Did you know that hustle and hard work are NOT the same thing? 🙅🏼♀️🤯
One signifies hurriedness, while the other signifies endurance ⤵️
Words like "forceful," "hurried," "busy," and even "fraud" are used to describe what hustle is.
I see hustle as a state of being. It is frantic, chaotic, and "hurried," and it is based only in the short term. After all, you can only hurry for so long!
When we are hustling, we are only thinking about the end result 📍 We are thinking in 30-day sprints or 90-day pushes, which causes us to feel scattered, hurried, frantic, and pressured because we are only focusing on achieving the goal 📈
That energy is VERY different than the energy that comes with dedicated, hard work 🧘🏼♀️🌀
Hard work is you putting in the time and effort while keeping in mind that success isn't found in the outcome. It’s found in the daily action, and when you center your attention on the daily action, you can find joy in the process and in the journey (which requires endurance ⬆️).
Finding joy in the day-to-day keeps us grounded and consistent. There is no need to feel frantic or hurried when you know that the goal is already yours! It’s just a matter of time 👏🏼
I think it's important to note the difference between the two because the work of a person who is hustling and the work of a person who is working hard can look exactly the same!
It really comes down to that person's state of being in the work that makes all the difference (i.e. you either make your work, you accomplishments, etc. mean something about you, or you don't).
Of course, there will always be times when we put it more hours and work longer days, and there isn't anything wrong with that. It only becomes a problem when it is all-consuming, when you can't turn your brain off, when you're snapping at your family for "distracting" you, when you're working 80-hour weeks every single week, when you're just trying to hit the next metric.
Again, the two are not the same. Hustle is damaging and depleting, whereas hard work is fulfilling and purposeful.
You can be anti-hustle and pro-hard work! The two can co-exist. The difference lies in who you're being in the work.
If you are a service provider, creative entrepreneur, or small business owner who wants more tips and tricks like this sent straight to your inbox on a weekly basis, subscribe to my email community here.