Do you struggle with overwhelm and stress because you’re always too busy? Do you constantly feel like you’re hustling and forcing your way to your next big goal? If you’re a goal-centric person, I bet that just as soon as you’ve hit one milestone, two days, a week or maybe a month later, you’re already scrambling toward the next one. Back on the hamster wheel, you’re hustling non-stop until you’ve hit the next target. This is the plague of the high achiever, and if you’re suffering from it, I promise you’re not alone—and I’m going to be bringing you some solutions.
So who am I to speak on this topic?
I founded The Royal Shaman after finding success as a doctor and a top sales agent. At the time, I was hustling my heart out (and making millions), but constantly felt drained and miserable. When I finally realized that the hustle lifestyle was imbalanced and lacked substance, I knew I had to shift gears. Now I teach entrepreneurs that it’s possible to make millions while ditching the hustle mentality. It is possible to stop living a life of “or” and live a life of “both/and:” Purpose and prosperity, impact and income, significance and success.
Every day, high achievers just like you come to me eager to make more money, desperate to break through a plateau and ready to unlock what’s next for them. The problem they face is that, in order to evolve to the next level, they believe they have to do more, achieve more and hustle more. And like you, the mere thought of that exhausts them. So I support them by helping them see that they can create more success in alignment with their purpose without continuing to sacrifice their personal freedoms, depth of relationships or the impact they’re making in the world.
Here are my tips for breaking up with the toxic hustle culture and finding real freedom.
Abandon the hustle = prosperity myth.
One of the most common beliefs that I see among high achievers is the idea of, If I don’t hustle, I won’t make money. This is a myth, and a harmful one. As a human being, your productivity increases when you balance rest with action. We are only meant to be productive for set periods of time, and if we push ourselves to keep doing, doing, doing beyond our natural limits, we’re not nearly as effective as when we’ve rested well and then come back to our work. Constantly hustling is a self-defeating practice. Rest is a foundational element of productivity.
Do only what matters most.
The second tangible thing that you can do to break free of hustle culture is focus on the 20% of your to-do list that’s creating 80% of your results. This means being clear and intentional about the tasks and activities that are truly moving you forward. If your to-do list constantly grows instead of shrinking because there’s a never-ending set of tasks you want to tackle, don’t pressure yourself to complete them on an unreasonable timeline. Focus on just three to five tasks each day, and make sure they’re ones that move the needle forward. Whatever is left over can be delegated to someone else, postponed or completely abandoned. Shrinking your to-do list helps carve out some extra time for you to just simply be.
Speaking of delegation…
Learn to ask for and receive support.
As a high achiever, you’ve probably gotten used to being the person who can do it all. You pride yourself in being able to juggle multiple tasks, even multiple businesses, at the same time, and your identity is rooted in strength and independence. High achievers are used to relying only on themselves.
We have been conditioned to believe that needing help indicates something negative about us: that we’re weak, that we’re needy or that we’re clingy. It’s just not true, and it is very important that we open ourselves up to support and help from trusted colleagues, especially if we are committing to rest. If you struggle with this, get into the habit of requesting support by asking your colleagues for advice or asking for help around the house. Simply allowing someone to hold a door open for you can be incredibly influential in helping you shift out of hustling and into allowing yourself to receive.
I’m not saying that doing, working and achieving are bad—they’re all necessary. It’s just that most people struggle to find balance within a society that is built and sustained on hustling. Modern society has no chill, and it’s in the chill—the moments in life where nothing is happening, where you aren’t planning or strategizing but simply being—where your true essence can unfold.
It is in that energy, that space of letting go of a schedule and hustle, that your authentic self can finally start calling freedom, depth and significance into existence. In that quiet, serene moment of anti-hustle, you can begin to heal.
Photo by @Innaphotographer/Twenty20
