Hustle culture is toxic because it is the number one cause of burnout. Even with good health, our bodies biologically cannot withstand endless amounts of work without breaks in between. We are not created to hustle 24/7 to achieve upward mobility. We are only human.
I bought into the hustle culture when I was young. In my early 20s, I wanted to be as rich as possible. I was quite naive back then because I thought hard work is what bought wealth. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Now, I know better.
I know that more work doesn’t equal more money. The goal is to make more money while working less hours. Hustle culture is toxic because it instills the idea that we should work more to get more money. Nothing could be further from the truth.
$200k jobs working 40 hours a week ARE out there. Businesses pay top dollar not for the ones who work the most. But for the ones who solve problems. We don’t pay plumbers for the hours they put into the work. We pay plumbers for the problems they fix.
The biggest change in wealth happens when you figure out how to make more money while working less hours. This is what the hustle culture misses. It teaches an upside down model where it thinks the one who puts in the most effort and hours wins.
When it’s the one who puts in less effort and hours wins the most.
Hustle Culture is Toxic: 9 Ways it Harms Your Health
Hustle culture is toxic and below are the 9 ways that it harms your health. I’ve been a victim one too many times!
1) Overworking Leads to Burnout
It’s no secret that overworking leads to burnout. In one of my jobs, I would get heartburns because I worked too much. Even vacations didn’t feel right and I would consistently get heartburns because of the stress that’s building up. Burnout is no fun on your body.
Hustle culture is toxic because no amount of money is worth jeopardizing your health over. Money is great but your health matters more. A $1,000 win today could cost you one month of life on the tail end. That’s not a good deal, especially since life only becomes more valuable towards the end.
In my early years, I didn’t mind working as many hours as I could. Even working during weekends. Now that I’m older, I only want to work as much as I need to. I’m always looking for ways to increase my income without putting in more hours.
Using money to make yourself wealthier is the way to go. Not using your hours.
2) Hustle Culture is Toxic: It Can Cause Cancer
There is a study that demonstrates that working longer hours may actually cause cancer. There’s already so many things in life that can cause cancer. Bad food, stress, lack of sleep, and the like. There’s no point in working ourselves so much for our employers who’ll replace us in a second.
I’m all for a good work ethic, but giving so much to someone else without getting commensurate value in return is not the way to go. There’s never a bad time to take care of your health. Even more so when you are young. The energy we have when we are young, we should channel for ourselves.
Not to be a cog in the machine to grease the wheels for the wealthy to become even wealthier. Companies know just how much they profit from employees. It’s in their best interest to hire employees who’ll work overtime for them for no additional pay.
Hustle culture is toxic because your health should come first and foremost.
3) It Can Cut Your Lifespan
We are not biologically created and built to hustle 24/7 without breaks. We need sleep to function normally and properly for the next day. Our bodies heal through sleep and combat the challenges we faced throughout our day to day life.
When we don’t get breaks and sleep in between our working hours, our lifespan is cut. Hustle culture is toxic because while working men live longer, too much work can lead to a shorter lifespan. I personally want to live a long life and therefore constantly take care of my health.
I’m no longer young with an endless stream of energy to tackle the world’s problems with. Hustle culture is toxic because our lives are too important to continue to work hard for others where we get minimal benefits in return.
There’s much more to life than hard work. Many people regret working too hard at the end of their lives for a reason.
4) Your Subsequent Productivity Suffers
Whenever I work long hours, my next day’s productivity suffers. Whether because I’m experiencing burnout or whether because I’m sick of all the repetitive work, the hustle lowers my subsequent productivity. Weekends exist for a reason.
Companies figured out productivity increased after they introduced weekend time for their workers. Hustle culture is toxic because on a holistic level, productivity may actually decline overall and over time. The one who gets 4 hours of sleep can’t compete against the one who gets 8 hours of sleep a day.
Even though they work more hours, the marginal productivity and efficiency rate declines as well. Sleeping 8 hours for 8 hours of efficient work is better than sleeping 4 hours for 12 hours of subpar work. Companies care about work quality more than quantity of work.
The long term consequences of your choices is what matters. Nothing else.
5) Less Quality Work
When I don’t get enough sleep daily, my work quality suffers. The ones who get paid the big bucks do not churn out the most quantity of work. They churn out the highest quality sets of work and charge top dollar. 1 job that pays $100k is better than 2 jobs that pay $40k each.
Hustle culture is toxic because your life depends on quality work, not quantity. When we don’t get enough sleep because we hustled too much, our personal life suffers as well. Many times when I’ve almost gotten into a car accident was when I wasn’t highly alert enough because of a lack of sleep.
Yes, in the end, the other driver still turned out to be the one at fault. However, it still doesn’t hurt not to get into an accident in the first place. I don’t get paid six figures because I put out the most amount of work. I get paid six figures because my boss doesn’t have to babysit my work so often.
The ones who achieve upward mobility in life did so because they focused on quality work, not quantity.
6) Stress Affects Other Parts of Your Body
Stress is the silent perpetrator of bad health. Every body processes stress differently and every body has a different reaction to stress. Even more so with extreme stress. Many people get heart attacks, high blood pressure, or even cancer due to prolonged exposure to extreme stress.
Hustle culture is toxic because it’s the biggest reason people get stressed out. They want to finish their work and feel guilty if they don’t finish their work. Even if they have plenty of time in the world to accomplish their tasks.
