The common message of the online generation: the only way to live a life of freedom is to earn financial freedom. It’s not wrong, but it is a limiting belief. There are other avenues to a life of freedom (and I don’t mean becoming a monk and meditating for the rest of your life). 

It’s not as easy as inheriting wealth, but it might be more satisfying (and less prone to addiction). 

First, we need to define for ourselves what “a life of freedom” looks like. While this is usually a challenging exercise, as it requires self-awareness and the tools to question our beliefs and desires, it is even more difficult in the current broader world landscape. Society is changing and the world of work along with it. How can we understand what avenue to propel ourselves down, if the variables we might choose are splitting into multiple options? With unique opportunities and drawbacks? 

So while the path to a life of freedom - and avoid the corporate hellhole - might have been “earn a f*ck ton of money as a sole-entrepreneur/content creator/name that thing” in the past, the world of work is changing. It has to change to stay relevant, and attract smart people to work in these hyper complex and competitive environments.

The new context

Part of the thing we rally against is the timeboxing of our lives. Work-life-balance: creating a harmonious relationship between your work and personal life by setting and maintaining boundaries. It’s still too one dimensional.

Corporate sold “work-life-balance” as the cure to over-demanding things from employees. Over-demanding and under-rewarding. We as people are not evolved to spend exactly 40 hours working, 5 days a week, turning “off” 2 days a week. 

What am I proposing is an alternative? The way to find freedom without having to be self-employed?

Work-life integration. It encompasses work-life-balance. We can choose to maintain boundaries, or we can choose it blend the different parts of our lives in a way that allows us to feel fulfilled and joyful with how we spend our time. That is true freedom. The ability to set our lives up the way we want. 

This is particularly important for Gen Z, who:
- Want more than a paycheck, they want meaning from their work - to contribute to making the world a better place
- Prioritise their health and wellbeing over maximising compensation and status
- Grew-up with technology as an extension of themselves - traditional ways of working abd old-school tools won’t satisfy the need for efficiency and multi-form communication

Sometime soon, organisations will shift to serving this generation of employees (the shift to serve them as customers has already begun). 

The trouble is, the people in positions of power - who need to make decisions to change their organisations - don’t quite understand the motivations and drivers for this group. This provides an asymmetry, where people who are aware of this gap can take advantage to accelerate their careers. 

Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss a post, more to come!

Full video @careybydesign