It has become common for wellness gurus and mental health experts to attack hustle culture for being toxic. The long work hours, the win at all costs mentality, the nothing matters but success framework. You only sleep to get a slight edge, eating is only fuel to work, and you work while going to the bathroom. When looked at on a surface level, it is easy to see why hustle culture can be detrimental to a person.
However, Hustle culture can also do a lot of good. It has helped many get out of a rut, addiction, and just being complacent in general. Being willing to put in intense levels of work is key for anyone who wants to become a success. By whatever metrics they choose to measure success by.
In this blog we will cover:
- What Hustle culture is and what makes it great
- When hustle culture becomes toxic and how it can impact your health.
- How to heal from overworking and utilize hustle culture to help you win.
Hustle culture is not all bad. Let’s find out more.
What is Hustle Culture
Hustle is the mindset of giving everything that you have got to achieve your goals. Whether you want to be a billionaire with 3 yachts or a monk, meditating on the top of a mountain. It is the idea that to become amazing at something, you have to put everything you have into it.
Hustle can be utilized for any aspect of your life. You can hustle at being a parent, hustle at cooking, hustle at work, and even hustle in bed. It’s all about giving everything you have so when you reach the end of your life, you can say “I gave it everything I had”.
Now, hustle culture is a bit different. Silicon valley tech bros and externally driven masochists got a hold of hustle and transformed it. They led us to believe that hustle was about working and being busy. It is about having 7 businesses, traveling to every conference you can, shaking hands and kissing babies.
The extremists say it’s about pursuing glory, achieving accolades. Where you let everything else in your life suffer to get external validation. Abandoning everything else, Friends, family, health, all in pursuit of money and recognition. Eventually, this leads to role strain.
It certainly can be that, if you’re into that. But, for most of us, it isn’t.
So, I’m here to reframe hustle culture to its purest form. Hustle culture is about giving everything you’ve got to achieve the goals you want to achieve. Whether that’s being an amazing partner, parent, artist, business mogul, mentally stable, or all of the above.
So, don’t try to just be busy for the sake of being busy. Decide where you want to go and work your ass off to get there.
Hustle culture is a fix for complacency, to get out of the victim mentality and become more skilled at something.
The Difference between being “Busy” and Hustling
Being busy is a sign of low standards and tough conversations you are unwilling to have. You’re busy because you are unwilling to say no to anyone and have them be disappointed in you. This can lead to overwhelm.
Busyness is a coping mechanism. Instead of having a hard conversation like telling your boss you don’t have time or telling a friend you prefer to work instead of going out, you do both.
This divides your attention, uses up your energy on things you don’t want to do, and takes you away from the things you enjoy. Now, instead of working on your business, you have the privilege of watching your body get rejected by women at the bar. Yay.
Hustling is knowing what you want and being willing to protect it from time sucks and distractions. Instead of going out to the bar, you can work on your business. Instead of having that one hour coffee meeting with that new LinkedIn connection, you can play with your children.
Deciding as quickly as possible what is most important to you gives you a guiding light for what you will say no to. If you’re focusing on family, health, and work, saying know to everything else is hustling.
Is Hustle Culture Toxic?
It can be. Taken to an absolute extreme, hustling is unsustainable, energy draining, and can result in addictive behaviors.
If you are so singular in your goals, it can result in other areas of your life feeling neglected. When I first started my coaching business, I would work wire to wire, 16 hour days with no structure to get it going. My relationship, family, and health all suffered.
I was addicted to work. I used my desire to be productive to avoid important relationship conversations, ignore calls from my family, and gain 30 pounds. Working was my only focus and led to the depletion of everything else. I even felt productivity anxiety.
However, I still work a lot. More than most. This time though, I’ve set up my life in a way that I can hustle, and win everywhere else. I have time for my partner, time for my family, and I’ve gained my physical health as well.
You can work your hardest at your craft and have time for other things. The negatives come when there is no off switch. A trade off that those at the peak of their craft know all too well.
