The "soft life". It’s a growing movement, particularly among millennials, that rejects the idea that you have to work extremely hard and prioritise your career over everything else. It's a fuck you to "hustle culture" and the pressure to be a “workaholic” in order to get ahead, and seems to be in the same vain ‘’quiet quitting” and “bare minimum Mondays”.  

Instead, the soft life is about finding more balance. Working just enough to pay your bills, but making more time for hobbies, relationships, creative pursuits, and the things that truly make you happy beyond your work life and career success. Sounds pretty chill. 

Prioritising wellbeing, work-life balance, and not blindly subscribing to “hustle culture” has its pros. Experiencing recessions, soaring costs of living, and seeing that traditional paths like university or being a pilot don’t guarantee financial security like they once did. Some disillusionment is understandable, but those costs aren’t going anywhere.

And if you can (and want to) move back in with your parents and live in their shed and sell driftwood mirrors and handmade silver jewellery and only pay the bare minimum for bills then that’s the path for you. Personally, I’ll be going to work, paying the rent money for freedom from my childhood bedroom, holidays, ice cream, cheese and new trainers. I don’t love capitalism (or do I?).

I totally believe that a harmonious balance between work and “life” would be the perfect solution for people, but I have another. What if you actually find a job you like and then it all blurs into one beautiful painting called “life” and you don’t spend the hours of 8am-6pm miserable, waiting to go home to sit on your phone and scroll away the pain.

Easier said than done, I know, but stick with me and Good Jobs For Bad People, and you might just find something.

I wouldn't promote cynicism or a total lack of ambition and hard work, and I don’t think wanting a balanced life is. While the system has flaws, I still believe putting in consistent effort, developing skills, and finding purposeful work you care about that provides income, impact and general happiness may be better in the long run. You don’t have to be in the corporate rat race, but you also don’t have to go to the other extreme and live on a barge. Don’t let polarising opinions tear you in half about what you should or shouldn’t be doing. 

Perhaps instead of totally rejecting hard work, the wisest path combines aspects of the "soft life" like reasonable work hours at a job you really like, whilst maintaining drive, ambition and projects outside of ‘’work’’ that make you happy.