Trade Hustle Culture for This
A Healthier, More Productive Way to Work
Hi, I’m Michael. And this is Crypto Creatives. The best newsletter about the Crypto Creator Economy. If you’re new here, consider subscribing. 2 free emails a week.
Alien hand syndrome is fucking fascinating. That strange phenomenon when a person’s hand can have a mind of its own. Doing whatever it wants. There’s something about losing control of ourselves that’s both interesting yet terrifying.
Something similar used to happen to me. Not alien hand syndrome. But I regularly lost control of myself. During that phase of working 50+ hours a week on YouTube while juggling full-time coursework at college.
My entire life was working. Or studying. Nothing else.
And once in a while, I would lose control of myself and eat 120 pizza rolls in one sitting. Other times, I would say fuck it and play video games all through the night.
Little did I know, I’d been infected by a toxic outlook on work. Almost like a disease. You know it as hustle culture.
The Toxic Work Ethic
Hustle culture is the ridiculous idea that if you just push yourself to work more, you’ll find success.
Believers will tell you things like you should sleep less to work more. And any leisure at all is bad.
No one was more into it than me. I practiced hustle culture religiously for years. And despite barely making progress in most aspects of my life, I never questioned it.
I sacrificed everything to work more. No social life. No girlfriend. No time with family. No leisure.
Just work.
Only had my matrix moment when I asked one of these gurus for advice. And he seriously told me to sell my car & use the money to start a business, even if it meant walking 30 miles to & from college.
I wish I was exaggerating.
Hustle culture was feeding my extreme burnout and ruining my life. And apparently, I’m not the only one.
Can’t Stop Working
Studies across the board have shown that over half of Americans are burnt out. Sick of their jobs. Too tired to continue. Most people are left wondering… what should you even do?
You’ll most often hear things like “tough it out” or a story about someone working 16 hour days digging holes in the desert for minimum wage. That shit never helps. Burnout is your body’s way of telling you that something is wrong. That things are unsustainable.
Your body is screaming to stop.
But hustle culture is a cult. Members pride themselves on sacrificing their own humanity in the pursuit of getting ahead. Their car is empty. And instead of gassing up, they floor it.
It’s only a matter of time before they destroy that car.
Hustle Culture Cancer
The real problem with hustle culture is that it doesn't even work. It only feels like it works. The truth is, it makes you feel productive without changing anything meaningful. Longer hours. More content. Bigger word count.
When you make this the priority, you kill the quality.
The hard part about modern work is picking the right thing. And doubling down on it. You may very well waste your entire life doing the wrong thing if all you do is hustle.
The “what” is more important than the “how.”
Instead, we should develop a healthier outlook on our work ethic. One that aligns with our biology and lifestyle.
Integration
The secret to living a good life is to enjoy your work. There's more to it than that. But most people fall short when it comes to work. Some of this is out of our control. And we just have to accept that. But we can control some of it.
Our work should be a natural extension of who we are. The people at the top of their fields aren't working all day. It's practically play to them. From Olympic athletes to serial startup founders.
This work is what they are.
You'll never hear someone at the top of their field complain about being burnt out. That's because they're doing what they love. It's really that simple. It's a rough ride getting there. Let's not kid ourselves. But it’s extremely important we at least try to get there.
These people have integrated their internal selves into the external world. And that's no easy thing to do. It's going to take everything you've got. But it’s the only way to become the person you truly want to be.
As Carl Jung put it, “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
So… what does all this mumbo jumbo mean?
Let's start with our relationship with work.
Your work is important - it defines who & what you are
Humans can only work to a certain extent - any additional work is a waste of time and is literally killing you
The hard part isn’t “working hard” but picking the right thing to work on
The only way to achieve self-actualization is to find work you love
When I did nothing but college and YouTube, I barely got anywhere. It wasn’t until years later when I studied my old videos that I realized something. My best videos, the ones that drove 90% of my views & revenue, weren’t from the intense hustle sessions.
Instead, they were from periods of resting & relaxation. And working for a few hours when I had the right amount of energy for the job.
And that, my friend, is the lesson I hope you don't have to learn the hard way.
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