The End of Hustle Culture

Moving Out of the Overwhelm of Workaholism

As the Mountain Earth 20-year cycle comes to a close, I will be writing a series of blogs about this personal element and its effect on humanity and the world over the past two decades. This is the first in a series of many The End of an Era blogs. Then, next year I will start sharing about the coming twenty years of "Future Prosperity" brought to us by the "Clinging" Fire element.

In this blog...

After nearly two decades of hustling, people are overwhelmed and work weary, bone-tired and completely burnt out. And rightly so! The glorification of busyness and prioritizing work over everything (and everyone) else, to feed the insatiable hunger for more, has done irreparable damage to people's relationships and destroyed their health. 

In the process of getting their piece of the action, they lost years of their life they'll never get back. Their need (and greed) for money took precedence over having meaningful relationships and memorable life experiences.They got the fancy houses and luxury cars they have to keep working hard to pay off and travel first class to expensive vacations they're too distracted to be present enough to enjoy. And along the way they developed mental health issues, burnt out their adrenals, depleted their energy and compromised their personal wellbeing. In pursuit of a larger quantities of things and the acquisition of bigger and better stuff, their quality of life was sacrificed on the altar of peak performance, scalable business models and maximum financial success. 

More and more people are beginning to admit that their highly productive, money driven, super busy lifestyle is unhealthy and unsustainable. Suddenly everyone is having panic attacks and coming forward with their paramedics or emergency room stories. They are attempting to explain their severe imbalances by trying to normalize their debilitating mental disorders like depression or anxiety, declaring they're neurodivergent, identifying as dysphoric or claiming to have had undiagnosed ADD or ADHD their entire lives. They post their pill and encourage you to see a drug prescribing (pushing and dealing) allopathic doctor so you too can join the medicated masses and become dependent on BIG pHARMya. 

The most strategic recovering workaholics use their stories of ending up in doctor's offices or on psychiatrist's couches or surgeon's tables to promote their new program all about how to do it all and get it all done but in a hustle-free kind of way...of course! They would never miss out on the opportunity to capitalize on the new trend of intentional living and slow work, especially when they can offer the exhausted a way to keep producing, this time prioritizing quality over quantity, but without getting sick and tired. Learn how to be a time genius, honor what really matters and do the most important thing first, all for the low, low price of thousands of dollars. Don't wait, the cart is closing soon!

What's even more interesting is observing people who are not Mountain Earth elements try to emulate what they see these toxic positive and toxic productive people model as the right, best and ONLY way to succeed in life and business. One of them talks about how much she HATES launching multiple times per year but does it anyway, because no matter how consciously manipulative, FOMO sales tactics do work and they make her so much money she just can't say no millions.

You see, hustling is a one size fits all approach to wealth building. You have to work hard to generate income and produce results. Because you're made for more. Otherwise you're lazy, lack ambition or don't have what it takes to reach the top of your personal mountain of gold. So say the empire builders...running on fumes to yet another finish line.

Information Superhighway

If Mother Earth is the terrain, then Mountain Earth is the digital road map, the information superhighway. The invention of the Internet provided people with the ability to look for and find the information they were searching for, themselves. No longer were people dependent on the government or alphabet agency controlled media, academia or other accredited and licensed gatekeepers of truth or the official narrative confirming and promoting "authorities" and "experts". We had access to the thoughts and ideas of fellow critical thinkers, reports of the facts from citizen journalists and revelations of hidden knowledge from independent researchers. The Information Age provided the freedom we needed to educate and empower ourselves with true knowledge that sometimes conflicts with the consensus we were all taught in school. 

The Internet became the great equalizer. No longer was information locked up in private libraries or hidden on remote academic islands, previously only accessible by the very rich and privileged sect of elites, intellectuals, scholars and secret society members. It provided people with online platforms so they could easily share their own findings, do their own research, contribute to information gathering, search for knowledge, discover truth, disclose lies and help guide people toward areas of interest on the world wide treasure map. Keywords and hashtags function like the X that marks the spot, helping us quickly pinpoint what we're looking for and join the ongoing conversation in the comment sections.

