The Psychology of your 20s - 87. Should you quit your 9-5?

Episode Date: May 5, 2023

Many of us in our 20's have become disillusioned with the 9-5 lifestyle and the reality of working an office job for the rest of our lives. Psychology shows us that the 9-5 job is not only inefficient but unnatural, leaving us feeling burnt-out, unmotivated, detached from the things that matter and searching for an alternative that offers both freedom and flexibility. This week, I talk about my own journey of leaving behind my 9-5 job and pursuing the podcast full time; from why I made my decision, what the transition has been like and my advice and tips on how you can do the same. Listen now to understand why you should quit your 9-5. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Hello everybody. Welcome back to the show. Welcome back to the podcast, new listeners, old listeners, wherever you are in the world. Thank you for joining me today for another episode, one that I am really fascinated by beyond excited for and that I think is highly relevant not only in my own life, but amongst many of my fellow 20-something-year-olds, and that is a life beyond the 9 to 5, and how we can kind of leave behind this lifestyle and this conception of work to have more freedom and more flexibility. There has been a lot of personal inspiration for this episode in my life recently.

If you listened to my episode on Taking Risks, or you follow along with me on Instagram, you will know that I have recently quit my 9 to 5 job to finally pursue the podcast full time. And I'm so excited. I signed with IHeart Radio, who are an incredible partner and an incredible home for this podcast, really believe in the ethos and the vision for the show. And it's been something that I've wanted to do for a while, this show, this podcast. This community is so important to me and it's grown from being just a hobby to the only thing I really ever want to do. I just love making content. I love being able to have the freedom to explore different ideas and to read up and research about all the psychology. It really is

the best job in the world. And my decision to do this has also coincided with a lot of disillusionment. I feel that I have with the 9 to 5 work week and the 9 to 5 lifestyle. I think a lot of us in our 20s have become disillusioned with this idea that our lives need to be defined by work, particularly a 9 to 5 office job. There has been this massive shift where we have realized that there is more to life than work and there are actually alternatives in which we can pursue. our lives, pursue our hobbies, enjoy what life has to offer, and also work flexibly and be able to support ourselves. What many of us in this generation are doing is pushing back against this

indoctrinated narrative that life needs to be this very linear journey where we have to follow this very strict blueprint. You know, we graduate high school, we go to university, we get a nine to five job, we work the same job until we're 60, 65 years old. We retire and then we can really start to enjoy life when our youth has already passed, when some of the best days of our lives have actually been consumed by doing all this labor and working really hard for someone else. But I also think we are being confronted with a lot of seriously existential questions around job security and the future of our planet and the world, and we're pushing back against the narrative for more freedom, for more flexibility, and for more joy.

Life is so much more than work. But sometimes we forget that because we have been in some ways manipulated or brainwashed by generations of industrial culture and societal pressure into thinking that work is the center of our lives and the center of our universe. I personally deeply disagree with that. And psychology proves this as well and demonstrates to us how our lives greatly improve in quality and our happiness improves as well when we do have a more flexible working condition and we have time to pursue the things that we love, spend quality time with family, out in nature, enjoying our hobbies. And I think that's a life that we can all have.

there will be different alternatives. My path is not going to be everyone's path, but for everyone, there will be an opportunity to create this lifestyle for yourself. This is a generation that is going to do that. Those of us in our 20s, I think, are more acutely aware of what else is out there, and we are willing to explore that, and I want to encourage that today. So I'm not trying to enlist you in some Ponzi or Pyramid scheme, I promise. This is just my story. And I know this is something that people are interested in because obviously the nine to five job is no longer attractive for many people. It's not necessarily about being your own boss, but fitting work in around life rather than life revolving around work. That's going to look different for different people.

But I do want to share my experience today about how I have transitioned away from full-time work. I'm hoping this can provide some guidance and also some information. about how I made the choice, what the impact has been on me, some of the psychology behind why I felt my 9 to 5 job was not the best for my mental health or my well-being, and how you can do it too, as well as what are some of the risks to be prepared for? But ultimately, why I think those risks are those that you should be willing to take. So let's jump into it and discuss why it may be time to leave the 9 to 5 lifestyle behind for good. I think implicitly, we know that most office jobs and 9 to 5s are not very natural.

