Why Hustle Culture Is Damaging Your Mental Health

In the age of "girl boss” influencers, powerful female entrepreneurs and Forbes 30 under 30 lists it’s hard not to compare yourself to the success of others. Wherever you scroll you’re met with her success story, his journey from rags to riches and how you too can be like them if you just put in a little more work and get your side hustle off the ground. But of course, it won’t be easy. You need to put the work in, carry on at your 9 to 5 and then come home only to grind at being your own boss until the early hours of the morning. Then get up, and do it all over again without fail. After all, that’s the only way you could possibly be successful.

Now this is great if this is really what you want. But if you don’t want it, or you just don’t want to spend every living moment of your life working people are shocked and dismayed by your lack of ambition. How could you not want to be your own boss? Why would you not want to spend every hour of your free time investing in your own business? Don’t you want to be successful? Where is your ambition? Where is your drive?

Well, it’s actually somewhere below my mental, emotional and physical health. And that’s where it is always will be. After discovering the importance of looking after myself and how happy it makes me, I will never be going back to working all hours of the day just to keep up with what is deemed succesful in society’s eyes.

As someone who works a “typical” office job, I’m often met with assumptions about wasted potential especially since I show no interest in setting up my own business empire and being a self-made millionaire by the time I’m 30. I honestly couldn’t care less. However once upon a time I was sucked into this way of thinking. If I wasn’t being productive, I wasn’t growing my business and if I wasn’t growing my business, I wasn’t progressing and if I wasn’t progressing, I would never be a success.

This resulted in me working at my full-time job as well as working on my side hustle endlessly. I didn’t sleep well. I was always thinking about one or the other and didn’t have time for anything else. I became obsessed with my phone and keeping up to date with everything in order to be as productive as possible. I was missing out on things I enjoyed. And my side hustle, which was something I was originally very passionate about became something I dreaded doing. It was heart-breaking when I finally figured out that I had fallen out of love with my passion.

So, after a little bit of self-reflection I decided that hustle culture was not worth sacrificing my passion, creativity and time which should really be reserved for doing things I enjoy. I also realised that, after the stress my “side-hustle” was bringing me, it was leaving me feeling tired, burnt out and with even less energy to put into being “successful”.

Now, to me, success is being happy with a stable peaceful mind and healthy body. Success is being able to enjoy your free time with your friends, family and partner without thinking about hustling. Success is living in the moment, being present and making sure your intentional with everything you do. And when it comes down to it, that is the only kind of success that is truly going to make my heart happy.