Unsubscribing from the Hustle

by Jay Brown of Mindfraime

• Rise and grind.

• Work hard, play hard.

• No days off.

• Hustlers don’t sleep, they take naps

These are just some of the many phrases that shaped my 20+ years journey as an entrepreneur and ultimately every aspect of my life. A journey that included working with household names and brands like Beyoncé, Jamie Foxx, Facebook, Airbnb, and many other “big” names. Names I chased as a result of the hustle.

For a long time, I never questioned the path I had taken toward “success”. It just seemed like the normal thing to do, especially since I had tasted what others considered as important ingredients to becoming successful.

Maybe I hadn’t endured enough pain or loneliness to question it, or maybe I just became so well adapted to the chaos that came with the life of a hustler. Even though I went through many periods of being broke, feeling incredibly lonely, and watching many promising ventures eventually crumble, I never suspected it was because I had subscribed to the hustler mentality.

Being a hustler enabled me to generate considerable amounts of income and raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the companies I founded. Combine that with the fact that hustlers are put on a pedestal and handsomely rewarded in our culture, why would I ever think twice about it?

My relentless pursuit of business, wealth, and recognition left little room for nurturing relationships, pursuing passions, or simply chillin the fuck out.

Because of this hustler mindset, I constantly had in the back of my mind a drive to find the next opportunity or thoughts of work I needed to do to move current projects forward.

It’s been a wild roller coaster ride to live the life of a hustler - filled with exhilarating highs and extreme lows.

But I never tried to change it because I didn’t know any other way. Until now.

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HOW THE HUSTLER MENTALITY SLOWLY DESTROYS US

When I think about the life of a hustler, the metaphor of the boiling frog comes to mind. If you don’t know the metaphor, it says that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will immediately jump out to save itself. But if you place a frog in lukewarm water and slowly increase the temperature, the frog will acclimate to the rising heat until it eventually boils to death without realizing the danger until it's too late. This has been my experience with living the hustler life and now that I can see the temperature of the water rising around me - I’m gettin my ass out of pot before it’s too late!

With that said, here are some of the warning signs to help you recognize if you’re in the pot and the water temperature is rising.

• Constant Stress: Although stress is natural, being constantly stressed isn’t healthy. Unfortunately, society normalizes this way of being, which makes it really hard to recognize. Stress is like a check engine light for human beings, signaling to us when we’re out of alignment with our Soul. The signals are experienced as overwhelm, burnout, and eventually, dis-ease. I write more about this in my last memo: The Greatest Obstacle To Your Creative Endeavors Is...

• Inability to Chill the F out: If you find yourself restless when trying to relax because you feel like you should be doing something, you probably have a hustler's mentality. It could be the result of a scarcity mechanism. Deep down, you believe that if you’re not moving and taking action, you’ll lose out on opportunities or your needs will not be met. This leads to exhaustion, procrastination, shame, and self-judgment, which depletes life force energy and prevents you from taking meaningful action.

• Lack of Deep Relationships: The hustler mentality leaves little time for meaningful connections, resulting in loneliness, disconnection and very few to zero meaningful relationships. Another common problem is finding yourself struggling to be fully present while hanging with friends, a romantic partner, your kids, or other family members.

• Valuing Actions over Being: The hustler mentality causes you to focus attention on external accomplishments, talents, and capabilities instead of internal attributes like capacity for love, compassion, generosity, and authenticity. If you're judging others in this way, chances are you're holding yourself to the same standards. You believe that in order to be loved and accepted, you must do something of value versus just being yourself. This mindset promotes transactional relationships with both yourself and others, depriving you of genuine connections - the essence of a fulfilling, joyful, and purposeful existence.

• Perpetuating The Hustle: One of the main reasons you might find yourself caught up in the hustle, as I have, is because it's deeply embedded in Western culture. By continuing to live this lifestyle, we endorse its normalization and its adoption by others. As a consequence, we pass these values on to our children and those around us, perpetuating the cycle.

If you're like me when I discovered I had a hustler mentality, you might be feeling a bit worried, ashamed, and more anxious about your actions and the consequences you might face if you keep going down this path. But no need to worry, your life could change in an instant.

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LIFE AFTER THE HUSTLE

Let’s imagine what life could look like when you let go of the hustler mentality. I’ll use a computer analogy to illustrate what’s possible. Similar to a computer slowing down when you have a bunch of tabs open in your web browser, our thoughts about tasks, failures, worries, judgments, and emotions are like open tabs. Continuously contemplating on thoughts is similar to running too many applications, which prevents you from optimal performance and information processing.

Now, picture this:

• Because you are free from a cluttered mind, you become more efficient and only have to work a few hours a day to achieve your professional goals.

• You’re operating like a supercomputer, where one action produces wayyyyyy more, completing tasks in 5-10 mins instead of an hour.

• With a mind free of clutter, imagine relishing in the process as you tackle tasks, rather than solely finding satisfaction from their completion. Embracing this approach allows you to infuse your efforts with greater vibes, thereby elevating the caliber of your work.