We would much rather be out in nature or creating something beautiful, spending time with family and friends, or simply having the hours in our day to actually get through our to do list and do the things that we need to keep us alive, like grocery shopping. the 9 to 5 removes us from these simple pleasures because it capitalizes on our most productive waking hours. Nine to five jobs are a relic from the past when manufacturing jobs dominated the workforce and was a primary industry in a lot of areas and regions. So Henry Ford, Ford like the car, he was the creator of the Ford, I guess. He was one of the first major business owners to come up this idea of the standard 40-hour work week. And this was based on the demands he was placing

on his factory workers and his manufacturing lines to meet supply and demand requirements for those who wanted to buy his vehicles. That is no longer applicable in most industries. The pandemic in particular, I think, has shown us, as well as many innovative companies and even countries, that allowing people to have more flexible hours or work remotely or even adopt a four-day work week not only increases productivity and innovation, but also overall employee health. The problem with the 9 to 5 as I see it and as psychology sees it, is that it takes up our main productive waking hours and capitalizes on this so that when we're done, we feel exhausted. Also, it never really is a 9 to 5.

like we're sold, it's much more like an 8 to 6 or longer when we account for things like overtime and our commute as well. In my last job, I think it was actually a rarity for me to finish at 5. I worked in consulting, which is infamously known for its very long hours and high pressure environments. And my days were always a lot longer than I had anticipated. Regular office hours, they pose a pretty serious threat to our mood and our mental health for a couple of reasons. So according to a study conducted at Oxford, these hours are not aligned to our circadian rhythm, which dictates when we are going to feel the most productive, most active, and most energized. Most of us can actually not fully focus before 10 a.m., according to this research,

and forcing our brains to jump straight into an activity, straight after sleep, can just leave us feeling more exhausted. Beyond that, I think that a lot of these jobs also encourage inactivity. If we are sedentary, that is bad for our physical health. Sitting down in an office chair, even if your office encourages standing desks or something like that, you're still standing still or sitting still for most of the day. That's not great for our body. Our bodies were made to move. They were made to be active. So encouraging a lifestyle in which that is not always possible is going to put our physical health at risk. They can also be so draining, especially when you're doing something that is not fulfilling.

When we think about it logically, we spend like 60% of our days in an office, almost eight hours or more. And if you feel stressed, if you feel unfulfilled, that is ultimately going to bleed into your overall approach to life. and how we're feeling. Stress in particular has a long-term impact on our body. It's associated with high cortisol levels, which is the stress hormone. And when that remains in our system for too long or when it's repeatedly activated, this impacts on our immune system. It makes us more susceptible to certain illnesses and infections. It also impacts how fast our body ages. And it's linked to a number of mental health conditions. I think stress and the stress associated with 9 to 5 office culture is one component of this equation, but the other is boredom. Perhaps boredom, I think, is the opposite

of stress. It's when your work is both unfulfilling and also totally tedious and boring. I'm sure we have all had this experience where we have had to do something that our brain could probably do whilst we were asleep. And our brain deserves stimulation. It deserves a rich environment. In 2014, the psychologists at the University of Virginia, they actually examined this, but they did it by accident. So it was a really simple experiment, and they placed subjects in a room by themselves with no distractions for 10 minutes. And what they wanted to see was our imagination. They wanted to see what our brains would create and give the subjects possibilities to really engage in some of that mental creativity and see what they came up with. But what they actually found was that without stimulation,

many of the participants became incredibly uncomfortable to the point that when they ran this study again, they gave participants the option to self-administer electric shocks and most of them actually did it just to pass the time. Bortem causes us so much discomfort in our brains, in our bodies, that it can actually increase our drive to take part in behaviors we know are harmful. In the case of this research, that was actually self-inflicting physical pain, but in the real world, we are also more likely to see higher rates of risk behaviors like substance abuse, excessive drinking, gambling, and even reckless driving amongst people who are suffering from excessive boredom like that associated with a tedious, boring job. It also increases our irritability, the number of

negative emotions we experience, and our relationships. I think that is such a compelling argument for why we should be seeking out an alternative, especially if you are working in a job that is entirely unfulfilling where you feel completely drained, you feel like you are not contributing to your society and also not even contributing to making your life better. We get one life. Why not spend it? Making amazing memories. Spending quality time, doing the things we love, having flexibility and freedom beyond the office.

