Hustle culture is killing your creativity and damaging your mental health
“You just have to push a little harder, a little further, a little more” — People who don’t get that we’re human.
In freelancing, there’s this idea that you have to constantly be working on something, otherwise, you aren’t putting in enough work to be successful.
It’s a fundamental idea that’s woven into most advice for being a freelance writer. It’s also a terrible way to go about creating your career — especially when you don’t have the benefit of things like health insurance or a solid mental health situation.
You have to hustle, they say, to catch up — as if you’re already behind.
This is where we start to see the distinction between hustle culture and working hard on the things that matter to us. Because the latter is healthy, but hustle culture is often exploitative. It tells us that we aren’t inherently worthy of success. That those who don’t hustle can’t succeed. That the cost of hustling will pay off eventually.
It requires an inhuman amount of dedication.
I will admit that the overall sentiment (doing as much as you can to get your foot in the door) is necessary…
