Toxic hustle culture is EVERYWHERE and it’s so, so easy to get sucked into toxic hustle culture. In today’s episode, we are talking about where toxic hustle culture comes from and how we can avoid it. You CAN, in fact, get to where you want to go in life without burning yourself out, letting your work rule your life, and operate in a state of stress or overwhelm. Tune into today’s episode to learn how you can combat hustle culture in an intentional way and live a life rooted in joy and productivity.
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|EPISODE TRANSCRIPT |
Welcome to the living in sunshine podcast if you don’t know who I am, my name is Maddie. And I am so excited to have you tuning in to our weekly podcast episodes, where we chat all the things from tips and tricks to funny stories from my life that have helped me to truly live in the sunshine. In this space, we are all about encouraging, inspiring and giving you the tough love that you need to hear sometimes to realize that you are totally made for more than what you currently have in life, and that you hold the power to make the changes that you need to level up and live your best self. So buckle up, grab some water and let’s get into it. All right, all you cool cats and kittens. Welcome back to the living in sunshine podcast. I hope you’re having a great week so far. My name is Maddie your fearless host and guide to all things living joyfully. And welcome to the living in sunshine podcast. If you are new here, I drop a new episode every single Wednesday. Now before we dive in to today’s episode, I wanted to give you a little inside hot scoop that within the sunshine squad, my online community for women looking to live more joyfully and align. All month long. We are talking about how to thrive no matter what your current or past situations look like. Our masterclass is coming up. And if you are wanting to get connected with other women who wants to see you win, who are doing big things just like you are and who are just like you and wanting to live and aligned and joyful life, be sure to check out the sunshine squad right now. I’ll link it in the show notes. And I cannot wait to see you in there. Okay, so I am super excited to dive into today’s episode because we’re talking about something that I honestly used to perpetuate and something that I use to push. And I’m really really, really glad that I kind of woke up to this message that I was sharing and and these habits that I was partaking in and participating in to really break away from that and learn what a good solid work life situation scheduled looks like. But also learn how to live and work in a way that is rooted in joy and intention and purpose. And not toxicity and hustle and hardship right like breaking your own back to get to where you want to go. And in today’s episode, we are talking about where toxic hustle culture really stems from, and how to avoid it. And if you listen to last week’s episode, you know that we are doing an episode for all four personalities from the living in sunshine personality survey. And this week’s episode is for our happy hustlers. So if you’re not sure if you’re a happy Hustler, head to the show notes right now take the personality quiz as you listen, and then send me a message on Instagram letting me know what your results are. And if you are a happy Hustler, this episode is for you. Okay, so in order to really talk about this, I wanted to do some research as to what hustle culture really is, and kind of what the science is behind that whenever there’s something that I kind of have experienced or have knowledge of, but like I haven’t actually looked into like the science and the research behind it. I always like to educate myself before talking on it. That way, I know that I’m giving you really good solid information. And so I did a little bit of research, I read a couple of articles. And I wanted to share a few excerpts from an article that I will share with you guys in the show notes down below if you want to learn more. It is from talkspace, which is an online mental health platform where you can go in and seek support all of these good things, but they have a really great blog talking about all of you know these different different types of things that do impact our mental health. And toxic hustle culture is a huge impact or a huge kind of weight and potential impact. Your I guess is the word on our mental health. And it said this article that I read, said that hustle culture is when a workplace environment places an intense focus on productivity, ambition, and success with little regard for rest, self care, or any sense of work life balance. Hustle culture has been linked to mental health concerns like increased anxiety, stress and depression. Further, we now know that there’s a long term, opposite effect, decreased productivity, this toxic hustle culture has led to employees feeling burnout, right? So this is kind of what hustle culture is, right? It’s this. It’s this culture of this kind of shared feeling that you’ve got to work hard and work all the time and be really ambitious and always be productive and always be creative and doing all of these things, right? And the thought behind creating this kind of culture, whether it’s in a job that you have a business that you work in, or in your own business, right. I know I have a lot of entrepreneurs who listen to this show. I know Have a lot of small business owners who listen to this show, right? The thought process behind kind of creating this culture is to increase productivity, creativity, and production. When in in return what actually happens, right, which is talking about in this, in this article, which I thought was fascinating, the opposite impact is had, people are actually less productive, less creative, they have higher levels of anxiety and stress and depression, because of this kind of culture. And I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again, I really feel and I keep seeing, which I’m so excited about this kind of shift in in work life balance, and this shift as to how people view what they do for a living. And it’s no longer for a lot of people I keep seeing in for more and more people as we go, work and their business or the the work that they do for a living right doesn’t have to be a business that they run or own. It’s becoming less and less about getting where they want to go, and more about feeling how they want to feel, right. And a lot of those feelings are our desire, the desire, feeling that people want our joy and alignment and purpose and direction and success, right. But I, the reason I want to talk about this is because I see more and more often, people don’t want their success to only be in their work, they want their success to be having more time with their family, or having more time to play with their dogs, or more money and doing less work, right, which I love. I’m so excited to be seeing this kind of transformation. But there’s still work to be done, right, there’s still things that we can be doing to kind of combat this.
