{"id":98159,"date":"2023-04-10T16:07:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-10T20:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=98159"},"modified":"2023-04-11T14:37:21","modified_gmt":"2023-04-11T18:37:21","slug":"hustle-culture-is-toxic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hustle-culture-is-toxic\/","title":{"rendered":"Hustle Culture Is Toxic: What You Can Do to Fight It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Why is hustle culture toxic? What needs to be done to slow down your work pace<\/a>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many people work 40 hours a week or more to make ends meet. Even outside of work hours, workers are often expected to check emails and answer phone calls, cutting into their rest time. This is what\u2019s known as hustle culture, which has become a toxic cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s dive deeper into why hustle culture is toxic<\/a> and what can be done to resist it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The Problem With Modern Work Culture<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In The Buddha and the Badass<\/em><\/a>, Vishen Lakhiani writes that our vision of success and work is based on false information we\u2019re fed from an early age: that you must work harder than everyone else, that you should try to make as much money as possible, and that your personal life must be sacrificed for your professional life. In other words, to be successful, you must hustle. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he argues this simply isn\u2019t true: Success does not require laborious work and long hours.<\/strong> And in fact, this misconception makes people 1) unhappy in life because they don\u2019t have time for the people and activities they enjoy and 2) ineffective at work because they\u2019re too busy<\/a> to recognize if they\u2019re striving for the right goals or if their work is actually helping anyone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why We Need an Anti-Hustle Culture<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Reaching a mastery level<\/a> of creativity and productivity for work requires sustainability over the long term. Maximum ceaseless effort can lead to burnout. If you put your head down and just go, go, go without ever taking the time to recuperate, you\u2019ll wear down your stamina, motivation, and creative juices. Think of this principle as the 60-minute on, 10-minute off ritual supersized. You must make time to recharge your energy sources, your mental capacity, and your creative spirit. <\/strong>If you don\u2019t, you\u2019ll run straight into a brick wall and collapse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are two significant ways that taking periods of rest supports your capacity for peak performance. According to Robin Sharma\u2019s book The 5 Am Club<\/em><\/a>, these are best understood through the lens of an athlete:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An athlete who overtrains without cool-down moments runs the risk of injury. They push their bodies to get stronger and faster, but the overexertion causes them to blow out a knee. The damage to the muscle tissue or tendons is so severe, they aren\u2019t able to play again. If they had taken time to recover between workouts, they would have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n