That brings me to my next. reason. I deeply believe that the nine to five job, it causes us to become detached or separated for what truly matters. Work doesn't matter. Work really, it doesn't matter. It's a paycheck in my mind. Maybe that's because I've never really worked in an environment where I've been particularly motivated. You know, my podcast doesn't actually feel like work. It's something that I'm deeply passionate about. And maybe that's how you feel about your job. But I think what can often happen is we become so invested and tied up in the goals of our company or the goals that we have around work that it causes us to forget about what truly matters.

We all have stories of people we know who work long hours, not just because they're required to, but because their work has become their personality. And it's not their fault. when you are required to spend the majority of your hours doing something, our brain is going to have a cognitive dissonance and it's going to begin to convince us that we're actually happy in that environment and integrate it into part of our identity. Nine to five jobs, they also just simply take us away from nature and new experiences and time

to do things that we love. It's not just the hours, right? It's not just that nine to five are our primary waking hours. it's the fact that most of us only get four weeks of holiday time, four weeks to actually go out and explore our environment, to make new memories with the people we love. That was really compelling for me when I was making my decision. But before I get to my experience, I do just want to bring up this other theory, which I really believe in, and that is that the nine to five job and office jobs in particular actually separate us from our instinctual. urges. And from an evolutionary standpoint, they are highly unnatural. So our ancestors, our very

early ancestors, they spent their days problem solving and roaming around, exploring new environments, foraging and hunting and being stimulated by multiple things in their environment. They had to use different parts of their brains, different parts of their bodies to survive and to essentially, will live and support their kin and their children and their offspring. And what that led to was a very well-adapted, complex brain, the same brain that we still have today. And our brain wants the same things. It wants to be entertained. It wants to problem solve. It wants to be able to explore and use its senses and use its functions to fulfill our goals and our desires and our objectives. When we we put our brain into an environment that is not conducive to that, like a very stale office or

into hours that don't actually fit around our circadian rhythm and our natural urges, we cut ourselves off from those instincts, from our inherent nature. Obviously, it's nice to have security. Our priorities have obviously changed. We no longer need to go and forage or gather or hunt our food. It's a great, great step forward. I don't think I would have survived in that environment. But I do also believe that it's been taken too far to a point where sometimes our jobs don't even give us the financial freedom to afford the things that we need, and yet they take up so much of our time.

This is where my disillusionment stemmed from. And I want to talk about my experience just for a little bit here. I think I have always known that the nine to five job wasn't going to be for me. I always had these dreams about starting my own business or being an entertainer or doing something that gave me more flexibility and room to explore. But I graduated from university and the next natural step for me was to go and get a job. And at the time, the job that I got, I thought that was my job. dream job. I genuinely was elated. I was so excited when I knew that I was going to be starting with this

company. And they were a great company. They were amazing. I do genuinely love my co-workers and some of the things I was able to work on. But a massive part of me also felt really, really unfulfilled. I said it before, but I was working in consulting. And the hours, they are not 9 to 5. They are, for me sometimes it was like 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. That did not give me time to enjoy my life. Like, none at all. And I was quite frankly miserable. I was really suffering. I wasn't sleeping. I never had time to exercise. I was trying to squeeze in time to socialize with my friends. Normally that went, you know, going out for drinks after work, which is always fun, but I kind of wanted a little bit more. I wanted to be able to go to the beach with them or go to an art gallery or do something.

something a little bit more fulfilling and productive. And I was finding that I did not have that opportunity alongside that I was doing my podcast alongside working. And I know that that was a self-inflicted burden, but it just ate into all of my time that I would usually be devoting to my hobbies. And it was a huge adjustment. One that I think I never really did adjust to. I said it before, but I was I was genuinely miserable. I was so sad. I was depressed. I really felt incredibly unfulfilled. I felt so unfulfilled. And I was blessed enough to have this thing, this podcast that I knew I wanted to do full time. Because this was what made me feel alive. This was what made me feel motivated. I can spend 12 hours a day working on this show because I feel so happy doing that and content.

