We Call Bullshit | The Hustle & Never Giving Up Culture

First things first, here’s me declaring my hypocrisy and letting you know how I partake in the ‘hustle culture’:

The third alarm, aptly titled ‘you snooze, you lose’ rings loud. I wake up, fully knowing that if I don’t, I will lose out on more than just a long shower.

A good 30 minutes of sitting on the pot confirms that the long shower will have to be pushed yet again to a tomorrow that may never come. Cute animal videos continue to trump rejuvenation day after day.

Another half an hour, and my day officially begins. You don’t need to know the specifics and I'm sure, you don't want to either.

Apart from a glorious and generous hour-long lunch break where I sneak in an episode of a Korean Drama (not guilty about this pleasure), and a few interruptions on behalf of the four pets in the house, my work-life doesn't pause till it comes to a stop at 6:30 pm. And yes, I’m fully aware that this in fact is ‘not that bad.' Now it's up to me to decide what I do with my leisure. Usually, it is spent on things that I would never call work, because ‘hello! I’m running the LRAF podcast, website, and social media pages for fun!'

And if you are reading this at around 8:30 pm, you’d be safe to assume that I’m back to engaging in my favourite sport – binge-watching! The day (night?) finally closes at 1 am, which is very late as per my mother, but I’ll have to blame ‘revenge bedtime procrastination’.

And lo and behold! I have successfully hustled another day!

If you are anything like me and my friends, you might have recognised yourself in this needlessly long description a couple of times. Which by the way barely covers the mental exhaustion that looms over me on most days.

But as I write this ‘not a blog’ blog with pain in my eyes and coffee being the sole reason for my barely-functioning mind, there’s a raging craving for a different world. One where the constant state of struggle and hustle isn’t given the respect it unfortunately gets.

I mean why put in so much effort and hard work? What am I striving towards? Yes, I am definitely at the mercy of the green bills, but what else?

Even as I type these questions, I know the answer. After all, I quit my job after a mere 6 months of experience with the weight of a BBA and an MBA degree on my shoulders, in pursuit of a ‘happier life.’

Don’t get me wrong. It has done me a world of good. As I mentioned, I do make it a point to close my work at the same time the sun decides to set (not that I start when the sun rises!). But still, all these extra tasks I list down – one of which is this very blog – kind of defeat the purpose.

Maybe it’s because I’m aware that even though the sun has set, it has also risen somewhere else.

Or maybe it’s the fact that when I speak to friends with heavier pockets, who are overworking themselves to the point of burning out on a daily, I feel…guilty?

And that’s where lies the problem!

The hustle culture has spread its web of lies all over, not even sparing a lazy, procrastinating individual with modest wants, like me! Every single day it tells us to work hard if we want to be seen as worthy. Worthy of what? I don't know. Every single day it tells us to push ourselves to the point of fatigue, because otherwise, ‘what was even the point?’

And every single day, it tells us to struggle, and that too happily, without a complaint because there is no other way to live life. Life is a struggle. The struggle is life.

Now, this I can agree with. Life is a struggle. For the rich on the throne and the poor on the roads. It is a struggle for them and all those in between. Of course, in unfair and unequal measures. But it is. No one can deny that.

So my question is if life is in fact a struggle, doesn’t it make more sense to do everything we possibly can to try and make it less of one? How in the world did we reach this place where struggling in life to reduce life's struggle is seen as a positive? No, two negatives in this case definitely do NOT make a positive. Never have I seen two breakdowns lead to mental peace and wellness!! If you have, I will pay you to explain the math. It would be of very high use to me. Very!

In my opinion, these concepts take a rise fundamentally because of us romanticising the idea of ‘workaholism.' We take pride in working long hours and over weekends. ‘It surely must prove my worth to the system!’

‘They need me!’

'They couldn’t function without me!’

Maybe they could not. Maybe you are as essential as Zoom and Google Meet are to us right now. But probably the right thing to consider is not our worth to the system, but the system’s worth to us.

