This thought came to me while a YouTube ad of Tony Robbins abruptly interrupted a video I was watching. I skipped past the ad, but from the 5 seconds I was forced to watch, it seemed like Robbins was about to pitch his course on how to escape the 9 to 5 grind at the low cost of whatever.99! This got me thinking: this is the new product of an "ideal life" we are being sold. The previous version of the "ideal life"—the good old 9 to 5 with degrees, promises of a stable income, a house, a nice car, a family, and retirement—isn't as fashionable or in demand as it once was.
Instead, the new and improved version is to buy into products that promise to teach you how to be "financially free," "how to work wherever you want, whenever you want," "how to invest so your money works for you instead of you working for it," and so on. The product list and possibilities of advertisement are as plentiful as there are influencers.
I'm not saying this to mock those who refuse to settle for a 9 to 5, because I, too, don't see myself settling for the conventional 9 to 5. On the flip side, I know plenty of people who have found success, fulfillment, and meaning in life going the 9 to 5 route. I'm just expressing an observation: the life path we choose may come down more to conditioning and being sold an artificial representation of a happy life than to a conscious choice made from free will.