More people need to make their own well being a priority.
To some people self care means face masks, bubble baths, and a glass of malbec. To others it means spending more quality time with your family, friends, or pets.
But one thing seems universal: the need to spend less time grinding and more time enjoying.
How do we do this when we are told to idolize “the hustle?” Told to follow the grind wherever it leads us? Told that we are only successful if we put everything we have into our work?
Over the last few years we have fallen victim to what is now being called “hustle culture.”
Hustle culture does not sleep. Hustle culture does not take lunch breaks. Hustle culture is waking up Saturday morning and making spreadsheets instead of pancakes.
Hustle culture does not take into account what your goals in life really are.
If you have a goal in mind, you need to put your foot on the gas and strategize how you’ll achieve it A S A P., Or else it’s just an idea and a waste of time.
The idea is that we find our value and sense of self in our output or how much work we can get done. So much so that we glamorize the idea of being a “workaholic” and are obsessed with Hyperproductivity.
The bottom line becomes, if you’re not constantly delivering something of perceived value, you’re doing it wrong.
People often admire the “hustle.” “Don’t knock on the hustle,” they say. True enough, in some instances having a hustle culture is a good thing, in a workplace environment the opposite is generally true. Especially in today’s highly competitive and fast-paced lifestyle, hustle culture is becoming the norm for more and more people in the workforce today.
Millennials in particular — especially fresh graduates and singles — are particularly keen on the kind of workaholism that hustle culture perpetuates. It’s all about how “busy” they are, how many million things they’re juggling at the same time. Hustle culture has become the standard for many to gauge things like productivity and performance.
The thing is, hustle culture isn’t really as great as it’s made out to be. It’s dangerous, both to individuals and to a workplace environment in general. It may seem like a good thing on paper, but in practice, there is a lot to at least be extremely cautious about.
In a nutshell, hustle culture (as the name also implies) means constant working. It means devoting as much of your day as possible working — hustling. There is no time out or time in at work. Work is done in the office, outside the office, at home, at coffee shops — anywhere. And in a world constantly on the go and equipped with the tools to achieve that, working constantly on the go is very possible.
Hustle culture is the societal standard that you can only succeed by exerting yourself at max capacity professionally. Everyday.
Hustle Culture pushes the idea that you are only valuable, worthy, or capable of success if you are performing at your maximum capacity at all times.
And it’s a mindset, a philosophy and a life embraced by many, both by individuals and even companies. When you talk of hustle culture, the more you work, the more celebrated you are. Never mind that you miss meals, sleep, and other important events. In hustle culture, taking a break is for the weak. Your brain becomes trained to always be active and always churning out idea after idea after idea.
