Calling Bullshit on the "Hustle"

During my very first week of law school, my civil procedure professor (Professor Ringer- an unforgettable mountain of a man whose booming voice could both terrify and comfort, sometimes in the very same moment, and who put me “through the Ringer” much to my delight and edification) assigned us a partner for the class, someone to bounce the concepts we were learning off of and hold each other responsible for the material.

My partner was Garrett. He was just a few years older than me, but had two small children and his wife was a physician in the midst of a prestigious fellowship. 

I learned a lot from Garrett that didn’t actually sink in until many years later.

You see, I was a very typical late-twenties full-time law student.

I worked my butt off, but if I’m being entirely honest, I spent quite a bit of energy making sure I also looked like I was working my butt off. 

As it turns out, those aren’t actually the same thing.

I made sure I arrived early and stayed late. I pecked away on my laptop into the wee hours, long after Justin had gone to bed. I went through finals in the same hollow-eyed, bedraggled state of stress and exhaustion as most of my classmates did.

Most of my classmates. 

But not Garrett.

Garrett showed up in time for our first class and left promptly at 4:30pm each day. He was always neat and trim, with a well-packed lunch and a smile on his face. He did not study outside of the hours he spent at school because he had family duties and responsibilities that were important to him.

Also, he got better grades than I did.

Here’s the thing. 

Garrett and I had the same amount of work to do. And the same 24 hours in the day.

He just used his better.

And by better, I mean more intentionally. And without the need to somehow validate his efforts by looking like he was working oh-so-hard to the world.

Lately, I’ve felt inundated by yet another wave of the “hustle” message.

Maybe it’s the new year, or maybe it’s just the information I’ve been consuming, but it seems to be everywhere right now.

And I think it’s a crock of shit.

Actually, I think it’s it’s more than that, I think it’s a truly destructive message.

The “hustle” message tends to say a few specific things:

• work, work, work, and work some more 

• that you should be doing ALL of the things

• that if you really want something, there’s nothing you won’t sacrifice for it

Don’t get me wrong. I think the “hustle” message comes from a good place. I think it means well.

I just think it leaves a whole lot of important stuff out.

Yes, we must be willing to do the work our goals require of us. 

That might mean getting crystal clear and making some hard choices between and about our priorities. 

That might mean having to say “no” to some things we’d prefer not to have to say “no” to.

That might mean having to be willing to actively shut down distractions or fight our fear or overcome our self-sabotaging behaviors.  

BUT.

Working toward our goals does not require martyrdom.

It does not require destructive health habits like short sleep or lack of exercise or junk food eaten mindlessly in the middle of the night.

Working toward our goals does not require the sacrifice of relationships that matter to us, nor the self-care that keeps us whole and well.

As a matter of fact, those things are a guarantee that whatever forward progress is made while engaging in our martyrdom are likely to be up-ended eventually by illness, burnout, or by systemic inefficiencies.

To truly reach our goals, whether they're professional or personal, the work must be done in a sustainable way.

We are at our most creative- as thinkers, as problem solvers, as leaders, as humans- when we are whole and well. 

We operate at our highest level of focus and efficiency when we are healthy and rested.

We cope with obstacles and challenges best, even turn them to our advantage, when we are clear and sharp.

Would we expect a toddler who’d spent a day overstimulated and without enough sleep or a decent meal to operate as their best selves? Ummmmm, no. 

So why do we think we’re different as adults? That’s crazytown. Because we’re not different.

My law school habits were allllllll about the hustle. They were all about the validation my ego imagined it got when I said things like, “I’m sooooo busy” or “I’m working day and night” or whatever.

At the end of the day, I got some kind of satisfying little boost from all that martyrdom, but I didn’t really get what I actually wanted, which was a deeper understanding of the material and the skills necessary to be a great lawyer. And it came at a steep cost to my health and my well-being.

As it turns out, that “hustle” didn’t actually serve me at all.

Garrett, on the other hand, made some real choices. 

He was super friendly with everyone and hung out socially at the lunch table while he ate his lunch. But when he finished eating, he got up and got back to work while the rest of us continued talking, ostensibly about what we were learning, but often, not really. 

He was laser focused on the task at hand because he didn’t have time to mess around. He had until 4:30 pm to learn everything he needed to learn, and then his attention and energy was going to be focused on his family, because that was his highest priority.

He got crystal clear before he ever stepped foot into that law school about precisely what his priorities were (and weren’t) and that clarity allowed him to be far more disciplined and efficient with his time than most of the rest of us. 

It also meant that he was living a more whole life. He never came to class short on sleep or without have eaten a decent meal that I know of. Because he couldn’t cram for finals, he studied in the weeks ahead of time and came in rested and prepared. His questions in class were often more insightful than the rest of us.

Was he a smart guy? Hell, yes. But there’s a decent argument that there weren’t too many people in that law school who weren’t.

Garrett just saw through the “hustle” message long before the rest of us did, and because of it, brought his best self to bear on the work.

So let’s all be Garretts. 

Let’s call “bullshit” on the “hustle” message of sacrifice and martyrdom and instead bring our whole and healthy selves to our lives and our work and our goals. 

Let’s maximize our creativity, our insights, our efficiency, our productivity, and our time by making sure that we get what we need to stay well- physically, mentally, and emotionally.  

Let’s chuck the narrative of “the grind” out the door and recognize that when we make the sometimes difficult choices between and among our priorities, we actually have both enough time and enough energy for all of those things that are MOST important to us. 

Stay curious out there!