Hustle is the fuel for ambitious, young professionals.
It's the mantra of hoodie wearing developers
and the elixir of deal closing salespeople.
It's the drug of serial entrepreneurs.
We side hustle, main hustle, work hustle,
and out hustle to make it big, and make it rich,
and achieve success.
Hustle is awesome, isn't it?
We love to hustle and feed off the energy of other people
who hustle.
Our Instagram feeds are filled with
inspirational hustle harder quotes,
but there's a danger to the hustle.
When we promote hustle, it loses meaning.
Hustle must possess purpose beyond itself.
If we hustle wrong, we can hustle our way
straight to disillusionment and discouragement.
What's worse, hustle can lead to the destructive melody
of workaholism.
Workaholism doesn't have an entry
in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual
of Mental Disorders.
It's still there though, even if it's not
identified specifically.
Workaholism falls under a spectrum of other concerns.
Most significantly, workaholism is identified as an addiction.
The DSM5's complex classification system
has begun to erase the fine line between addictive behaviors
and behavioral addictions.
What does this mean for workaholism?
It means, among other things, that workaholism
can be a dangerous addiction.
Furthermore, workaholics are at a higher risk
for other psychological maladies,
like ADHD, anxiety, OCD, and depression.
Now the whole correlation vs causation question
will no doubt arise here.
Does workaholism cause such mental illnesses,
or do these illnesses produce the workaholism?
What's the difference between a healthy hustle
and a dangerous addiction to work?
Are you hustling in a good way, or workaholic in a bad way?
As unsatisfying as it is, it just depends.
It depends on your proclivity to addictive behavior,
your responsibilities as an adult,
the needs of your family, and a host of other factors.
The foremost research on workaholism
admits "the line between excessive enthusiasm
and a genuine addiction is difficult to define."
You may be passionate about work, and that's a good thing.
When does your passion begin to leak into workaholism,
and begin to erode your health and well-being though?
That's where things get murky.
Here are some signs that your hustle
can be leading to workaholism.
You work in order to reduce your stress and other areas of life.
You feel like you need to work harder or longer in order
to feel better about yourself and your life.
You're constantly dissatisfied with the number of hours
you're working.
You get stressed out when you're not working.
You feel angry, anxious, or depressed
if you're unable to work longer than you want to.
You neglect other responsibilities
in order to work.
You lack a sense of meaning or purpose in your work,
but continue working longer and harder
in an attempt to overcome it.
You never really take a vacation,
or if you go on vacation, you're working through it.
If you think, wow, "that's me" to few of the points above,
don't panic.
Any hardworking manager, entrepreneur, or modern worker
has at times felt the anxiety of needing to work more.
The strain of not going on vacation, and the stretches
of long hour days.
For many of us though, there are ways
to reverse this slide towards workaholism.
In our experience, there are two kinds of hustle.
Hustle one-- you drag your weary carcass out of bed,
put caffeine in your face, crawl to your computer,
and pound it for hours.
You hate it, you loathe it, everything feels out
of balance.
You restrain the occasional desire
to place your fist through the flimsy screen of your MacBook.
Or hustle two-- you wake up, you're
full of energy, enthusiasm, and excitement.
You work as hard as possible during your working hours,
spend time with your family, and take time
for self-care and personal development.
You get way more done, and you're far more fulfilled.
What's the difference between hustle one and hustle two?
It has nothing to do with the quality of your coffee,
though I'm sure you have your preferences.
It has everything to do with purpose and meaning.
If you hustle with meaning, you'll
be able to dodge the hazards of workaholism, while also
improving the quality of your hustle
and the quality of your life.
To keep hustle from devolving into a mind numbing, soul
sucking, life draining pursuit, you
need to balance your hustle with several other things.
The first of these things is an overarching life purpose.
The very reason for your existence, and for your work.
It didn't take us long to go from talking
about hustle to pondering the meaning of existence, did it?
That's because it's important.
One helpful model we're contemplating this issue
is Simon Sinek's famous Golden Circle.
Asking the why question to drive us
to a central purpose for our action.
The purpose isn't to burden you with existential issues,
but rather to encourage you to bring meaning to your work.
Different people will have different purposes,
and that's OK.
For some, meaning is moored in faith,
some find their meaning in contributing
to a greater good-- to caring for their families
or to achieving a personal goal.
There's not a right or wrong answer to the
why am I working question.
The point is to choose something,
even if that something changes, and to keep that purpose
at the center of your thinking.
Here are a few guidelines to help you hustle with meaning.
Define your purpose.
The one central thing that defines who it is you are,
and why you're working.
Set your goals.
Your goal should contribute to fulfilling that purpose.
Understand your priorities.
When you've defined your central purpose in life,
it makes it far easier to prioritize the right things.
Remember, don't start with the hustle,
start with the why-- the purpose,
and work outwards so that your hustle is
fueled by that purpose.
When we elevate hustle above purpose,
we lose all sense of meaning.
When disconnected from our purpose,
hustle is nothing more than an exercise in wasted effort,
wasted time, and basically a wasted life.
Hustle accomplishes nothing unless it's
coupled with purpose.
In order to live a truly meaningful life,
you need to do more than just hustle.
You need to hustle with meaning.
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