Those at the peak of their craft are inherently broken. They have chosen to pursue their craft and push out all other “distractions”. This is what makes them great. It’s also what makes being the best a very lonely life.
Impacts to Physical and Mental Health
Hustle culture can have incredibly positive benefits to your mental and physical health
- The joy of pursuing something worthwhile
- Getting better at an activity, craft, or art you enjoy
- Knowing you’re giving your all
- Creating something you are proud of.
- Lower stress levels and decreased chronic illness.
Taken to the extreme, those benefits are quickly replaced with drawbacks:
- Loss of purpose and fulfillment
- Failing relationships
- Isolation
- Burnout
- Weight gain
- Anhedonia: The inability to feel happiness.
- Increased stress and susceptibility to chronic illness.
Finding the right balance for your life is key. Hustling can be excellent, but taking it to the extreme can destroy the life you are trying to build.
How to Utilize Hustle Culture to Your Advantage
So, what can we take from hustle culture that is positive and what strategies do we need to avoid the negatives? Lets take a look at a few:
You can get more done by taking breaks.
The goal is to get more done while also taking breaks.
You can chase your dreams and have a balanced life.
Focus on mental clarity.
Find space in your schedule to think and get aligned with where you want to go.
What are the 4-5 things that matter most to you?
For me, they are:
- My Wife
- My business
- Yoga
- Working out
- And, when I have kids, them.
Everything that does not fall into those categories are optional. If I do not want to do them, I ruthlessly say no to them. Every no is a deeper yes to the things that matter most to you.
Give me six hours to chop and tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.
Under the same principle, you also choose your sacrifices. To own an excellent business, you may have to work on weekends for a few years. To be an awesome partner, you may have to sacrifice some money to do so.
These tradeoffs are always necessary and won’t get easier to make.
Need help making decisions? Check out: Why Decision making is important
Focus on collaboration not competition.
The idea that we are racing each other to be the very best is a myth at the core of culture. There are plenty of resources out there for everyone and working with others is how we win.
Competition leads is to believe two key lies:
- Resources are limited
- And you need all of them.
Competition is a great motivator as long as we can separate it from our growth. So get competitive to win the basketball game or create a better video than your rival on youtube. Just don’t lose sight of the bigger picture, the goal of the game isn’t to win, it’s to keep playing.
Build a Hustle System that combines growth with recovery.
A rich and full life needs 3 core pieces to feel sustainable.
- Find a compelling reason to make things
- Make those things sustainably
- Assume burnout is inevitable and prepare for it.
A compelling reason is something bigger than yourself. It answers the question: How will you serve the world? Your reason needs to be emotionally sustainable to continue being motivating. Desperation will only take you so far, after that, you need something deeper.
Sustainability is found in a daily and weekly routine. What things will you do daily in pursuit of the things that matter most to you?
“Non-working” hours can be filled with:
- Things you look forward to
- They make you focus on that activity and only that activity
- They don’t make you worse.
Yoga, swimming, climbing, and being in nature are all great non-working activities. They slow things down and give you time to think.
Burnout will likely show up no matter how well prepared you are. Humans are humans.
- Take an extended break, plan a holiday, take note of where you are at, and adjust accordingly.
- Find a coach to support you in building the life you want to live and preparing for hard times.
Lean into relationships
People who are driven to excel have this propensity to underinvest in their families and overinvest in their careers. Even though intimate and loving relationships with their families are the most powerful and enduring source of happiness.
Good relationships don’t just protect our bodies, they protect our brains. It makes your memory stay sharper, longer. People who are socially connected live longer and happier.
However, it is okay to feel lonely during a period of growth. If those around you do not support your goals, then you will need to find new people. It is easier to cut a bad branch, than grow a new one. So, cut the bad branch, and be patient while the new ones grow.
How Coaching can Help you get the Most out of Hustle Culture
Burnout coaching is about finding the balance between high performance and recovery. That balance is what allows you to be consistent in your effort. Over the course of a year, that consistency will pay off in spades.
Check out The Forge Coaching programs today and see how we make Hustle Culture work for you.
