How to Hustle and Still Reclaim the Rest of You
In several conversations I had with family and friends during a recent family wedding weekend, I heard the same sentiment expressed – with great enthusiasm – three times:
Head of Wealth Management: “We’re so busy! More and more customers want us and they want me to take care of them. I love it!”
CEO of an engineering company: “I haven’t been in my backyard hot tub in 10 years. I’m always working, that’s what I do!”
Musical talent Solopreneur: “I get text messages and calls around the clock. I’m always in, it’s the entertainment business. It is great!”
Most notably, all three of these hard-nosed entrepreneurial leaders seemed genuinely enthusiastic about their hustle and bustle. They thrived on the rush and success – the more the merrier!
Maybe you know this feeling too, it can be addictive. However, it can also cause you to repress the rest of your personality and confuse your role with your identity. It can burn you and your team. And it can make your happiness dependent on the results of your work.
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How does your self-image relate to your role in the company?
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Can you stay happy even when the results of your hard work aren’t what you want?
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Is your corporate culture closer to cultivating balance or burnout?
5 Amare Steps to Healthy Hustle and Reclaiming YOU
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Find the unspoken payoff. Think what you can avoid with all the rush and total focus on work. Be extra kind to yourself with this one; it can produce significant and sometimes painful insights.
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Make a small change. Pick one small and simple thing to shake up your super-busy routine: take a five-minute lunch walk, mute your phone for an hour… you decide. Then do it and give yourself a tiny reward for reclaiming that part of you.
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Watch out for the bungee cord. List three things you can do when a familiar inner voice tries to lure you back into the old constant rush. Think about confidently thanking and rejecting that voice, moving your energy, leaving self-motivating notes, etc.
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Hustle hard – without attachment. Aim for great success, plan for it, work hard for it – and know that your worth does not depend on it. The best thing you can do is do your best.
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Great Miracle. Ask yourself what might happen if you made a little more space for other ways to feel alive, fulfilled, and worthwhile. (Is that a little smile I see on you?)
The best leaders can work hard and give it their all without losing who they are or confusing business results with self-esteem. This is a powerful demonstration of self-love and a crucial aspect of love-driven leadership.