I have been increasingly drawn to this concept of the “anti-hustle” as it’s something I feel strongly about bringing in to my business. I felt myself several months back in a super “hustle” mindset – I couldn’t switch off, or I felt like if I wasn’t working then I wasn’t doing enough and THAT’S why xyz happened.
This hustle didn’t feel good to me. I felt burnt out, out of balance, and irritable – and the ironic thing was is that I was in the process of launching a Stress Less programme!
After the launch, I felt an intuitive hit come through.
If I wanted to build a business of balance and integrity, with values that matched my SOUL (I love what I do, but I also love living my life PRESENTLY outside of work) I had to do so NOW.
Not when I was several years down the line in the place I envisioned myself in the future – but RIGHT NOW.
Because when we build something on rocky foundations, it’s super difficult to change the foundations once we build all the way to the top. Not impossible, but definitely harder. Start as you mean to go on is a saying for a reason.
So what this mean was in order to build the business of my dreams, I needed to start doing it RIGHT NOW. And this meant me sitting and figuring out how to bring this balance to my days, and feel like I was in that flow of balance and enjoyment throughout the process as often as I can.
This isn’t to say that there won’t be days or weeks where there will be excessive amounts of work on – BUT if these are balanced with ways that help my soul feel nourished and in alignment, then it’s this RESILIENCE that will carry me through the stressful times. And herein lies the difference. If you’re constantly hustling, constantly exhausted, and constantly stressed – you are worn out, irritable and frustrated – not to mention not having the energy to do anything OTHER than work.
It’s no way to live.
It’s the incessant ‘hustle’ to get to where you want to go that will leave you burnt out – and the thing about ‘hustle’ is that it’s rooted in scarcity.
Scarcity says – “If I don’t show up 10 hours everyday, even weekends, and am on all the socials all the time and doing all the things – then I’m irrelevant and I’m not doing enough” – translation “I’m not good enough if I don’t hustle.”
Abundance says – “If I figure out what’s true for me, my cup will overflow, and the outpouring of energy in to my life and business will be nothing short of joy, contentment and love.” And then trusting that this energy will ATTRACT what you need in. Do you see the difference?
According to the HuffPost – “In the United States we think about the typical work week as being 40 hours long, but Americans are actually working 47 hours a week on average. Worse than that, 4 out of every 10 Americans say they work more than 50 hours a week, and 2 out of 10 Americans say they work more than 60 hours a week.”
I’m not going to lie though – even with my aversion to hustling, it is really difficult to try and adopt the anti-hustle mindset. We live in such a masculine energy world which equates our productivity with our self-worth, but there is a huge danger when we do this. We are so much more than our work! And our worth should NOT be dependent as outside metrics.
The thing is, we’ve been fed lies.
We are told that more hours of work is better, but the thing is that MORE HOURS of work does NOT equal more productivity. In fact, LESS hours of work helps to INCREASE productivity.
Here are some facts to back this up…
- Some UK based companies have implemented a 4 day week after seeing success with companies in New Zealand, and saw a 24% increase in productivity.
- Sales were boosted by almost 40% in Microsoft Japan in an experiment where 4 day weeks were implement for staff for the same pay.
- Working too much leads to poorer overall health. Mariana Virtanen at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health in a study found direct correlations between overworking with symptoms of depression and ‘impaired sleep’.
- If you’re happier, you’re more productive. A study by the University of Warwick found that productivity was increased by 12% due to happiness, and that workers who reported being unhappy were actually 10% LESS productive. So essentially the less hours you work, the more it increases happiness which is directly correlated with increased productivity. It’s a win win all round!
- Also, exhaustion leads to errors in work – which is obvious when you point it out. So if you are more rested, you’re less likely to make errors, which means more efficient work gets done in less time. It makes so much sense when you think about it!
SO – as you can see, hustling is a LIE! But what can we do about it in a hustle-mentality world?
The simple answer, is find what works for you and what lights up your soul. This isn’t about not working hard, but about working SMARTER. It’s about loving life OUTSIDE of work, and working to live, instead of living to work. And we do this by learning to trust our intuition, and find what works for US based on our unique code of values and needs.
This takes some attuning and work, but I think it’s well worth finding this balance to invite in more ABUNDANCE and JOY in to your life.
More on The Anti-Hustle Revolution to come…. Watch this space.
What are your thoughts on hustling?? Let me know in the comments!
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Sources:
Chan, Jonathan. “3 Scientifically Backed Reasons Why Working Less Leads to More Productivity.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 31 Jan. 2018, www.huffpost.com/entry/3-scientifically-backed-r_b_14509568.
Kleinman, Zoe. “Microsoft Four-Day Work Week ‘Boosts Productivity’.” BBC News, BBC, 4 Nov. 2019, www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-50287391.
Ward, Peter, and Andrew Allum. “Happiness, Health, Four-Day Weeks and the Quest for Better Productivity: L.E.K. Consulting.” L.E.K., 11 Sept. 2019, www.lek.com/insights/ei/4-day-work-week-productivity.