🏃 To hustle or not to hustle?

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😮‍💨 A mental toll

Many young adults are ambitious go-getters with big dreams, but in the course of hustling, some fall prey to bouts of anxiety, social isolation and burnout. 😵‍

Earlier on October 28, Thrive held a fireside chat on “How Gen Zs can deal with anxiety and move forward in life” in conjunction with Mental Health Awareness Month.

On the panel were Jennifer Ong, founder and career coach at Ctrl Alt Career; Joy Ong, senior lead counsellor and family therapist at InspireJoy; and Clara Nah, health and fitness coach and wellness lead at Tzu Chi Humanistic Centre. Thrive’s editor Vivien Shiao served as moderator for the panel discussion. 

According to Joy Ong, anxiety is indeed on the rise today, as she sees more patients coming in to seek help. However, she notes that experiencing anxiety isn’t necessarily a bad thing. “Anxiety is actually a normal feeling, and is (meant to be) protective because it’s our body warning us of danger,” she explains. 

It only becomes an issue when these thoughts get so frequent that it stops you from carrying out your day-to-day activities.

The panellists agree that it’s important to nip such problems in the bud. Unfortunately, people often wait until they are on the brink of burnout before they start thinking of self-care, says Nah.

Joy Ong says that studies have found that people who burn out are usually the hardworking types who go in hard and give themselves little time to rest. In the end, it results in not just physical exhaustion, but emotional exhaustion from which they can’t bounce back as quickly.

As someone who experienced this first-hand early in her career, Jennifer Ong emphasises the importance of catching yourself before you get to that level of burnout or anxiety. 

Her advice for young adults is to figure out what their warning signs are, and to be mindful of scheduling time off to manage their mental well-being.

“I used to equate taking breaks with weakness, and that led me to burn out,” she says. “It was really when my body started shutting down that really taught me that resting is a strength.”

💡 But hard work is not a dirty word…

While burnout can be painful, we shouldn’t rush to demonise hard work. After all, in order to reach a certain level of success, we do need to work hard – the question is how to do so in a sustainable way.

Jennifer Ong observes that many young people are in fact unfazed by long hours, as long as this comes with a level of flexibility that satisfies them.

“When you’re younger, you might be looking not so much for work-life balance per se, but more control of your own time,” she says. 

Adding to that, Nah points out that hard work coupled with a sense of meaning and purpose is what gives us satisfaction in our lives. “It provides us with challenges to overcome, while we strive for mastery and growth.”

She further stresses that understanding our non-negotiables in work and life is central to allowing us to rest, recharge and thrive. “For example, my daily non-negotiables would be my morning routine, where I meditate and write in the morning journal, and having five- to 10-minute breaks throughout the day,” she shares. 

“Knowing how to carve out small ways to take care of yourself is important – self-awareness is key for that,” she adds.  

The way Nah sees it, how we view and engage with hard work is important in this conversation. “Hustling only becomes a problem when you sacrifice your well-being in the process and you reach that stage of burnout where you can’t continue anymore, to the point where you don’t even know what you’re hustling for,” she says.

So will you be working hard, or hardly working? No matter how hard you choose to hustle, keeping your mental health in check is crucial. You also need to understand your personal needs and goals to go the distance. Only then can you decide how to define hustling, work-life balance and success for yourself, instead of accepting what society prescribes.

TL;DR

• Hustle culture has a bad rep these days, particularly with issues like anxiety and burnout on the rise. 😰
• But figuring out the purpose behind the hard work you do is key. 💪
• Being self-aware of how much you need to push and rest is important to building a sustainable career and life. 
• Being clear on your personal needs and goals for the future is vital in creating your own version of long-term success.