How I’ve learned to combat hustle culture and scarcity mindset
I recently went for a run with a friend of mine who is also an entrepreneur. I was asking him how things are going and what he’s struggling with right now, and he said that the biggest thing is this feeling of guilt he has when he’s not working. He said it’s hard for him to take vacations and days off because he feels like he should be working more.
Sound familiar? It sure did to me. When I started my business, I had an “I’ll sleep when I’m dead” mentality. I worked on my business every second I had—nights, weekends, holidays, family visits. But I thought I was doing the right thing. I learned how to hustle from the entrepreneurs I looked up to. In their memoirs and books, so many of them talked about how hard they worked in the early days to get to where they are now. I figured that I had to put in the time and effort if I wanted the kind of success they had.
In the last several years, I’ve come to see things differently. I’ve realized that this pressure I once felt to work myself into the ground comes largely from American culture, which makes it seem as if being productive is a measure of a person’s worth. While long holidays and midday breaks are part of life in many parts of Europe, in American work culture—especially entrepreneur culture—there’s a stigma around taking time off. We’re taught to believe in scarcity: If you don’t take this opportunity, there won’t be another one. Or if you stop working so hard or take a break, then someone else who wants to work harder than you is going to take your place. So we feel this pressure to do more, to take on more, to always have a foot on the gas pedal.
I think it’s okay to go through seasons of hustling. When I was building Student Maid, for example, there were so many times when I stayed up all night working on the business, and I actually really enjoyed it. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But what I’ve learned is that while it’s fine to work like that for a season, it’s not sustainable to work that way your whole life.
I read a book during our most recent Break Week called Burnout by Emily Nagoski and Amelia Nagoski. It talked a lot about how to combat hustle culture and avoid burnout, and it emphasized the importance of rest. According to the authors, our brains/bodies need to rest for 42% of our day. And if you don’t take the 42%, the 42% will take you (which means you will eventually get sick or burn out).
Think about it: 10 hours is 42% of 24 hours. If you spend 7-8 hours on sleep, that means you should spend an additional 2-3 hours resting throughout the day. (42% is a generalization, of course. Some people, especially those who have chronic conditions, might need a lot more rest.) But “rest” doesn’t have to look like taking a nap or scrolling Instagram on the couch: There are all kinds of rest. For example, they say that exercise can be considered active rest because it helps your body move through stress and have an easier time falling asleep. Rest can also look like doing something “mindless” to give your brain a break, such as folding laundry. Basically, you can define rest as anything that gives your mind or body a break.
What the book emphasized to me was that avoiding rest doesn’t make us better. Have you ever noticed yourself doing the same task over and over, or spending a lot of time on something without getting the result you hoped for? What happens when you sit there and force it? You probably end up more tired, and you don’t make much progress. But what happens when you allow yourself the chance to take a break and come back to it? You may find that you can accomplish more in less time or that the ideas come to you faster.
When we take breaks and rest, we come back more refreshed, more clear, and more effective. I think we all inherently know this, but it doesn’t mean we’re good at following through—like my entrepreneur friend. To get out of this hustle culture/scarcity mindset mentality, it’s going to take a mindset shift. We have to start thinking about rest as an essential part of the cycle. We have to remind ourselves that, no matter how much we love our work and how hard we like to work, rest helps us to be better and more effective. We have to stop giving out badges of honor for sleepless nights. We have to stop thinking about opportunities as finite. We have to stop sending people emails in the middle of the night and working during vacations so that we set a better example for those who come after us. We have to talk about the time we are taking off with pride and hold people accountable to rest and recovery.
Rest is critical to our success. Period.
How can you add more rest in your day? What can you do to help combat hustle culture and scarcity mindset? Hope this post gets you thinking, and remember, we are human . . . One day at a time, one step at a time. We’ve got this!
Big hugs,
Kristen
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