The idea of working a 40-hour workweek can cause a 20 to 30 something-year-old to run kicking and screaming to the far ends of the earth. We get gag reflex just from the notion of clocking in at 8am on Monday morning, grabbing a sandwich during a specified lunch hour, and joining the mad rush of commuters back home at 5pm.

Then, rinse and repeat for four more days till the glorious mini-escape of the weekend rolls around.

I’ll admit, even writing about it makes me a little nervous and uncomfortable.

The monotony? Routine? Job security and benefits?

These are unwelcome and oddly foreign ideas to many young professionals.

A lot of it isn’t our fault but to a large degree, we’ve traded in familiarity and comfort for income insecurity and adventure because we’re the generation that’s redefining abundance, happiness, and what it is to be a dreamer.

We want our vocation to be our profession. They’re no longer mutually exclusive.

I know this first-hand. As an accounting graduate, I worked in finance before retiring the penguin suit for creative, freelance work in the entertainment industry. At the time, I might’ve been an anomaly but nowadays I’m not alone.

The rest of the world is slowly catching up too. Digital nomad visas are a thing now in countries like Costa Rica and Barbados. Some US states are actively luring millennials and Gen-Z with $10,000 paychecks and tax credits to move to their cities.

We scroll through enviable news feeds on Instagram of people in shorts and flip flops, staring at a beach sunset in an exotic location working on their laptop amidst the backdrop of a tropical holiday, living their best life.

A life that was once reserved and assumed could only be attained for 65-year-old retirees is now sought out by 25 year-olds with a laptop.

Previously, you had to work for at least a year at a new company to accumulate enough vacation days to take off for a week but that’s no longer an acceptable option for many.

.Links to an external site. .Links to an external site. .Links to an external site. .Links to an external site. .Links to an external site.

.Links to an external site. .Links to an external site. .Links to an external site.

We’ve become the generation that wants to have their cake and eat it too.