Active Rest: An Extracted Chapter from Unfussy Life

My first book, Unfussy Life: An Intuitive Approach to Navigating Change, just turned FOUR this week.

To celebrate, I’m sharing some of the extracted chapters.

Alright, here’s one of the extracted chapters…

Psst… Read until the end and I’ll share some insights on why I pulled this one out.

Originally written in 2018.

Skip the hustle

Hustle, crush, boss, slay, grind — gross.

If you ever hear me recommending any of these ideas to you, please make sure I’m not having a stroke. When climbing the corporate ladder, I worked 40-hour weeks (37.5-hour weeks in Canada since that was the standard). One company I worked for expected us consultants to bill at least 45 hours per week — yes, at least. I lasted three years. The most hours I’d ever clock on a packed week would be 50-60 hours, and that was pretty rare. If that happened one week, that meant that the next week, I’d dial it back. 

When I was growing my business on the side, my total number of work hours was higher than usual — 40 hours for my day job plus 5-10 hours a week to grow my business. This was temporary, and I could only work for so long before I started getting cranky and my work started to suffer. 

A breakneck pace of work isn't sustainable. When people say they’re grinding, hustling, slaying, I cringe. This could be an addiction to being busy. Does hustling make us feel more important or valued? Being addicted to the grind when really, if you look closer, you'd find you're unproductive after a certain point.

What's the point in working yourself to the bone when you don't get to enjoy this moment — the one in front of you?

If you're constantly working, maybe it's 7 days a week, or maybe it’s 12 hours a day.

What is it that you're avoiding that has you so focused on work? Are you avoiding your family? Are you avoiding facing the fact that you really hate your work, boss, or job?

There are endless reasons why you might be hustling — and there’s something to be said for slowing down and working at a pace that won't leave you working from bed with pneumonia.

How can you build work around your life on your terms so that it puts you back in the driver's seat?

If you slow down and deliberately take time away from your work or from a problem you've been stuck on, you’ll come to answer more quickly. Just like if you think you don't have time to take a break is when you actually need one the most — more than ever.

When your days are so jam-packed that you don't have time to think or rest your thinking brain, you become a machine.

Netflix became the choice for workaholics. When we’re working so much that we find ourselves working every night and all weekend long watching Netflix marathons, something is broken.

When people are talking about the hustle, they could very well be addicted to that feeling of working themselves to the bone.

You might see big names working like dogs talking about how they're always working — they're not doing us any favors. All this tells us is that we need to be burning the candle at both ends.

Are your workaholic ways helping you get ahead, or do you just feel like you're spinning your wheels? If you're a workaholic because you're in love with your craft, that's cool, but if you're a workaholic because the rest of your life sucks and you have nothing else to live for, maybe it's time to reevaluate your priorities.

If you slow down, you'll speed up your progress.

Perhaps counterintuitive, but I've seen it in my work as I build and grow a business. When I deliberately take time away, keep the laptop closed, and in another room on the weekend, I can return to my work on Monday morning with a new perspective than if I had been grinding harder.

Find things you’re really good at AND solve a problem. To find the intersection of where you can make money to support yourself and your life, even if you love watching Netflix and are really good at it, you're not going to get paid for doing that —so you'd better get out there to find something else to do that will support your life.

We wear the hustle with our business badge — like a boy scout or girl guide wearing these batches of workaholism and addiction to the grind like a badge of honor. There is no prize. The badge is your own.

It’s kind of like creating your own participation ribbon and handing it to yourself instead of earning your success. 

Why I removed this chapter

Other sections cover overworking and burnout, and this would have been “extra” — and not necessary to keep driving the same point home.

Grab Unfussy Life on Amazon. <<That’s an affiliate link. If you click it and make a purchase, I might earn a small commission.