It’s a Monday morning, laying on my toddlers bedroom floor, he and I cuddled together, staring out the window watching the snowfall, I realized this is the pace of life I was meant to live and have been missing.
I’ve spent years building my businesses. I built them to have time, to have freedom & to be able to be present for my family.
My most recent one was built during the first year of my child’s life.
In therapy (yes, therapy) I cried because looking at pictures of my beautiful baby, I couldn’t remember all the stages and milestones.
My brain had been consumed with one word. A word our society glorifies. Something that makes us feel important. If we master it, we are told we are successful.
HUSTLE.
I hustled. I hustled hard. I had huge months. I had many 5 figure months. I was busy. I was stressed. I was angry. I was running myself into the ground.
I finally broke.
I thought I was dying. Actually dying. To the point I was afraid my child would grow up not knowing who I was.
I paid THOUSANDS of dollars, seeing so many doctors that my schedule consisted of at least 2-3 appointments a week…for months!
No one found anything but they all asked the same things.
“Are you taking time to take care of yourself? Are you getting sleep? Do you ever take time off?”
You see, the answer to all these were a big fat NO.
I was addicted to hustling, to feeling and seeming important. Successful people were always busy right? So I was always busy! I was grinding. At night I’d go to bed and be thinking of work, customers, my team, sales numbers, emails I needed to write and then my health fears would take over, inevitably my child would wake up at some point & sleep would be a lost cause.
But this is what we are taught. If you “work hard” you’ll be rewarded. “Good things come to those who hustle.”
It’s not true. None of it. Nothing has to be hard. Hard is a choice. Hard is a mindset.
You can also choose to let things be easy. You can choose to work smart, to set boundaries. You can choose your feelings. You can say “NO.” You can work in flow.
You see stress, anger and frustration that come from hustle may short term create success but it’s not sustainable. It creates negativity long term and negative energy cannot attract positivity. Basic law of attraction & frequency energy.
I was given a new mission because I believe we grow through what we go through. My mission is to support other women in business to learn they don’t have to accept “hard” or “hustle” as part of their vocabulary.
All of this started with freeing myself.
Slow down.
Breathe.
Stop to glorification of hustle.
Life’s too short for that.
Dorothy C. Booth 