The system that propagates hard work, but doesn’t find it necessary to reward it! As Lane Kirkland, a former president of the American Federation of Labor famously said way back in 1979, “If hard work was so important, the rich would keep it all for themselves.”

It's 2021, and this quip still hit me hard like a brick!!

We tirelessly try to please a system that doesn’t care about us. We try to please a boss who would rather we not have a life outside work at all. We try to please an organisation that prioritises mental health only on paper. We try to please our future while compromising our very present.

Because while trying to achieve the much-talked-about work-life balance, somewhere down the line, life became work, and nothing else was in balance. It's a shame we are known more by what we do than who we are. And it's a bigger shame that most people in our lives decide who we are on the basis of what we do.

For those still not convinced, let me put it in the words of the wise:

“Kabhi kabhi hum mushkil rasta sirf is liye chunte hai kyun ki humein lagta hai, important cheezein paane ke liye humein mushkil rasta apnana chahiye.”

“Sometimes we choose a difficult path only because we feel that to attain important things we need to choose a difficult path.”

Yes, it's a quote from Dear Zindagi.

I mean, who is wiser than SRK in Dear Zindagi? Am I right, or am I right?

Why must we put ourselves through experiences that take away our present mental peace, stability, and happiness, only to build a future that is anyway not guaranteed (Covid-19 notwithstanding)? Why are we expected to constantly step out of our comfort zones to achieve success? Why are phrases like ‘never give up’ or ‘never quit’ quickly becoming our life mantra?

I have heard this phrase innumerable times, ‘the time to work hard is now, in your 20s! Don’t waste the opportunities, otherwise, you won’t have a steady future.’ You must have too, in one form or another.

They ask us to chip away at our leisure, snatch time from our loved ones, and give it all to the work that we are supposed to be in love with. All so that years down the line we can live the life we want to.

But when you really think about it, the argument falls flat. When we have our today guaranteed, that can be lived the ‘way we want to’ (within our means), then why should we gamble it away for an unguaranteed time for which we may not be around? Or worse, we may be around, but not be the people we always wanted to be!!

I know immediate gratification isn’t the answer. That in itself is another problem. What I’m referring to is consciously making our present as important a consideration in our plans as our future. So, rather than sitting cooped up in front of a laptop for most of the week, we make place for moments that really matter to us today. Rather than stretching out the sore limbs and craving a week-long vacation, why don't we also live our present, while building our future?

This is why, almost a year ago, I decided I was going to set my own goals, choose my own path, and most importantly, run at my own pace. My clock was going to be set as per my time. And so what if that meant I was going to be ‘late’ or a tad 'short' every now and then. At least I would have taken the time to soak in the sun and marvel at the views passing me by.

It was almost a year ago that I decided to do all this and more! And yes, there has been a remarkable improvement in my quality of life. I don’t consider work to be the most important part of my life. For the most part, it occupies only that amount of space in my mind that I’m comfortable giving it.

But, the shift in mindset hasn’t offered a quick, permanent solution. I continue to struggle with my struggle to give up bad habits and unhealthy expectations; to ignore the lure of the hustle culture.

So, it hasn’t been a cakewalk. There are traps laid all over. Especially on days when I do end up taking it easy. The guilt creeps in. So I work more than I should the next day. Somedays I can remind myself of my own promise. Other days it gets forgotten like the books on my to-read list.

But at least I’m trying. That is more than most can say.

Even as I say this, the time on the clock inches closer to 9 pm. This means I will stay up longer than I like, ‘revenge bedtime procrastinating’. And tomorrow will be yet another day when the dream of a long shower may be shattered. But, at least I’ll have the promise I made to myself and cute animal videos in my bank!

But if you find 9 pm to be your usual time for shutting down the work laptop, I have to say, I am already way ahead of you. Maybe not in measures more conventional, involving payroll and job status, but definitely in beating the system!

So, before I put on a cooling eye mask to give my beaten pupils another chance at normalcy, I leave you with these inspiring lines:

“Sometimes giving up is the strong thing.

Sometimes to run is the brave thing.

Sometimes walking out is the one thing,

That will find you the right thing.”

It’s Time To Go

Taylor Swift