But to first be able to combat a problem, we have to know where the problem starts, you cannot cure an illness without first figuring out what’s making you sick, you can’t get better, a doctor is not going to look at you and say, oh, there’s something wrong with you. But we’re not going to figure out what’s wrong with you, we’re just going to throw you this medication, right. That’s not how it works, right. So in the same sense, with toxic hustle culture, and this kind of go, go go do do whatever it is, no matter what it takes attitude, we have to figure out where it comes from. Right. And this is personal opinion, this is from my experience, this is not something from an article. But I believe that this kind of go getter attitude, no matter what I’m not stopping for anything, is really stems from the millennial and Gen Z generations, watching our parents do the same thing for their whole life, and really commit to it. And we have watched them to go go and work work their butts off to get to where they are in their chapter 50. And so because we grew up watching someone’s chapter 50, right, watching them be at the top of their company, or be a manager or, you know, be really successful and make all of this money, we feel as if we need to be there right now. Right? Like we didn’t watch their first 50 chapters of their life because we weren’t around, right, we entered the story, when they had gotten to the successful parts, when they had gotten to the easy parts that we’ve got, they’ve gotten to the point where they have a house and they, you know, have paid off all of their, you know, debts and all of these things, right. And I’m not even gonna get into like the whole socio economic differences between our older generations and younger generations. That’s like a whole different thing. And I’m not an expert on that. But that is a huge thing, right? Like, we as a generation, those younger generations, my generation and younger, are seeing now that you, we we’ve only seen this one level, this one version of success, if that makes sense. And so we’re trying to replicate that in our life. And we’re trying to skip the first 50 chapters of our own story to success. And that is where I think that this hustle culture comes from the other space that toxic hustle culture comes from. And this is really prevalent in 2023, where online businesses are the things to do and everyone’s an overnight success. And everyone’s making six figures or a million dollars or whatever, right? stems from online and in person. People who we see as success stories, only sharing their successes, and never really sharing what’s hard and what’s not working. And the reason so many of these online celebrities that we see our successes and are being pushed as you know, really famous are doing really well right. The reason they’re not sharing the the what’s not working in the heart is because it’s not fun and it’s not sexy, right? And in 2023, especially in Western culture, society has really started to champion and showcase and kind of put up on a pedestal. Those who are quickly so successful, and they showcase them. You know, I as these other worldly beings, right, like everyone should aspire to be this right? We very rarely see and hear of the successes of the slow and the steady, right? It’s very much the, the tortoise of the tortoise and the hare story, right? We always see the hairs, we always see those people who grew to big successes really quickly. And very rarely see, the tortoise is those people who were slow and steady. And those people that we might follow and see on social media or the news or in TV or whatever, they might have had a slow and steady story, but they’re not sharing it. Right? We are not hearing it. And what we are hearing is, I make a million dollars, I work three days a week, I do you know, I go to the bathroom, and I count and I’ve made $100,000 By going poop, right? Like, that’s what we hear. We very rarely hear of the flops, and the losses and the things that didn’t go well, and the things that went really, really bad. And that is what Foster’s in my opinion, those two things, seeing how our parents were raised, seeing how our parents have have reached their successes, right. And this new kind of new online in person, largely successful people only ever sharing their biggest successes, right, and they’re not sharing that slow and steady. And they’re not sharing the things that were really, really hard. And I have to give a shout out to Lindsey Swartz. She is the founder and CEO of powerhouse women. If you haven’t listened to the powerhouse women podcast, I really encourage you to do so it’s a great show. Over the last couple of weeks, she posted a post that literally says entrepreneurs earning 100k per year take 30 seconds to leave a comment about all of the challenges and failures that you had to go through before you were successful. And the comments on that post were enlightening, especially as someone who is very early on in her entrepreneurial journey, someone who’s very early on in her own business. It was hugely eye opening to see these people, right, these celebrities, these champions of success, share all of the things that didn’t go well. So if you need a little bit of a boost, definitely go check it out. Lindsey Schwartz on Instagram. I love her. She’s super inspiring, and really encouraging to new entrepreneurs. So shout out to her for showing her reel. I very much appreciate that. Have you ever felt like the people in your life just don’t understand the dream that you have on your heart? Or even the desire that you have to be more joyful or intentional or even just plain happy? Like wife is good enough? Why do you need more? Right? Well, my friend if this is you, I have something special just for you. The Sunshine squad community is your go to place for that validation that you’re searching for, to know that you aren’t crazy for wanting more and that you aren’t alone in that desire either. This online community has grown to be filled with amazing joy seekers purpose pursuers, happy hustlers, and dream chasers just like you. In the