You can’t do anything big unless you work over 40 hours a week. No one has ever done anything significant without losing their precious sleep. You have to grind, grind, grind in order to become incredibly rich and successful.
We live in a world that glorifies hustle. And so, we come across these and other similar phrases every day.
The rise-and-grind mindset is all the rage these days, and seemingly successful people like Elon Musk are big proponents of it. According to Musk, “No one ever changed the world on 40 hours a week.”
And since these guys appear to be extremely successful at whatever they do, it is easy to believe that hustling is the secret ingredient for unmatched success.
But, do you really need to rise and grind, hustle, and work like crazy to be successful? Is this even sustainable?
Or is it about time we question the hustle mindset?
What is the Hustle Culture?
Hustle and grind are probably the most popular buzzwords of the decade. You may have seen someone hustling and grinding and boasting about it on their social media. You might have looked at successful people all promoting this culture of hustling and may have wanted to be a part of it.
But what is this hustle culture, really?
Hustle culture is a modern-day work approach that glorifies overworking. It promotes the idea that true success comes when you work yourself to the bone. People are encouraged to ignore everything else in their lives and are sometimes made to feel bad about prioritizing things other than work, even if it is one’s family or your own mental well-being.
Hustle culture also has specific metrics for success. Money, fame, wealth, influence, all of these are looked at and promoted as the markers of true success in this culture.
You might see the hustlers flaunting their luxurious lifestyles, cool gadgets, and expensive cars online and claiming all of them to be a product of their relentless hard work aka hustle.
This is why the hustle culture seems to have so many followers. It promises to deliver what every man wants. A luxurious lifestyle that affords expensive things and brings fame and power.
And as appealing as this destination may look, the journey to it may be very toxic.
But you won’t see many people talking about that.
What’s Wrong with Hustling
Hustle culture glorifies many wrong things and makes it okay to ignore the good and sometimes more important things in life.
Yes, hard work is important. Yes, it is encouraged. But not when it comes at the cost of your mental or physical health, your family, and other relationships.
Unfortunately, that’s what the hustle culture implicitly encourages – that you work, work, work, grind, grind, grind, until you achieve some materialistic benchmark of success. It makes you feel bad about taking a break to give time to yourself, your family, and your friends.
If you are a hustler, you would relate to feeling bad for resting, taking a day off to spend time with the family, or simply not working so you could focus on your own well-being.
Besides indirectly making people prioritize their work over everything, it also sets some really toxic standards for success.
Your success does not depend on how productive you are, the number of hours you clock in every week, the money you earn, the number of people you influence, or any other, similar, vanity metric.
Some days you simply cannot put in sixteen, ten, eight, or even two hours of work. Sometimes you just cannot have a six or seven-figure paycheck. There are situations where you cannot have power or influence.
Does that make you a failure though?
Unfortunately, in the hustle culture, yes it does.
Hustle culture zeros in on materialistic factors as markers of success and ignores other forms of success like happiness, peace, strong relationships, and mental and physical well-being.
This is why mental health problems like anxiety and depression are all common outcomes of the grind mindset.
How to Break Out of the Hustle Mindset?
You may have idolized the hustle galore in your head without even realizing it. And it is understandable. We are living in a society that has glamorized insane hard work. It is hard not to feel bad taking a break after a long period of work or allowing yourself to prioritize your well-being and relationships over work.
As promising as this system may look, it is not sustainable at all.
Hustle culture inevitably leads to burnout and stress. This leaves you incapable of continuing to do the bare minimum let alone grind.
This is why, we must take this culture for what it is – a toxic system that treats humans like cogs in a machine and promotes materialism – and adopt an alternative that allows you to work with a system that encourages real personal and professional growth without taking a toll on your health, relationships, and other important things in life.
But how do you break out of the toxic hustle culture, especially if it is so widespread?
Here are some tips:
Change the Mindset
Moving away from the hustle culture requires a mindset shift. You need to start looking at things differently. And one of the first things you need to change your perspective on is success.
Success can look different for different people. So, stop considering money, fame, and power as the only markers of success. Focus on your personal and professional growth while maintaining your peace of mind.
Next, unlearn the idea that success only comes when you work yourself to the bone and stop looking at overworking as something you should be proud of.
Remember, resting between work is not a luxury. It is a necessity that helps you make a sustainable system of working.
Stop Idolizing People Who Grind
Many people who hustle cannot help but share their rise-and-grind routine online. What you have to do is stop idolizing their routines. Yes, waking up at 5 am, hitting the gym, and getting to work right after is great. But if you cannot do that, there’s no reason for you to beat yourself up over it.
Don’t go all starry-eyed over these hustlers. Instead, focus on incorporating small healthy habits and work your way towards a better life, one small step at a time.
Set Your Goals. But Set Your Boundaries As Well
It is important to have goals in life. Goals give you direction. They help you focus. However, focusing on the goals only and doing all you can to get to them can sometimes lead you to ignore other, more important things like family and friends.
Therefore, set clear boundaries as you work towards your goals. Set aside some time for yourself, your rest, and your family as well. Remember, as important as the destination may be to you, you have to make the journey enjoyable and bearable for yourself in order to build a sustainable system to get to the destination.
Practice Improving Your Focus
Working sixteen hours a day does not make you more productive. Conversely, putting aside only 2 hours a day for work does not make you less productive either. What matters is the quality of work you do.
If you can streamline your focus and give undivided attention to your work, you might be able to get more done in a fraction of the time.
So, work on improving your focus so you can be more efficient at getting things done and have time left for the good things in life.
Conclusion
We learn from a hadith of our beloved Prophet (SAW) that:
“Your body has a right over you, your eyes have a right over you and your wife has a right over you.” [Bukhari – 5199]
You have some rights to give to yourself and your family. Therefore, as encouraged as productivity is, it is important that you don’t lose yourself in the grind, so much so that you forget yourself and your family.
And for this, it is important that you stop looking up to the hustle culture as a lifestyle.
Instead, build a system that is more sustainable and allows time for rest, family, and friends.
As you go ahead and break the cycle of hustling for a more productive and less toxic routine, be sure to make dua and ask Allah (SWT), the owner of the time, to bless your time.
On that note, try to build a habit of staying up after you have prayed Fajr. We learn from a hadith that this time is blessed for us and you might be able to do more in a few hours and get ahead of your day.
