‘You’ve got to hustle!’
‘You should be working 24/7!’
‘If you aren’t hustling, you’ll never get ahead!’
Okay, whoa…who decides how much you work (or don’t work?)
Only one person does (or should) and that’s you.
This word ‘hustle’ is often getting thrown around these days because somewhere down the road we’ve convinced ourselves that we must burn ourselves out before we can even succeed. Everyone seems to think that ‘hustling’ through the day is the only way to win, and it could be if that’s your agenda.
Let me first be clear about a few things:
I agree that you must work harder (no, scratch that, smarter) than the next person to get ahead
You could work 24/7 and still accomplish nothing, it’s about being smart
No one decides how much effort or time you put into your work except you. Your hustle is YOUR hustle.
It’s incredibly important to remember that your goals need to align with your work habits. Example, you want to make $500,000 in the next 2 years, then you better be prepared to make every minute productive and smart. You more than likely will have late nights, early mornings etc.. But if you are happy with where you currently are and want to maintain it, focus on what makes you happy.
I often meet with other business owners and it struck me as a common thread that we are all constantly comparing ourselves to one other. We wish we could have the life of ‘so and so’, or work as much as [insert name here] so that we are able to travel more or we wish we could stay home more with our kids, but what we aren’t doing more of is looking at our own lives and making a plan on how to actually get there. I often thought that If I wasn’t working until 8 pm on a Saturday or up at 6 am during the week I would fail as a business owner. But when I started to do what works best for me and stopped thinking about what everyone else was doing, it happened organically and at a rate, I’m comfortable with.
I get told a lot that I’m ‘always working’ but the reality is, I’m not. It might look that way because I’ve set up systems to make me appear more in your news feeds or out an event. For me, I can’t start my day for everyone else until I’ve had my ‘me time’. I’m more productive after I’ve worked out, ate a nice breakfast and read a few pages of a book. Some weeks are busier than others, some days are longer than others and that’s okay but I don’t feel stressed or guilty about working too much or not enough and you shouldn’t either.
If you feel like you could be doing more with your time to advance you to that next level, then maybe put more focus into that but if you are doing everything you can and are at a place where you can be proud of, focus on your happiness and maintaining that level. Improve every day to become better. Stop comparing, stop telling others how much time to put in, focus on your own hustle. If you get to where you want to be faster than everyone else because of the time and effort you put in, that’s wonderful and you should feel proud. Enjoy the journey and do it at your own pace. Focus on your purpose and aim every day to be a little bit better than you were yesterday.
One way or another though, I’ll see you at the top!
Until next time,
Michelle
www.northernontariopr.com
facebook.com/northernontariopr