sunshine squad community, you get continued guidance from me that you need to make your dreams a reality, a community of women who get it and the steps that you need to make your life something that you’re totally obsessed with. If you are ready to say yes to those things, you need to jump into the sunshine squad ASAP. And you can do so right now via the link in the show notes. If you do have questions on what the sunshine squad community is, or if it’s right for you, feel free to send me a DM over on Instagram. I would love to chat with you more about it over there. And my friend, I can’t wait to see you inside of the sunshine squad. Okay, so now that we kind of know where toxic hustle culture comes from, how can we be really intentional in avoiding it right? How can we know how to break away or avoid or stay away from this toxic hustle culture. And this is something that I kind of see as maybe a little bit different than how other entrepreneurs that I have worked with in a coaching container, or have seen online write it. This is something that I feel like I do a little bit differently, right? I’m not the only person who does this. I’m not claiming to be the only person who does business this way. But it’s a really good thing to always keep in mind, right? So the first thing that we can do in order to avoid toxic hustle culture, no matter what kind of, you know, work business hustle we’re doing is knowing our priorities right? For me, my priorities include clarity and what I’m doing in what I’m creating and where I’m spending my time simplification in my systems, in my team, in my business and in my ideas and in sort of the execution of those ideas. And also rest okay, I am in this bit Biggest season of doing less, and there has been so much magic that has come from doing less. And for me, less means like, you know, manifest and making more time for rest your priorities might be prioritizing your side hustle over your main income generator. Because you know, in five years, you want that side hustle to be your main income generator for you priorities might be creating live in person speaking events, or getting invited to those types of events, instead of prioritizing. Saying yes to another project for your business or creating another thing for your business, right.
So your priorities are always going to be different from mine, and your best friend and the people you see online. But whatever your priorities are, you have to know them in order to avoid toxic hustle culture. Because if we are not clear on our priorities, we very quickly and can bear can very easily fall into toxic hustle culture, because we say yes to everything. Or we see someone with a million followers do something in their business. And we’re like, oh my god, if it worked for them, it’s gonna work for me, I’m doing that too. Oh, my gosh, someone that I love so much is starting to write a book, I’m gonna write a book, even though that’s never been on my priority list ever. Right? So we have to know what our priorities are, in order to avoid saying yes to too much and falling into toxic hustle culture. So that’s thing number one that we can do to avoid it right? Thing number two, is to keep your vision, your here is capitalized, bolded, Underline and Italics. It’s like 50 point font, right? Keep your vision and focus. What do you want? Not What do others want for themselves, or want for you? Okay, and let me explain what this means. When I say to keep your vision and focus, I mean, to keep what you want in front of your face all the time. Just because I see other people in my same niche of lifestyle joyful living coaching, doing something specifically, and it’s working for them. That doesn’t mean that I need to suddenly add it to my vision board, right? Just because I see someone who has been able to, you know, step into a new type of business plan, and suddenly they’re buying a new Jeep, and they’re buying a new car and all these things, that doesn’t mean that I have to want that thing to write. And it’s the same for you. Just because you’re a teacher, and all of your friends are leaving the profession that does and you don’t want to leave the profession because you love it. That doesn’t mean that you have to do that too. Just because you see all of your friends or people that you went to high school with or college, whatever, they’re getting married and they’re having kids, and you are happily single be bopping around having the best time of your life doesn’t mean that you have to get married and have kids, too. You see what I mean? When we keep our own priorities, our own vision in the front of our face, man, oh, man, we avoid toxic hustle culture. Because again, we’re not saying yes to more, we’re not adding on things that do not align with what we want. Okay? So always, always, if you struggle with staying out of this toxic hustle culture of always doing more, ask yourself, is the stuff on my to do list stuff that I actually want? Or is it stuff that I see other people wanting for themselves? Or other people are telling me I should want for myself? Right? What do you want, you have all the ability and capability in the world to make the right choice for you. And this includes keeping your own vision and focus. All right. And the third thing that we can do to really be proactive of avoiding toxic hustle culture, is asking yourself one question. And I my friend had to ask myself this question all the time. It’s actually a little bit embarrassing. Okay, here’s your question. Why are you rushing? Right? Why are you rushing? Who’s rushing you? Where are you going? Who are you behind? Right? Literally no one. The only person you’re quote unquote, behind in life is yourself. And you set that expectation. You set that standard. Where are you going? Why are you rushing? Why Right? Like, why are we rushing through life? Life is meant to be lived. It’s meant to be fulfilled, it’s meant to be so full of goodness. Why would we want to rush that right? Why are we rushing the process, the journey, the the experience of life, to get to where we want to go? I’m sorry, but I would