The Internet emerged in 1970s but it didn't become visible to the general public until the early 1990s. The personal computer became popular in the '80's and by 1993, America was online. It's estimated that by 2020, more than half of the world’s population had access to the Internet. 

Facebook was started on February 4, 2004. This is the exact day the Mountain Earth 20-year cycle officially began. This popular social media platform was closely followed by YouTube, founded almost exactly a year later in early 2005.

With the advent of the Internet a lot people have became self-made millionaires, multi-millionaires and billionaires through dotcom start ups to small online businesses. Today, anyone can have a website, a social media presence, an online business or store, etc. All you need is a laptop, or even a phone, and an Internet connection. 

Digital Prostitution

The Internet not only surveils and monetizes our online browsing and behaviors, search queries and social media posts, it also connects us to the world with just a few clicks. It's what has allowed the average person to make themselves go viral with a single selfie and cancel themselves with a single TikTok video. People have gotten rich by oversharing their personal life, marketed as self-help or overcharging for insights on their journey from rags to riches, marketed as THE (instead of their) secret to success. 

Monetizing every aspect of life has become a global phenomenon. Everyone, from college students to stay-at-home moms, are trying to capitalize on this trend. No skills? No worries. Film yourself vacuuming your house in leggings and slippers. Not enough money to rent or buy a house? Make videos about van life. Don't dream of labor? Record your rants about being a victim of the patriarchy or capitalism or whatever you can think of to blame your lack adulting abilities.

Everyone is selling something. And for the past decade or so, it's been themselves, literally. Their private lives, even their private parts, are on full public display for all the world to see...but for a price, of course! (As if the Internet is not forever!) From DITL video channels to family vloggers' exploitation of their children, people have sold their soul to the social media algorithms. From soft pornographic Instagram thirst trap selfies to the digital prostitution of Only Fans, where women get paid to feed the voracious male gaze and create a breeding ground for their unquenchable lust, people have proven how low they will stoop make a buck. Getting naked for the voyeuristic fans and paying peeping toms, all in the name of female empowerment is the epitome of the element with the highest sex drive.

I feel as if I were disgraced forever. What do you think a mother would feel like if she found her child tattooed over with a baking powder advertisement? I feel just the same. I loved my poor little story, and I wrote it out of the best that was in me. And it is SACRILEGE to have it degraded to the level of a baking powder advertisement. Don't you remember what Professor Hamilton used to tell us in the literature class at Queen's? He said we were never to write a word for a low or unworthy motive, but always to cling to the very highest ideals.

~ Anne Shirley

Whether it's affiliate links or sponsored content from paid partnerships, career "influencers" and full-time content creators take advantage of their captive audience's attention by including a sales ad and promo code in their every post or upload. Once they have enough subscribers, YouTubers monetize their channel, submitting viewers to a series of obnoxious ads that interrupt their beautiful works of art, so they can earn Google Ad Sense revenue and further enable mass consumerism. While some YouTubers use their channel as a free avenue to market their book, online course or services or drive traffic to their blog or website, for most of them, making videos about their life for their channel is their day job. For still others, establishing a base of loyal subscribers and promoting their channel to attract more new viewers is the primary way they find the people who will support them on Patreon, so they can generate a consistent and growing monthly income in exchange for creating and providing exclusive content.

The Glorification of Busy

We've seen a huge rise in time management and productivity experts over the past two decades. This is because Mountain Earth elements are physically focused, action oriented and results driven workaholics who prioritize generating income and building wealth through income producing activities, making to do lists and getting it all done. They can always do more. And they will always want more. Enough is never enough.

They are your busybodies. They're always busy doing something. Always too busy for anything outside of their work and multiple side hustles. They'll talk to you if they think they can sell you something or enroll you in their latest money making venture. Otherwise, these are your text only, or even worse, email only "friends", that ghost you and seldom even acknowledge, let alone reply to messages. That's one way to set some boundaries! The other is staying inside their safe space or self-quarantining inside their "bubble" with only the essential members of their entourage. 

They stay busy to avoid making real connections. Connections with people that might need more than they have the time and energy to provide. And connections between the dots that happens only when you pause long enough to be with yourself and your own thoughts. Because when you keep busy you don't have to make any changes that come with pattern recognition and self-awareness. So, they wait until they have shut everyone out of their lives or become so ill they can no longer work and are forced to rest and ask for help from others.