and I feel like I'm making a difference, but spending 12, 14 hours, working for someone else in an office, doing tedious tasks, was just, it wasn't it. And the interesting thing was, whilst I was going through this experience, I was having so many conversations with my friends

who felt the exact same way. And some of them actually took the leap and decided to go out on their own or do something different. I think it was this one conversation I had with my friend where I realized how quickly the last three years of my life had gone by. And I was looking through my camera roll. And yes, there was a highlight reel. But most of the time, it was empty. It was empty of experiences. It was empty of fulfillment. And so many people in my life

were saying the same thing. So many people in their 20s were becoming so disillusioned with this idea that we had been sold. It almost felt like a bit of a Trojan horse. Like we had offered this amazing idea of security and of a purpose and of financial freedom. And none of those things were really coming true for us. I have friends who are working ridiculous hours for such little pay. Like we sat down and it was when you account for the hours they work overtime compared to their base salary, they were making less than minimum wage. That is a hard pill to swallow. That is a hard dream to keep pursuing if you never feel like. you are getting any reward. So I decided to quit. I decided to leave it behind and it was really

terrifying. I think that like many of us, my family and the culture and the society around me had never really shown me success stories of what it would look like if I didn't pursue this way of life, what it would look like to exist outside the realm of the nine to five. So it was terrifying. It was genuinely really terrifying. And I wished that I had someone who had done it before me, who could have sat me down and said, it's all going to be okay. And now I'm that person. I'm that person for anyone out there who is thinking, should I do this? The answer is yes. The answer is yes. My whole life and my attitude towards life has completely changed with this transition. And it ranges from really small things. Like, I found that,

I'm eating better because I'm not constantly overworked and just looking for something that is convenient. I have time to actually invest in putting good food into my body. I have time to exercise. The other day, I went for a walk in the sun and I realized that like the last two, three years, except for on the weekends, there were so many days where I never went outdoors. And that just felt so unnatural for me because that is how we are meant to exist. We are meant to be outside. We were meant to be exploring nature. And just having that opportunity to do that was such a small joy and it was so beautiful. I will say I'm not working less hours.

I think I'm working more. But that's just because I'm more motivated than ever to just explore and put out amazing content and write great episodes. I just can't stop myself. I'm a little bit of a perfectionist and a workaholic in that way. But I realize the hours were kind of never the problem. It was my sense of fulfillment and it was my sense of flexibility. And that's the most beautiful thing that I think this lifestyle offers is that you can decide when you wake up. You can decide how much effort you really put in, which is, I guess, correlated with your output in a way that you can't do when you're working in an office and people require things from you.

But you can also set your own schedule. The other day, I know I'm giving so many examples here, but when I moved to Sydney, the thing is that you're going to Sydney, the thing is that you can't. that was so attractive to me was being able to go to the beach and I would only be able to go on the weekends and now I can go in the middle of the day. That freedom is so beautiful. That freedom is like insanely special to me to be able to actually prioritize the things in my life that I want to do. I know it's another common experience whereby one of my friends said this to me the other day, we make this money at our nine to five jobs. It's a secure wage. It's a secure income, which I think we cannot understate. But then we actually don't have time to spend it because

nothing's really open after 5pm. The sun is set. You can online shop, you can do those things, but those are not as gratifying as being able to go out and do things with your friends and actually spend the money in a way that you want to rather than just on one holiday or one. one trip a year. So I think the main thing and the main message I want to communicate is that the risk has been worth it for me. I have been able to transform my life in a way that I always dreamed of in a way that is so much better for my lifestyle and so productive. I will say maybe none of this is aligning with your experience. Some people love their jobs. They love their co-workers. they do find ways to balance their work and their life in order to prioritize the things they do

enjoy doing. And if that is you, I think that that is incredible. But I think as well, there will be at least one time or one point in our lives where that way of living is called into question and we're going to look for a different way forward. There's another thing I want to say and that is I don't want to disregard that this is a privilege. Not everyone has this opportunity. They need the security of full-time work to support children, to pay mortgages, to pay their bills, to put food on the table. And I understand that.