much rather live every single minute and make it so big and juicy and fat and wonderful. That like that minute feels like a year. Right? But this is something that we sometimes get trapped in is this feeling of I’ve got to go Gotta hurry up, I gotta be here. This time, I’m gonna do this by this point, right? I’m 100%, that kind of person. Perfect example today, the day that I’m recording this podcast, I set myself up today, it’s a Friday. If you don’t know, I pre record all of my episodes, so I’m actually recording this on April 21. And I do this because it works for my flow. But this morning, I slept in because I was so tired. And I didn’t get to the gym until about 745. And when I was there, I was like, Girl, you’ve got to hurry up, you’ve got things to do. You got places to be have a meeting at noon, you gotta go get your driver’s license, you have all these things going on. And then I kind of had to stop and it was like, why are you rushing? What are you rushing, you’re rushing, enjoying this workout, you’re rushing, feeling your body getting stronger, you’re rushing, watching all of these other people do good for themselves. You’re rushing your life? Why? Why are you doing that? Right? And this is such a good question. And it always, at least in my life, grounds me in the current moment. And I remember why I’m doing everything that I’m doing. Everything that I do, and I hope everything that you do, helps you to get to a life that you’re obsessed with. I work out because I want to feel strong. I record the podcast because I want to help you. I sit down with my OBM every single Friday at noon, because I want my business to feel good and feel fulfilling, right? Everything that we do, we do because we want to improve, we want to feel good, we want to be better. We want to live a life that we’re obsessed with. Why would we rush that? Right? It sounds so convoluted when you think about it when you hear someone like myself talking about it. But in practice, it is so hard to slow down. It’s tough, I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, it’s really frickin hard. But when you feel like you are rushing, I want you to stop, pause, reflect and take action. And this is something I need to this is a process that I really need to do a whole podcast episode on. But when you feel yourself rushing, whether it’s your thoughts, or your emotions, or you are physically rushing through a task, whatever it might be, right? I want you to stop and ask yourself, why are you rushing? Where are you going? What are you trying to get to right? And when you do this, I hope it brings you back to this present moment. I hope it brings you back to a space of Holy crap, I don’t need to run around like the road runner to get to where I’m going. It’s all going to happen when it needs to happen. And when it happens, I’m going to be so happy that it did. And I’m going to be able to look back and reflect and realize that that whole process was so fulfilling. And I was so present and it felt so dang good, right? That’s why we asked ourselves these questions. And that’s how we avoid toxic hustle culture, right? We know where it comes from. We know where it stems from, we know how to avoid it. And this knowing this practicing this implementing this into your own life is how you are a happy hustler. Right? The word hustle does not need to be a negative word. The word hustle can be something that makes you smile. I wish you could see me right now I have this stupid fat smile on my face right now. Because the word hustle makes me happy. It brings me joy. And the reason it does is because I keep these things in mind. And I actively proactively and intentionally avoid the toxic hustle culture. You can love what you do, and want to do it every single day, while also living in balance, alignment, intention and joy. You can I’m proof of that. Okay. And I hope this episode helps you to realize it. And that’s everything I have for you today, my friend. I hope that this was helpful. I hope it gave you some action steps, some things to consider some things to reflect on, right? Why are you rushing? You don’t need to rush. There’s no rush. There’s no reason right? live life to the fullest. Make your minutes feel like yours. And watch what happens when you’re really intentional about avoiding hustle culture, and toxic hustle culture. And watch how you start to change and how your approach to doing life changes when you do so. And before we wrap up for the week, my friend I do want to read our review of the week. Our review of the week comes from Emily teaching online Hi Emily, thank you so much for this review. She says relatable and helpful. Maddie offers such helpful and motivating advice I relate to a lot of the struggles that she mentioned, but she offers advice in a way that doesn’t make me self pity myself and stay stuck in that hole. I look forward to every episode. Emily I’m so thankful for your review and I’m so glad that you listen to the show and you look forward to it week after week. If you yourself listening right now haven’t yet left a review for the show. Please go do so right now over on Apple podcasts. We have a huge goal of getting to 100 reviews for the year of 2023 and I would love for you to help me make that goal happen. Until next week, my friends. I am sending you all the sunshine good vibes and I hope you make it a great day. That is all I have for you today. My dudes And I hope you love today’s episode. If you did, I would seriously appreciate it if you went and left the show a review and rating on whatever platform you’re currently listening on. For every review and rating that you leave, it truly helps the show grow and reach more women just like yourself. If you had any major takeaways or aha moments, be sure to take a screenshot of this episode posted to your social media stories with your biggest takeaways and tag me at living in sunshine so I can share it with my people as well. Again, thank you so much for hanging out with me this week. And until next time, I am sending you all the sunshine good vibes and I hope you make it a great day.