Self-Help Gurus

We've also seen throngs of personal development teachers and self-help gurus who like to interview and promote each other on their platforms and podcasts. This is because the Mountain Earth element is related with self-empowerment and self-mastery through education, especially self-knowledge though self-study courses and self-disciples like meditation and martial arts.

These are the people who write autobiographical books or memoirs about their life and market them in the self-help genre. Or, they read books and consume content and then repackage or straight up plagiarize other people's work to sell under their own personal brand. Then, they start giving wrong or bad advice about topics they have no formal education in. And when they get called out for not have any credentials or real expertise, just personal experience and anecdotal evidence, they immediately reframe what they do as just "sharing their journey". 

My personal favorite? The 20-something vegan who hasn't a had a normal menstrual cycle in years because of malnutrition and claims to be asexual, promoting juice cleanses, coconut water fasting and the raw vegan lifestyle as the only way to be healthy and a good human. Then, starts eating animal protein again and not only gets her period back but gets pregnant. Imagine that!

Many of these self-proclaimed gurus pivoted from some unfulfilling profession or failing business to become a published author or public speaker. Some got their start by sharing their story about how they helped themselves do things like...getting out of bed in the morning with the help of a count down. That gem is from a former attorney who now gives mental health advice and high 5s. Then, there's the former life coach who has been giving online business advice with a side of hip-hop and thinks everyone has the same 24 hours as an affluent, childless woman. And let's not forget the event planner who used to give motivational speeches about being made for more and now can't fill even small auditoriums after faking the highly valuable relatability factor. 

Hunbots & The Hustle

The world has been dominated by hustle culture for the past twenty years. Everyone's doing the hustle. If you don't have at least one side hustle, you're missing out on great opportunities to make massive amounts of money and have "a business and a life you love"! 

Hustlers are entrepreneurs who employ high pressure sales tactics and predatory business practices. Theses are the network marketers who sell you on a business opportunity when what you're really agreeing to is becoming a consumer, spending money to make money by going on autoship to qualify for commission. Then, there's the boss babes who are obsessed with their narcissist image and social status, making millions off people with social comparison envy and building their personal empires. 

Hunbots, with their "hey girl" texts and toxic positivity are some of the worst offenders. These young to middle aged women, mostly mothers, claim to have their own business but actually try to sell MLM company products to friends and family. And when they run out of warm market contacts they start targeting and spamming people on social media. And who can blame them? The cost of living keeps going up and people need additional sources of income just to pay the bills. (Been there, done that! In fact I joined my first company as a teenager and spent far more on health and beauty products than I ever made in commissions.) 

These are the hustlers who see dollar signs when they meet new people (potential customers and business builders). They'll invite you to an infomercial or sales pitch disguised as a free class or webinar. (Been there and done that too! In fact, I wrote my first class about holistic skincare at the age of 19. I focused on education and providing valuable information. Never made any money at it myself, just helped qualify my upline for their bonus checks and incentives.)

Pushy sales tactics have become the modus operandi of business in the last two decades. This type of marketing works by applying enough pressure to generate huge sales at punishing speeds and rapid rates. These unethical business practices use psychological pressure like pain points or speaking to a potential customer's fear, greed or pride to sell a product or service.

I'm a graduate of Marie Forleo's B School. I learned a lot, mostly what not to do. What she teaches works for a lot of profit driven entrepreneurs who like doing what everyone is doing, even if they don't resonate with the marketing methods. Others know that putting the word AUTHENTIC in front of fear of missing something isn't conscious marketing; it's consciously manipulative marketing.

Mountain Earth elements know how to do the hustle. They will bust their ass to "make that money hunny". And they do work their ass off, doing multiple jobs and taking on as many side hustles as they possibly can. I even heard one Mountain Earth element say she would sell her ass to make ends meet.

The Great Resignation

When it comes to work, there seems to be two opposing povs - living to work and working to live. And these approaches to work and life reside at the two extremes: excessive workaholism that puts people into an early grave and the wholesale rejection of labor culture expressed though the newest trend of "quiet quitting". While some work 80+ hour weeks, other entry level workers are "acting their wage", showing up for their 9-5 job but doing as little actual work as possible.