• Once your needs are fulfilled and you lead a more relaxed and laid-back lifestyle, your decreased stress levels allow you to be more engaged in your relationships. This cultivates deeper connections, which are essential for sustaining happiness and fulfillment in life.

• You gain significantly greater enjoyment from life, even in mundane experiences. This is a result of having more inner space mentally and emotionally to fully embrace the wide range of experiences that life continually presents to you.

• When you've embraced a hustler mentality, it disturbs your well-being, causing you to lose touch with your authentic self. This lifestyle depletes essential life force energy needed for your body to operate properly, clear thinking, and overall health. Releasing this mentality preserves this energy, improving physical and mental health, relationships, and productivity.

Personally, my goal is to dedicate 3-4 hours daily to my work, while generating $50-$100k per month with a profit margin of 90% or more, all while running a one-person business. I’m shooting for this because I've let go of the belief that I must hustle for 10-12-16 hour days to fulfill my needs. My goal is to create more time and space to prioritize self-mastery, nurture meaningful relationships, and pursue my passions.

While some might perceive everything I outlined above as unrealistic, I get why you might think this way. But consider the example of the 4-minute mile: Many thought it was impossible until someone shattered the record. Soon after, there were many individuals who achieved the feat.

Yet and still, I want to acknowledge that some individuals face exceptionally challenging circumstances that would make it difficult to create such a life. I believe that anything is possible, especially when you have a well-defined plan in place. So let’s dive into what steps are necessary to let go of the hustler mentality.

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HOW TO UNSUBSCRIBE FROM THE HUSTLE

The first thing to consider is gaining clarity regarding the kind of life you want to live once you've freed yourself from the hustle. Surprisingly, many individuals neglect to envision their ideal life, making it challenging to bring it forth into reality.

Step 1: If there were no limitations and you had all the resources you needed, write out in as much detail as possible your ideal life.

Step 2: As you do step 1, pay attention to the mechanisms (limiting beliefs, narratives, stories) that cause you to have fear, worry, doubt, judgement, etc., toward the ideal life you are imagining.

Step 3: Measure the strength of your belief in achieving your ideal life on a scale of 1 to 10. 1 indicates the lowest level of belief and 10 represents 100% confidence. Be honest with yourself. Lying to yourself will only keep you caught up in the life you don’t want to be living.

The first two steps are necessary to assess the level of belief you are holding toward the ideal life you’d like to live. It may already be obvious to you, but you need to hold a strong belief that you could live the ideal life you imagine. If you desire to live a life that is YOURS, you must not underestimate the power of belief and faith.

Otherwise, you will only draw forth experiences that reflect your lack of belief and soon you’ll find yourself falling back into the thoughts and behaviors that resulted in the life you are wanting to change.

Step 4: Once you complete the earlier steps and realize you’re not at a 10, take note of the mechanisms (limiting beliefs, narratives, stories) that block you from being a 10. Reflect on your daily activities and ask: does each task lift me up, leave me neutral, or bring me down?

When a task feels like a "lift," get after it!

If the feeling is neutral, consider revisiting it later so you can take more time to reflect on it.

Any tasks that lower your vibe are often driven by negative mechanisms. Drop them completely or engage only when you feel uplifted.

Most importantly, take the time to reflect on why you're considering these tasks in the first place; doing so enables you to better understand the core beliefs that are the reason you are living the life you currently live. Awareness and deep understanding of these mechanisms allows you to disengage from them so that you can free yourself and strengthen the beliefs that are aligned with your desired life.

Step 5: After identifying your ideal life and any mechanisms that prevent you from fully believing you could have such a life, outline short and long-term goals to guide your actions towards your ideal life. Then, create daily tasks and projects aimed at achieving these goals.

Step 6: In my opinion, the following step is the most important when unsubscribing from the hustle mentality.

This step involves recognizing your connection to a universal system which enables you to trust that Life will provide for your essential needs when you align with it.

Think of trees, who are anchored in one place for their entire life, yet are able to receive all they need to thrive because of their alignment to this system.

Re-orienting in this way frees you from being dependent on external sources such as individuals, governmental entities, or organizations to get your needs met. It also releases you from the idea that you must exert control, force, or serve as the sole creator of your necessities. You can then relax into the flow of Life as you embrace your true self, and generously share your talents and gifts without being blocked by feelings of scarcity or lack.

This is the roadmap I'm using to unsubscribe from the hustler mentality.

Although the steps are over-simplified, you can rely on this roadmap to untangle the hustle mentality. It's the same formula myself and my clients have used to successfully change other aspects of our lives. At the same time, I understand some may need additional guidance and support. If that’s you, apply here to receive my consulting or sign up for my 3 month Creatorship program.

Keep in mind, your life won’t change overnight with this roadmap. It may take time to undo years of conditioning. But if you prioritize and dedicate time to the process daily, you’ll be surprised by how soon you might begin seeing some real change.

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