Hustle Culture – n. “Also known as burnout culture and grind culture, hustle culture refers to the mentality that one must work all day every day in pursuit of their professional goals.”
Monster.com
Hustle culture glorifies making work the center of one’s life. The belief is something like: the harder you work, the more successful you are. Success = power; therefore, work harder = become more powerful.
But how much power do we really have? What are the risks with the Hustle Culture mentality?
Ari Blaff explains: “Hustle culture has convinced us that we are what we do and that our self-worth is inextricably linked to what we do…I create endlessly, never stopping to process and digest…When our entire identity becomes an extension of our LinkedIn bio, we prioritize our professional accomplishments above our familial and spiritual. Our definition of self-worth becomes anchored to things which have nothing to do with deeper happiness.”
In this week’s Parsha, Ekev, (Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25 ), Moshe tells the Jewish people that after they enter the land of Israel, they must:
“Take care lest you forget the Lord, your God … and you build good houses and … you increase silver and gold … and everything you have will increase … and you will forget the Lord, your God, who took you out of … Egypt from a house of slavery…”
Deuteronomy 8:11-14
When things are tough, it seems natural to say “G-d, why are you doing this to me?!” On the contrary, when things are going well, it is easy to forget the REAL source of our blessings – which is also G-d!
If we are always “hustling”, we may forget to give much-needed attention to our spiritual and personal lives (especially when we seem to be excelling!)
There is only so much hustling we can do. We put forth our effort, but it is G-d who decides whether we are actually successful or not.
Have you ever put all of your energy into a project, only to have it fall apart?
Have you ever put forth a minimal effort (or even zero effort), only to have an opportunity fall into your lap?
It is important to do our best to succeed in life. We naturally want to do well in our academics, our jobs, and our other life pursuits. But how hard do we need to “hustle”? Do we really need to “rise and grind?”
The Torah says that we need to make a reasonable effort.
Reasonable doesn’t mean devoting every drop of our energy to our work. It means a work-life balance. It means also taking care of your health, and your relationships – with yourself, with others, and with G-d.
It means deriving your self-worth from who you are, and who you are striving to become, not merely what you do.
It means remembering that our choices are in our hands, but our success is in G-d’s hands.
We have the power to try; to strive, to push ourselves to grow – but that power has a limit. Remembering this limit keeps us balanced and healthy.
As I’m fond of saying to my kids “We do our best, Hashem does the rest!”
Shabbat Shalom,
Danielle Altonaga
