Valentine’s Day at the office usually consists of seeing who did or didn’t get flowers, attacking the cheap, heart-shaped box of chocolates left on the “freebies” counter in your company’s kitchen, and heading out for drinks with your single co-workers if you don’t have a significant other.

This year I want to challenge you to do something more than munch on Sweet Tarts:

Set aside your “to-do” list for a moment, and think about how you want your love life, and career ambitions to mesh.

Yeah, I know. We’re Gen Y women. We’re supposed to be hyper-focused on our careers. We’ve been told we can have it all, but we aren’t actually expected to think about how we can get it.

Admitting that you want to be as strategic about your love life as you are your career is seen as being weak and giving the finger to all that the women before us have worked for.

And it’s often stressed that we “have plenty of time” to start thinking about these things, and that now, while we are young and fresh in the workforce, we should only focus on the distance from one career rung to the next.

Sorry. I’m calling B.S.

Why should we have to think in “either/or” terms when it comes to love and careers? I totally think it’s possible to be a rock star at work and have a boo, too.

Part of having it all should be creating a safe space in which women who do want a significant other (and a significant career) can say out loud that they are figuring out how they can have both.

Let’s chip away at the stigma.

If there is no shame in being strategic about planning out the next step in your career, then why should we be any less strategic about planning our next love move?

Leave the office early to hit up a speed dating event, or ask your friends to set you up with someone new. Look for new opportunities at your next networking event, but don’t be afraid to pass your biz card to a hottie.

If you want it, make it work for you

Don’t be afraid to be as brazen about it as you would with any of the career ambitions on your list. We might not be able to have it all at the same time, but we can’t let the expectations and beliefs of others hold us back from trying.

Work it out, ladies.

Happy Valentines Day!