WHAT A MODERN HUSTLER NEEDS

It is not mind blowing that we exist in a generation with so many ‘how to’ books and are obsessed with getting everything right and doing it all. Perhaps this is a reflection of how eager the world is to change things on a micro level, or it could easily just be that ambition has become the new black.

This is merely the assumption that we are living in a generation that craves substance, that wants depth and seeks for depth and meaningfulness in everything, so to be just head above the water is not enough. This is beautiful to see, especially amidst pop culture and the constant promotion of living mindlessly. In a juxtaposed setting, you can easily ascertain how 10 years ago it was just enough to have grade 12 and get a good government job until pension comes knocking at the door. In fact, this was the standard for the average person and many were inspired by this - a simple two-bedroom house, a car, marriage and children to wrap up the perfect life. However, there has been a whole turnaround and the modern person wants more.

The modern person is always seeking to be better, to outdo the standards of mediocrity and for person it is simply induced and unnecessary pressure, while for the next it is hard work and ambition – both can be true and exist in that truth. This has given birth to the new found obsession of what I call the ‘how to’ generation, lacking the essence of growth and development because everything is centered away from the moment and always look for ways to be larger than life.

Fear

In many ways I have considered that it is simply a reflection of my fear that one day we might wake up in our late forties miserable and unhappy because there is nothing to look back at. Just empty attempts to constantly be more than this or that, to hustle, to grind and with no life to have lived. In no way am I suggesting that it is wrong to want to be something, in actual fact to some degree – if not entirely – one should strive to be something, to have a purpose. In the same wave length, they should also strive to just live. I am an advocate of hustle culture, especially for young people because they are the opportunity we have to change the story for many unstable families, however implementation is important. You cannot promote a culture and forget to equip the individual with the emotional and mental capacity to carry through it.

The problem is that the inability to immense hustling in the idea that one must not live in order to accomplish anything is dangerous. Many advocates of hustling and ‘mentors’ teaching the youth ‘how to’ hustle, how to make it, how to be a millionaire, how to do this or that to be rich suggest that there is not a moment meant for living.

There are many quotes flooding the net and ‘how to’, all pregnant with ideas of hard work as the centre of accumulating wealth and financial freedom. A majority of these books that have the youth in shackles is that they say the only moment to live is in retirement, in old age and that a young man in his twenties has no business living or spending – further creating a guilt sentence for the few that take the time to live amidst the adversity of trying to build something. Any success motivation that suggests you need to stop living to make it has already taken away so much from you.

Reflecting

In order to win in life, you must allow yourself to live so that you are able to have the strength to fight whatever comes. Reflecting on it, a lot of reasons why mental health is peak in the era we live in as opposed to in the olden days is because of the amount of pressure that we succumb ourselves to in order to make it. It is a result of the ‘how to’ generation because when you fail to meet the timelines in place you start to attach labels to your mishaps and forget to live in the moment. This generation has left no room for just living, in everything you are either just living or failing and those that do not feel like they are winning, drown at the mercy of loss. You cannot be a slave to the constant need to be great. In between the battles of a hustler – create balance and take a moment to live.

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