved ones, and several psychological difficulties.
Our relationship with money is a challenge as we experience this stage. The shift to postmodernism brings an allergy to the usual well-remunerated career. Though society values careers as a doctor, lawyer or accountant, we feel that becoming one would restrict our creativity, freedom and authenticity. We look for something more authentic and human-centred. We might even ditch our work, with no strategy to fall back on.
Family and friends can also be challenging, particularly if they haven't reach the postmodern stage themselves. This this is likely, particularly for older family members. In countries like the US, UK, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Australia, and so forth, youngsters have fairly postmodern values and attitudes, much more than prior generations do. Older members of the family will likely misunderstand us. That said, if you're in a postmodern-dominated surround, you'll find it much easier.
Now onto the final challenging area: our psychology. In particular, we often have challenges when it comes to criticism, boundaries, and identity.
From what I’ve observed in people and garnered from research, this postmodern phase brings a certain rejection of modern life, technology, science, industry, the patriarchy and the mainstream. This is natural since this stage is a transcendence of conventional life.
This presents both an opportunity and an obstacle.
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