**Hustling**

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[Source](https://unsplash.com/photos/dh8kAfBJu88)

Today, I’ll walk you through a part of my life. This might help you realize something. Or maybe you are wise enough. Either way, moving on. In your life, have you ever thought you were not fitting in? Were you sad, lonely, disheartened, depressed, and a dozen other words? Maybe yes, at least once in your life, you felt that. Which is completely fine. During that phase, you must have met people saying, don’t care about other people. Better yourself, make the best version of yourself, or anything that translates into self-development. And I’m sure lots of us have taken this suggestion. I did. What did it bring me?

I always tried to keep myself busy so that I wouldn’t get the thoughts where I realized I was left out or didn’t fit in. I wanted to evaluate myself as, yes, I am good enough, but I’m in the wrong place, so things are not going too well. Now, these events happening randomly are acceptable. But when you think like this about every place you go, that is a problem. Self-help is a good thing. If done correctly.

Think about my situation, when I was trying to keep busy so that I won’t get thoughts I didn’t want. I was engaged for being alive, not because I was doing some actual work. Do you see the point here? There is a term called “action faking”. It is to make your mind feel like you are working, you are busy, very productive, you don’t have time for being the social butterfly you were, but accomplishing nothing ultimately. You see, the busyness for being busy and the busyness for actually doing something are different. Like, reading multiple books on businesses instead of actually doing one, picking up your business cards from the printers before even making a sale, it’s like you create a random schedule, and after finishing it, you call it a day, no matter how much time is left of that day.

You make your brain feel like you are accomplishing something, but what’s the point of business cards if you haven’t even done any business yet? Podcasts are a good source of information. But you don’t need to listen to every podcast before making a move. These things might get you some temporary motivation, but soon enough, you’ll realize you haven’t achieved anything. Yes, this all happened to me. The only good it did to me is that I got better at convincing myself I am productive instead of actually being one. And this trap is straightforward to fall into.

Suddenly my mind went to business, and it still is, scouring the internet for the next big thing. The next bubble to ride on and finally say, “I’ve made it”. People look for tutorials to unlock their charisma. Search for meditations to make them focused. All in the urge to get that little confidence to keep going. The self-help industry is a billion-dollar industry. People feed off your constant notion of being the best version of yourself. They give you motivational quotes and positivity, saying thinking negatively is a step backwards. Now you have your temporary motivation, you work, and a while later, you’re back with the videos and blogs. They don’t give you the reality because they need you to come back every once in a while to watch their content.

Then comes the toxic hustle culture. The first thing coming to your mind upon hearing hustle is, work, work and more work. Rich people don’t sleep much. And work 80 hours a week. They want you to work like hell. It’s all okay. Only if you’re actually achieving something. But you work 80 hours a week just because that’s what rich people do. On the 81st hour, you will realize you accomplished nothing or very little in value. The whole culture of self-development and hustling 24/7 has made people less interactive with each other. Take me, for example. I have minimized exposure to people and feel drained quickly from the constant urge to be productive. It’s straightforward to be distracted by all that work blindly hard stuff you see around you. It looks cool and makes you feel better. But I, as a victim of this rat race, can tell you this. Work hard on actually achieving something instead of working hard to just be able to say, “I work hard”.

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