What is the art of living? If you ask 100 people, you’ll get 100 different responses.
And so I did, in preparation of World Unhustle Day on Dec 29, 2020, I asked people from around the world: “What does Unhustle mean to you?”
Here are some of my top three favorite responses from high-level entrepreneurs.
“The hustle porn industry has done more to hurt entrepreneurs than any other group in recent memory. Yes, hard work matters. But, success is about designing a legendary LIFE and not becoming a slave to a business. Keep “hustling,” and you’ll find yourself divorced, fat, and sick with kids who think you’re an asshole. It’s time to Unhustle. It’s time to design businesses that work for our lives, not lives that work for our businesses.” – Christopher Lochhead, #1 Apple Business Podcaster, #1 Amazon Marketing Author, Category Designer, Santa Cruz, California, USA
“Unhustle, to me, means to always measure twice and cut once. It’s spending more time thinking about how you are working so you can spend less time working while accomplishing more. Leverage is everywhere, but you’ll miss it if you’re not looking. 99% of the population isn’t looking. It’s important right now because as humans we’ve never been more inundated with more things to do at the exact same time as we have nuclear weapons at the tips of our fingers compared with just a decade or two ago.” – Stephan Aarstol, Tower Electric Bikes and author of The Five-Hour Workday: Live Differently, Unlock Productivity, and Find Happiness, San Diego, California, USA.
“Unhustle means to pause – take time from the grind to reconsider priorities, what brings you happiness and joy. This is important as emotional and physical well-being are not a given – we abuse our minds and bodies, we flex them so much in pursuit of goals and targets—a lot of times, we do it out of habit, the habit of hustling.
After reviewing all the responses from people all over the world, I’ve come up with these three rules for the art of living:
Rule #1: Work less
Our current model of work is broken. It’s not sustainable. The sacrifices are too many. You are stretched too thin. Working too many hours. Unable to shut your mind off. Staying awake at night, solving work problems. Ignoring your family to complete work projects and then feeling bad about it and putting your health, relationships, and fun last on the to-do list. You are feeling shame when you are not working and guilty when you are working too much.
It’s time we say Enough to this and take back our lives and our time. Before we get into the art of living, we need to master the art of working less and making more. By leveraging technology, delegating, automating, and deleting, we can get out of working all the time. The key is to learn how to work less and earn enough for your lifestyle.
Rule #2: Slow down
We rush and try to get as much done as possible. But it’s in the pause that we find our creativity and innovation – the very thing we need the most in our lives. So instead of being always on, always going, and always striving, take time to pause. Take a few deep breaths, get centered, and then continue with what you are doing. Viktor Frankl wrote, “Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” Knowing that we can choose our response is key to moving forward. But too often, we are rushing too much to recognize it. By slowing down, you give yourself the gift of life.
Rule #3: Stay present
“Stepping out of the busyness, stopping our endless pursuit of getting somewhere else, is perhaps the most beautiful offering we can make to our spirit.” – Tara Brach.
Being present is the only way to achieve balance. Sure, you can meditate and take vacations. But that won’t make up for being present every hour, every minute of your life. Working and living from a place of presence means you are not stuck in the past or worried about the future.
