Hustle Is Important But Not That Important
Are you familiar with Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?
Quick summary:
Abraham Maslow was a Psychologist who was able to illustrate a simple order of human needs that could play a huge role in motivation, emotions, and decision making behavior.Basically, you need your basics met first. Like food and shelter.Then you need your social and emotional needs met, like family and friends.Only after that can you go after other things like advancing your career or becoming your best self.We fluctuate up and down these rings of the Pyramid of the Hierarchy of Needs throughout our lives so don’t be fooled into thinking once you’re up, you’re up for good.
Here’s how this relates to hustle, motivation, and your career:
It’s the same with your work ethic, your attitude and your intentions.To be “successful” in your own eyes, you need to work hard. That has to be the first part of the equation.But after that, you need to get adequate rest and recovery.After that you can go after gains in performance and career.After that, you can say “no” to opportunities and narrow your priorities.
Quick pause to focus on the punchline:
I’m sure this all makes sense but I want to be really clear about the process and the order in which all of this can happen.There is a TON of advice out there saying things like “you should say ‘yes’ to every opportunity!”There an equal amount of opinion saying you should “say ‘no’ to more opportunities!”
Not only do you need to figure out what works for you but you need to figure out what works for you right now.
Remember that a lot of advice is “here are the 8 numbers I used to win the lottery” and won’t apply to you, your industry, your decade, your team, or your circumstance.That doesn’t mean don’t try.It means try more.
2 Minute Action
Where are you in the hierarchy of needs?Do you have your basics met?If not, it might be time to reset your goals to focus only on basic needs.If so, it might be time to get out of your comfort zone and push yourself.Identify this today.Your next moves will be clear, guilt-free, and easier to execute after you do.
The Reason I’m Not Crazy For Loving Monday
Now, wait and hear me out . . .Monday is special because it does something no other day of the week does.
It gives you a fresh start.
Even if you know you have a new start everyday, we all still feel how Monday is the psychological starting block for the week.Today is the day!
It’s your chance to be a slightly better version of who you were last week.
It’s your chance to experiment and try something new.It’s your chance to recalibrate your goals.Today is the day.Let’s roll this into action.
Most peoples’ goals center around 3 things:
Fitness, Career, Travel/Bucket list.Here are things you can do to move toward any of those in 2 minutes or less.
2 Minute Action
Do pushups, burpees, or lunges for 2 minutes.Set up a meeting with your supervisor (or mentor, or colleague, or professor, etc.) to talk about your future and how to get where you want to go.Look at your calendar, pick a date in the future (it can be really far in the future, that’s fine) for your bucket list item. Create a savings plan, invite your friends, and make it real!Today is Monday!Get out of the gate strong, today.
Understand These 3 Concepts And Move On From Anything
Sometimes you just take a beating.
It’s not always because of anything you can control—it’s just part of operating in a world with other sentient beings and physical forces.
Pretending it didn’t hurt or avoiding the process of understanding where the pain comes from just makes it worse later on.
What’s difficult is spending your whole life converting the operations around you into processes you can control, being successful at it, and then facing something painful and uncontrollable.
Learning to let things go and move on is just one of those things that takes a lifetime to which to adjust.
Sure there are some skills we can master while we’re here, but there’s really no end point.
The only "point of arrival" is the end of life, really.
- You can get in shape, but you can’t ever finish eating healthily.
- You can work nights to pay for college, but you can’t ever spend enough on your kid’s education.
- You can become a race car driver, but you can still get rear-ended at a stop sign.
The goal then, shouldn’t just be to take control of everything, but to understand what we can and can’t achieve—and then spend our resources moving toward those achievable goals.
In the meantime, while we’re moving, it’s good to remember that we sometimes take a beating regardless of how reasonable the goal is.
In fact, we might get beat up just sitting at home where we thought it was safe.
So, it’s not useful to drop out when it hurts. Pain just doesn’t have a good enough correlation with circumstance to be the only factor in our decision.
It also helps, while we’re moving, to remember that adjusting to pain isn’t like flipping a light switch. It takes time and the amount of time it takes varies based on circumstance, personal experience, and predisposition.
Some lessons to take away from this:
- Pain feels like an indication that we should change direction or hide but that’s not always the case.
- Staying at home or avoiding risk can still lead to pain, so you might as well work hard to achieve what you want.
- Being at peace with an imperfect world doesn’t mean you are eternally and outwardly happy, it just means you accept the often unfair pains of life.
2 Minute Action
Reach out to someone who is in pain and let them know you’re on their team.
Take a risk (it can be a small one) that you have been considering or avoiding.
Execute a small and possibly random act of kindness.
I promise you don’t need more than 2 minutes to do any of these.
That part is all in your head.
Today is up to you and you can completely transform your outlook and chances of success in 2 minutes or less.