Q&A time: Expecations

It seems I've had a lot of conversations with people lately about expectations in life. About desires and goals and not settling for less than those. It seems that most people I know are prepared to try and fail repeatedly in order to find that job that fulfills them, that person that is their absolute puzzle piece soul mate. People that KNOW down in their souls those exist for them and they're willing to wait for that. To keep trying until they find that.

I also know a person or two who argues that we've just been trained these days to want instant gratification. To want perfection without trying very hard. That people didn't used to need to be fulfilled by their work, or find everything they need in one single other person, that their spouse was merely one of many people in their life to fulfill them and that we've grown to have bigger expectations than we can expect to fulfill.

I think it's a bit of a combination. That we are evolving into a generation that looks deeper into our consciousnesses. That lives more raw and on the surface, ask the hard questions, begin to be okay with being vulnerable. Begin to realize that allowing yourself to be vulnerable actually MAKES YOU STRONGER. That those of us who choose to live that way seek each other out. But I also believe that there are those who have those expectations and do want that instant gratification. They want the soul mate and the perfect job without trials, without pain, without hard work. THAT is unrealistic in my opinion. But it doesn't change my belief that we are becoming a generation of people who are more aware of parts of ourselves that didn't exist in prior generations. As with every generation, we're waking up parts of ourselves that maybe remained dormant in most of the population of generations past. That collectively we're all realizing this and "vibrating at higher levels" being drawn in and out of each others lives' to enable each other, to bring about change and growth. But that's just my opinion.

What do you think? Do you think that people these days as compared to say... the 50's... are beginning to have a shift in/awakening of our consciousnesses and we're evolving into a generation that requires that type of connection/fulfillment from those things? That knows we can achieve it and it's worth the wait, worth the repeated attempts and failures at finding & achieving it? Or are we just developing too high of expectations for love, career, etc. and are just setting ourselves up to become a generation of perpetually single, perpetually divorced, spoiled, needy, unfulfilled people?