There’s the hustle culture crowd who are obsessed with their productive morning routines, "atomic habits" and time management systems. They work long days and late nights, through lunch breaks and on the weekends, even on their vacations. And they employ predatory, manipulative and high pressure sales tactics to make the 6, 7 or 8 figures they can brag about on social media. 

And then, there’s the anti-hustle culture. These are the “I don’t dream of labor” millennials who have no real ambition and are allergic to the work required to do something with their life beyond paying monthly rent for a studio apartment, expecting the working class to pay off their student loans for worthless degrees and working at a cafe or bookstore into their thirties. They don't have a "dream job" or professional career; nor do they identify with what they do for a living. A job is just something they do to to make enough money to pay the bills and qualify for medical insurance. They will take as much time off as they are allowed, including what they call "mental health days". And they don’t have children, partly because of the required “unpaid labor” of childcare. 

We know that school is designed to create obedient order followers, responsible employees, productive members of society and dutiful tax payers. To this day, despite evidence to the contrary, people are still told that if they get good grades, they can get into a good college and that will ensure them a good job in the future. And while it's true that people need an income to participate in society, even college educated people tend to go for jobs they can just get by on or that will provide financial security, instead of applying themselves to create a rewarding career or build a business that will support the life they'd really like to have.

Where’s the balance between having personally fulfilling and financially rewarding work and creating and enjoying a life worth living? Don’t work yourself into an early grave or early retirement just to spend it in hospitals or on surgeon’s tables. And don’t waste your life doing nothing productive or of any true value to yourself and others. Create a life you don’t need a vacation from but also one you will happy to have lived. Embrace a balance of slow work and intentional living. Do what you love and are good at. Prioritize the things (and people) who matter most. And create time every day for the things you enjoy and make you happy.

Addicted to Devices Disorder

Our phones and other Internet connected devices have made hustling, not only possible, but a version of the hustle on steroids. Digital devices make it a lot easier to find potential customers and connect with people we'll never meet in person but can make a lot of money off of with some well placed ads, well designed automated systems and well written sales pages. It's also led to a lot of mental health issues, especially among women and girls.

When women tell you they have lifelong undiagnosed and now medicated ADD or ADHD, ask them about their phone use. We do have people with attention deficits. It’s a learned behavior living in the fast lane. And it can be unlearned. But they’d rather have a neurodivergent diagnosis to explain their lack of ability to concentrate and get prescribed pysch drugs, than ditch their device. Because these people with the attention span of a 15 second TikTok video are addicted to their phones. 

The digital device. It’s the first thing people touch in the morning. And the last thing they touch at night. They keep it on their person, in their hand or next to them at all times throughout the day. And they sleep with it next them at night. They look at it and talk to it all day. They use it for EVERYTHING! And they say they cannot live without it or go a day without it. 

If people deleted ALL the apps on their phone and turned off all notifications and spent their free time reading or learning something useful, I wonder how long it would take to relearn how to pay attention to the things that matter in their real lives and not all the manufactured content, facetuned selfies and highlight reels online. I wonder how many kids wouldn’t even consider butchering and sterilizing themselves if they were’t being influenced by social media and affirmed with likes and comments when posting double mastectomy selfies. Instead of identifying with a label of ADD or ADHD and going on drugs, try this: wean yourself off your fucking phone! Spend time with real people in real life.

YOLO

You only live once! This is such a Mountain Earth world view and one that guides their every decision in life. And why they go for it every time and give everything their all! 

This idea also fuels hustle culture. If you have one life to live you have to fit it all in. And to do it all, in the way they'd like to, costs a lot of money. So, they monetize their life. And the need to spend more to have more leads to the need to make more in a never-ending cycle of want more, get more.

It's not the days in your life, but the life in your days that counts.

~ Brian White

Instead of focusing on how many things you can check off today's to do list or what you can fit into the 24 hours of your day, shift to experiencing the days in your life. Instead of living to work toward some distant goal in the future, remember tomorrow is not guaranteed. Today, this present moment, is all you have. Live your life to the fullest! But make sure you're actually present for your own life instead of waking up one morning and realizing you let all those years pass you by in a blur of busyness.

☯

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