Side Hustle Culture
What is the side hustle culture ?
Have you noticed how society has changed and the way we work has changed and its just a constant hustle and bustle, working long hours, time off is look as a sign of been lazy, children are in day care more. Hustle culture also known as burnout culture and leaves people over worked and not appreciated, the sad reality is the strain is causes on your mental health and it leads to you not looking after your needs, lack of self care and this constant battle you need to be working hard to acheive your dreams and aspirations.
Where did the side hustle culture come from ?
I think personally its always been there, when you look at the way we brought up, make sure you get good grades, homework was a must and then you look at the people that are living the hustle life and then they look down at the ones that are not doing the hustle grind. Your heard the word workholic growing up, if you look back their was a sense you needed to work hard to be rewarded, feel appreciated and then their is the keeping up with apperances and wanting to out do joe blog from down the road. The world and society was introduced to the internet, the rise of technogolgy and then the rise of social media took off and this lead to another generation of people like influncers, celebraties and buisness leaders all hyping the dream life and the emphasis of you have to work to live this lifestyle.
Watch the video below and have a moment to reflect afterward and ask yourself and am falling into this culture.
https://youtu.be/12szjswprJo?si=Ma57bWN6Em82q-nm
Why is the hustle culture becoming toxic ?
People are in this constant need to feel they need to put work over and above everything else can lead to mental health distress, the feeling of being overwhelmed can lead to anxiety in the workplace. The increase of burnout or having one is rather high, and the physical exhaustion and your overall health will take a turn for the worst. Every day life and the relationships you have, like a partner, children all will feel the effects of the burnout without you relizing it.
If you're working in a job and you are always expected to stay late, start early, and the demands to complete tasks are typical hustle behavior.
Creating unhealthy competition in the workplace, rewarding for the hard workers instead of looking at a person as whole and what each person who added to completing a task.
Having no time off or being questioned in why you need time off
The more people push to succeed, the push for productivity their will be continuing to increase in mental health, a rise in depression, stress, burnouts, and putting on strain on the medical and mental health systems. The hustle culture has allowed workers to lose the ability to have a balance between work and life.
How do we look after ourselves and break free from the hustle culture ?
I personally have stepped out of the hustle and the bustle and relized that working crazy hours and pushing my self everyday just left me wrecked, i was missing out my kids, lifes moments and experiences and the stress it was putting on my health and body was flowing into relationships and utter exhaustion. It starts with the mind and creating healthy habits, and wanting to make change.
Simple ways to break free
Set Boundaries - Setting healthy boundaries and setting limits on how you spend time and how much time you are spending in work related activities outside the norm.
Take breaks - Ensure you are having breaks through out your day, this allows a moment of rest to the mind, move away from your desk with a short walk or stretch, listen to music anything that gives you happiness.
Self Care - This is a must and one that should be at the top of your piority list, every day do one thing for yourself daily, reading a book, journaling, yoga, meditation, time with friends the choices are endlist.
Always be kind to yourself - Every day is different, and some days are just messy. Look at two postitives that happened in your day, celebrate the small achievements, and always focus on what works best for.
The hustle culture is real and glorifying the work hard, work long hours at the expense of your mental and physical health blows my mind and seeing people get caught up in this is sad because life is ment for living, taking in the surroundings, new experiences.
I love being in complete control of how i work and how i set my hours. Some days, it's still a learning curve because it's so easy to get sucked back into the hustle.