I also have to support myself. And I have gotten really lucky. I think that kind of goes without saying. But what I really am trying to say is that is the 9 to 5 work week really the best that society can come up with. And if you had the opportunity to work more flexible hours, to have that freedom, would you take it? And I think our answer is yes, because inherently, we know that what we are putting our brains and our minds and our bodies through is not natural or efficient. Society isn't what it used to be, and we have adapted. So our work should as well.

even stable jobs no longer provide the security that we are often sold or that we crave. Think about how many news articles there are a week about people being laid off from companies that they've worked for for years. And even massive players like Google, they still can't provide the security of full-time forever employment that's been sold to us as part of this deal, this deal whereby we exchange the best hours and the best years of our life, for security, and that's not even promised. The world, I think, has also become more globalized and innovative and entrepreneurial. The rise of the internet and social media and technology means that

our income is no longer tied to a concrete office space that we have to habitually return to. So, what I want to step into next is when we can identify that it's time to leave this routine and break away, what the risks entails and also what some of my personal fears were and still are, but how to be prepared to enter into that world and that lifestyle of more freedom. When do we know that it's time to go? That's a big question. And I don't know if I can answer it, but there are a few tell-tale signs that I think it's time for you to take the risk.

The first is when your job is negatively impacting your job. your mental health. There are some things that we're willing to tolerate, right? Like, there are discrete times in our lives where we know we are going to go through more acute levels of stress and anxiety, or even just randomly, we all go through our own mental health peaks and troughs. That's a part of life. But when you can identify that it is your work that is correlated to those mental health struggles, there is nothing worth jeopardizing that for. Absolutely nothing. I've been there. I've done that. And I've come out the other side and when I look back, all I can say is that hindsight gives you a completely different perspective. And I wish that when I was

going through those periods, when I could identify that it was my job that was causing all of that distress, I'd made the call sooner to walk away. Your mental health is the most important thing. There is always another alternative. There is always another job. There is always another job. There is always another opportunity that you can take. I think the second reason is when you feel a calling for something else. I know that sounds really wishy-washy. It's not incredibly tangible. We can't always tell when a feeling is right, but you need to trust your intuition. An intuition is basically our brain paying subconscious attention to things that we don't always consciously recognize. It's the age old saying to trust your gut, and I truly do believe that when we have a compelling

instinct to take a risk or to do something against the grain, something different, it is our responsibility to explore that or we risk regretting it. If you listened to my episode on why we should take risks in our 20s, you'll have heard the study already, but it is so powerful for me. These researchers, they found that people are more likely to regret the actions that they didn't take or the decisions that they walked away from or didn't make compared to those that they did. That was one of the final straws for me, actually reading that study and realizing that although there was a lot at stake, things could go wrong. The chances that I would regret my decision were going to be a lot higher if I passed up this opportunity. rather than if I ran towards it.

It's also worth acknowledging that you are an incredibly adaptive person. Generations of your ancestors have survived and survived much worse things to get you to this point. There is always a solution. There is always a way forward. Even if things go wrong, you will find a way through and you don't want to risk that idea of what if things had gone well, what if this had worked out. Another reason it may be time to leave your job, to think about a life beyond the nine to five, is if you feel undervalued and overlooked.

That is terrible for our self-esteem. And it bleeds into our well-being and our health and how we treat other people. If you are working in a job where you are doing so much work, you are putting in the hours and you are not getting the credit you deserve, there is no point staying there. There is another company that will treat you with respect, but you can also be your own boss and show yourself the respect that you deserve because it's coming from you. This next reason, I know it's not a new one everywhere all over my TikTok, all over my Instagram. I see this idea of the side hustle. So essentially, it is an activity or kind of a job that you work beyond your 9 to 5 that provides you with a second income.

I've been skeptical about this. I was like, some of these do not seem real. I'm not even going to look into this. But then I was like, I guess my podcast was somewhat of a side hustle, even though I really wasn't making any money until recently. Side hustles can actually be anything. They can be anything. And they don't even need to make you money.

