All hustle, no flow? I’ll pass.

I bet you’ve seen posts like these on Instagram:

• 90% hustle 10% sleep
• I’ve got a dream that’s worth more than my sleep
• Good things come to those who hustle
• Rise and grind

When I see stuff like that, all I can think is:

• No, thank you
• No, thank you
• No, thank you
• Yeah, no but seriously. Still no, thank you.

You see, I have a real problem with the “hustle” movement.

Hustle mentality is straight-up toxic. It hurts our body, is detrimental to our mental health, and all too often chips away at our relationships, too. It normalizes going into unconscious autopilot mode where it’s easy to totally lose sight of your truest needs.

Am I saying you should abandon all your aspirations? Or that you should give up changing and improving your life? Am I saying you don’t need to do the work?

Of course not. But what I am saying is there’s a better, more mindful way for us to achieve and grow. We can challenge ourselves in a way that still honors the needs of our bodies, mind, and soul. We can open ourselves up to receive without having to force, coerce, or push ourselves to the brink. 

We can choose to align instead of hustle.

I know how hard this can be. After all, “hustling” is super ingrained in our culture but it’s also a really old paradigm and a really old way of thinking. Take just one of these three tips and start kicking that unhealthy hustle habit to the curb:

1. Prioritize your tasks

Newsflash: when everything is a priority nothing is a priority. How do we know what’s really worth our time and energy when there are so many freakin’ demands on us? 

Sit down. Brain dump EVERYTHING you do on the regular (this can be for work and personal life) and then apply the Priority Matrix by identifying what on your list is:

• Important and Urgent
  
  
  • Important but Not Urgent
  • Not Important but Urgent
  • Not Important and Not Urgent

2. Learn to delegate

Look at your list above. 

• What can you get someone else to do? 
• What can you outsource so that you can operate in your gifts and zone of genius? 

A team and allowing yourself to receive help will set you free, my friend.

Start by picking just ONE thing you can delegate. At home, this could be as simple as signing up for a subscription box for green cleaning products so you don’t have to worry about running out or keeping track when they’re running low. In business, this might be having an assistant help manage your Inbox or moderate your social media accounts. 

3. Visualize (and plan!) 

Effective people don’t go into their week flying by the seat of their pants. You think Oprah starts Monday and is just like, “gee, guess I’ll see what comes up today! Hope I get my work done and don’t have to put out too many fires” NOPE. I guarantee she has a solid plan every damn day. 

Here’s how you can do this too: 

• Once a week (Sunday usually makes sense but you pick) sit down and brain dump all the tasks you need to do in the coming week. Then, assign ONE to each day of the coming week. This should be the thing that, once you finish it, you’ll feel like you’ve really accomplished something worthwhile.
• Then every day, take a couple of minutes at the start of your day to close your eyes. Visualize yourself in your workspace. Imagine everything is unfolding with ease and your time feels spacious. You get everything done.
• Now, remember those daily priorities you set? Each day, that ONE thing you assigned yourself is the first and ONLY thing you do until it’s finished. Don’t even check your email. Why? Because when we start our day in our Inbox, we immediately give control of our time to other people and their demands. Suddenly, our day becomes dictated by the wants/needs of others instead of our own priorities

Remember: high performance does not mean high octane.

That mentality is a one-way ticket to burn-out. When we get out of hustle mode and into aligned, inspired action we nurture the health of every single cell of our body and mind. 

When you hustle, so do your eyes, and your hormones, and your neurotransmitters. Another reason to wear your Swannies all day because they are proven to help block hormone-disrupting blue light.

So, be honest: are you in hustle mode? If so, which one of these 3 tips are you gonna start trying this week? Write back and tell me!

Learn why Swannies are the best blue light blocking glasses.