The infectious tune, The Hustle by Van McCoy & The Soul City Symphony, ushered in the disco era the week I was born. This might explain my somewhat questionable musical taste and my work ethic. I love to work hard and long hours. I bought into the ‘Hustle Culture’ and for almost my entire career have worn it as a badge of honour.

Hustle Culture is an emphasis on hard work and long hours as the key to success. Seemed to make perfect sense to me until I started hearing it referred to as ‘Burn Out Culture’. Despite the negative reference, each day I hear those backup singers hypnotically sing:

Do it!

Do it!

Do it!

Do the Hustle!

Because I also love to be right and wanted to defend my behaviour, I recently started looking for benefits of hustle culture. While I did find a few, there is a preponderance of articles written on the danger of sacrificing self-care in order to succeed. The article “How to Identify Hustle Culture and What You Can Do to Break Away From It” from Good Housekeeping provides a good overall summary and basic steps you can take to avoid the pitfalls of hustle culture.

Some suggestions to break free of hustle culture include:

• Schedule rest days and hobby time.
• Get clear on your boundaries.
• Define (redefine?) what success looks like to you.

And now I will go to do just that – I’m taking a long overdue break to enjoy some down time. Stay tuned for my next blog post later in April. Take care of yourself!