But if there is a way to make money and to support yourself with that, even if it's going to make or take more effort and time, you should do it because you could produce a higher payoff. And my final reason is no reason at all. If you are just called to live differently, you should do it. This is your life. You do not, no one owns it. You do not owe anything to anyone. You are solely responsible for what you want to do and what you want to achieve and the kind of life that you want to live. That is your responsibility. So if you feel called to live differently, you don't need a reason. You may love your workplace.

You may be getting paid a lot, but it just doesn't align with your priorities or your vision for your life. It may be time to consider whether there is another alternative. So the next stage is you've made the decision. You're leaving the cozy 9 to 5 or office job life behind. What's next? What's the next steps here? We're not going to be naive or blaze here. Leaving behind the security of a frequent and consistent paycheck and full-time hours is going to be scary.

And there are some factors to consider. I cannot tell you how many hours and nights I've spent considering every way that this could go wrong. How I could be broke by 30. I could lose my voice and no longer work. That's like a crazy thing to me. I could get sued. I could lose my inspiration. I could lose my passion for this. That's probably the scariest one. Or, you know, one day people just aren't interested anymore. But the thing that I think of when I'm thinking these things and when I'm finding myself in a spiral or really ruminating

is that even when I, this wasn't my job, even when I was making no money, I was still doing this because I loved it. And if I'm doing something I love, maybe it's naive, but I do think that nothing can go wrong. There will always be a way when there's a will. There's a way. But I also chose to be realistic. There is, you know, daydreaming and there is fantasy thinking and sometimes that naivety can get us in trouble. So I put some things in place before I took the leap. This is just my perspective. This is what I chose to do. You can take my advice or leave it, as is always the case. But if you are serious about leaving the nine to five, and corporate lifestyle behind, these are some tangible and valuable steps that I think you can take

to ensure yourself more long-term security. The first one is to do with money. You need to have at least three to six months of money saved up to cover your expenses or some fallback or some form of financial security that you can fall back on. It's a sad reality that we need money to live, but it is reality. You need to be able to take care of your health, your dependents, maybe you have a mortgage or just your bills. So you don't want to be in a situation in which you're really desperate or in which you are forced to go back on your desires or go back on your goal or your intentions. So an easy way to do that is to make sure that you have enough money to save up if things go wrong. And it will also just provide you with a

greater sense of security so that you feel you can take the risk. This may take time. It took me, just under like eight months to get to this point. So I really wouldn't advise listening to this episode and going and giving your four weeks tomorrow. I think it is important to be realistic, but this really helped me to know that even if everything went wrong, I still would have a bit of a buffer to get back on my feet and to pay my rent and do all the things that I needed to do. I also think this grows hand in hand with having a good look at what you are spending. your money on. This is advice for any transition, but especially one that comes with financial risk. I sat down, I went through all my bank statements, and oh my goodness, I spent money on so many

ridiculous things. I found like a $40 order for slime. And I distinctly remember buying this slime, like a few months back. But I was like, that is, I do not need that slime. There are things that I can cut out of my daily expenses, of my luxury purchases. I don't think slime, is a luxury, but whatever that means for you, that is going to make me feel more secure and more able to provide myself with financial security. So have a good look at what you can maybe cut out, what maybe you'll have to give up, and if you're willing to give those things up, or if you, I guess what state you need to be and to not have to do those things. And have a game plan. There is nothing worse than stepping into a new and novel situation and having no idea of your way forward.

there is a healthy level of risk and then there is an unhealthy level of risk and I think the distinction there is having somewhat of an idea of where you're going to next. So I made sure that I had written up a game plan. I had an idea of what I was going to do on my, even in my day to day, what my priorities and my focus was and what my long term goals were and making sure that I was oriented towards that and making sure that my decision was actually aligned with this vision I had for my life and my game plan. The other thing to do, especially if you're leaving a big company or a corporate job, is to end on good terms. Worst case scenario, you can go back to that job and you can go back to that security. If you leave on bad terms, if you leave on bad terms,

I think you just eliminate a bit of a security blanket. You eliminate something that could catch you if you fall. So most companies would love to have you back. They don't want to invest however much money it costs to train someone new. So make sure that you have that backup plan and leave on good terms in the back of your mind. It will also make you feel a lot more secure and stable in your decision. understand how you're going to create routine and a support network or community around this new path. I'm not going to sugarcoat this. It can be really lonely, especially in this industry and with my job.

