Sep 23, 2019
“Always Be Hustling” Is Stupid
It had to be said
Yeah. There. I said it.
Someone had to.
I’m a parent, a business owner, and a lot of other things…and I’m saying that the mantra “always be hustling” is just plain stupid. For real.
I get the hustle, and how it separates the great from the “just good,” but it’s the “always” that I just can’t accept. The “always” is going to be your downfall.
The “always” is going to make you think that you have to constantly be running around and doing shit — whether it’s helpful or not. In a world where the constant hustle is celebrated, the good kind of hustle can quickly and quietly turn into mindless activity and “busyness” that is a waste of energy, resources, and time (aka the bad kind of hustle).
A show about nothing
Jerry Seinfeld was onto something. Sometimes the nothing is the something.
Doing nothing gives things time to work. It shows patience, trust, and intelligence — things that we all need more of. Let’s be honest.
It’s a weekend day with no plans. It’s avoiding the need to look at the clock to see how late you’ll be for the next thing you have to run to. It’s letting yourself be in the moment — during that exact moment — with a single, hypnotic focus on only that moment.
Wow. Can you imagine that kind of empty-minded clarity and focus?
Me neither.
New shiny object
Here’s the deal: Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) has been studied for years and it’s been shown that it can be a learned behavior. Meaning, constantly moving from one task to the next can create a kind of ADHD in your day-to-day life.
If it seems like things (work, life, whatever) are hard to keep up with, it’s really only because of two possible reasons:
- Things truly are that crazy. In which case, good luck with that, man. Dang. Holler if you need something.
- It’s your own doing, so stop acting like a 4-year-old who just chugged a Mountain Dew.
If you are super Type A and need to plan something, then plan on nothing.
The nothing is the something.
Protect that time fearlessly and plan on doing nothing. Then, all the things you did have time to sink in, find a groove, and show results.
Give your good hustle time to prove itself.
Once you let your work breathe a little bit, you’ll notice that it will all become more manageable. Not because it gets easier, but because you’ll get a better sense as to what works and what doesn’t. What’s needed and what isn’t.
The value of nothing
There is value in doing nothing. It’s not laziness, it’s trusting what you’ve done and letting it work.
No matter what you’re building — a business, a family, a reputation at a new job — work hard and then let that hard work do its thing. Not everything has an immediate impact that you can see, actually, most things don’t.
But let the concrete harden and the glue dry a little, and you’ll start to see the value of nothing.
#bewhatyoumake