There’s millions of harmful chemicals and foods we put in our bodies already. There’s no need to add more because stress is the worst thing we can put in our bodies. We can’t control when stress is in our bodies because it’s a biological reaction to the world around us.
Good sleep, exercise, and taking care of ourselves is necessary in today’s world.
7) You Lose Your Happiness
Work is great. It is a genuine source of happiness for me. However, too much work is a genuine source of misery. Hustle culture is toxic because we need breaks once in a while. We can’t be producing 24/7 and using every waking moment for productivity.
Our biology isn’t built for that level of intense work. “If you’re not moving forward, you’re lagging behind”. No you’re not. Taking one step back to move two steps forward is a real strategy many ignore. Happiness is one emotion we need to treasure and guard with our lives.
Some years, we may be miserable and most years we will be happy. However, when we are miserable due to our own choices is when it should be stopped. Sometimes, we just can’t control the weather or someone getting in a car accident with you.
When it comes to work, we choose how much we put on our plates. We choose how much we want to work based on the jobs we get. We are more in control than we think or know.
8) Hustle Culture is Toxic: Disappointing Expectations
Many people quit the influencing game or the side hustle game because they have high expectations of themselves. Lack of motivation and effort is not what destroys dreams. High expectations are what destroys dreams.
Hustle culture is toxic because it sets the expectations so high to where we can’t meet it.
There’s been many bloggers and Twitter influencers I see who quit after 1 – 2 years of effort. They just haven’t figured out how to make it work. I personally took 14 months before I saw any meaningful results with my efforts. I didn’t expect results in the first year, and let alone second year.
That side hustle, work, or effort will not replace your day job income in the first year. Or even the second, third, or fourth years. Hustle culture is toxic because we have unrealistic expectations of where our efforts should take us.
Many success stories took at least 4 years of full-time work to get there. Some even took a decade. It’s a normal part of the process.
9) Less Sleep Affects Your Emotions
Hustle culture is toxic because it believes “sleep is for the defeated”. I actually met a girl who actually thought that. Wow. Not having sleep affects your emotions than hunger or alcoholism. Being awake for 17 hours straight has the same effect as having a blood alcohol content of 0.5%.
Whenever I don’t get good sleep because of working too much, I can’t control my emotions. Emotional control is one of the hardest skills to master because we don’t control our emotions. Our emotions control us, more than we know.
Sleep is one of the most necessary things in our lives. The hustle culture brainwashed millions into thinking that work is the most important thing. It’s not. There’s a way to work less hours and get paid more. Only the ones who haven’t figured money out think otherwise.
Consistent good sleep is what matters in managing emotions. Emotional control is a highly valuable skill.
Hustle Culture is Toxic: How it Harmed Me
In my early 20’s and late teens, I wanted to work as much as I could. I wanted to get very wealthy and rich! I believed in the hustle culture because I thought that’s what was necessary to achieve success and wealth. After years of working, I found out that wasn’t the case.
After years of working hard, I got chronic neck pain, sleepless nights, and inability to control my emotions at crucial moments of negotiation. Because I was working so much, I couldn’t think straight during crucial moments of my life.
They include when negotiating for a job, when talking to a girl I liked, or during times of performance reviews for my job. Which is ironic because I was hustling to get a new, better paying job. But the hustle culture was preventing me from getting a quality, well negotiated job!
Hustle culture is toxic because it’s self destructive for the hustler. You never really realize the harmful effects until looking at it backwards from the results. I would be in a much better spot with a better negotiated job if I didn’t hustle so much in the crucial moments of my life.
After years of working, I know better. I know that I need to put in less hours to get more results. It’s about targeted results rather than putting in the most effort. It’s not about effort, it’s about the most output you can produce with the least input you can put into the system.
The effects of the hustle are very toxic for your life.
Hustle Culture is Toxic and It’s Best to Avoid It
There’s nothing wrong with working hard. In fact, work ethic should be highly treasured. However, it’s when we work too hard that becomes a problem. Hustle culture is toxic because it jeopardizes our health when doing so. I figured out too late how it was affecting my life.
These days, I avoid the hustle as much as possible. I always look for ways to lower my workload and get richer at the same time. I’m nowhere near finding out the answer but I’m devising a plan year after year. It just doesn’t feel good when we give up too much in exchange for so little.
The ones who figured out the game of money understand how to get richer by working less hours every year. The very wealthy doesn’t even work anywhere near the ones who only make $50k. There’s nothing wrong with achieving upward mobility and building wealth.
There’s everything wrong with achieving those goals at the sacrifice of your life. Our number one goal is to create the best quality of life for our family and ourselves. Not to be the wealthiest and not to be the most hard working. But to create happiness for our family.
Sacrificing today for a better tomorrow is necessary. However, at times, we sacrifice too much for a better tomorrow. Striking the right balance between input and output is key to leading a good life. Endless hustle is not the right way to achieve that.
Our biology and human capabilities are nowhere near those levels.
Hustle Culture is Toxic: 9 Ways it Harms You Shortlist
- Overworking leads to burnout
- Hustle culture is toxic: it can cause cancer
- It can cut your lifespan
- Your subsequent productivity suffers
- Less quality work
- Stress affects other parts of your body
- You lose your happiness
- Hustle culture is toxic: disappointing expectations
- Less sleep affects your emotions