It's like, this is a solo, a solo enterprise. This is a solo pursuit. There is not much of a community around podcasting, at least in Australia. I have had the benefit and the pleasure of being able to meet some other people who are doing this as their work. But that was intentional. I knew that I was someone who needed community around me. I am an extrovert. I need people who I can complain about my work problems too, who are going to be there for me. So that was one of the biggest challenges moving away from the solid structure of a 9 to 5 job, was knowing that I would have to say goodbye to that inbuilt community and wanting to find an

alternative. I think also this is another financial one. Maybe I should have said this earlier. Firstly, have a realistic expectation of if this is a side hustle or a business that you're starting, what that's going to cost. There are some upfront costs. There are some long-term costs that I didn't expect. But also don't stop putting money towards your superannuation or your retirement. This was advice that my mom gave me. Shout out to my mom. She's an economist. She provides great financial advice. But in Australia, we have this thing called superannuation and your employer immediately has to put money into that fund for you. I didn't think about this, but when I stopped working a nine to five job, I'm my employer now. I have to put money towards that. So that's a big

thing to consider. Obviously, there are financial considerations. There are a lot of other considerations. If you have children, consider the impact on them. If you have a mortgage, consider whether you can pay your mortgage or whether this might be too much of a risk. But risks are always going to be there. They are inherent in every part of our life, every single facet and element. So it's about what level of risk you are willing to tolerate for a greater reward. And this is just one woman's opinion, but I do think that this is one of the greatest choices you can make. Us 20 year olds, us in this generation, I think we know that 9 to 5 work is not the fantasy, it's not the dream that was sold to us. So we're looking for something else. And it's possible. We want to enjoy our

lives. You only have one of them and being able to work flexibly, work remotely, be your own boss is such a rewarding alternative. And I said it before, but I just really want to say it again, regardless of if you're listening to this and being like, actually, you know, I don't think I'm willing to take this risk. I'm going to stay in my job. It doesn't matter. Life is not work. your life should not have to exist in the corners around your work hours. Life is the thing that happens to you every day. It's the thing that is made up of beautiful joys and beautiful memories and incredible connections.

That is the most valuable thing to me. And at the end of the day, regardless of the financial risks, regardless of my fears, that was something that I was really looking forward to. and that was something that was really compelling and motivating for me, that I would be able to enjoy my life. So I hope that leaves you with a little bit of wisdom and something to contemplate. I will say it one more time. I think it's worth saying.

It's worth acknowledging. I am coming from a place of extreme privilege. And I just want to say I am so grateful. I'm so grateful every day I wake up and I just cannot believe that this is my reality. from a small idea I had back when I was at uni to having so many of you who listen every week. You have really changed my life. You have, like, this would not be possible

without the people who show their support and who listen to my show and who encourage me. So thank you so much. It means the world. I really don't think I could really ever thank you enough. And I hope that I can continue to just put out even better content, make even more episodes, connect with more of you, and just see what's out there, what science and psychology is doing, how it applies to our 20s and keep building up this guidebook for

people all over the world. So I think that's all we have time for today. Sorry, I went on a bit of an emotional rant, but I think it needed to be said. I am very grateful. If you did enjoy this episode, feel free to share it along to a friend who might need to hear it. And if you do feel cool to do so, please feel free to leave a five-star review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you are listening right now. It helps this show to grow. And I really appreciate it. I read all of your reviews, every single one of them. And they are just so personal and beautiful to me.

So thank you for that support. If you have an episode suggestion, if you have questions, if you just want to give some feedback, please feel free to follow me at That Psychology Podcast on Instagram. I post a lot of behind-the-scenes content over there, and I'm always looking for new ideas for what you want me to cover. So thank you so much for listening to this episode, and here's your daily reminder to quit your job. And I'll be back next week with another episode.

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