Hi friends!
Let’s talk about something that’s been on my mind these last few weeks.
The 4-Hour Work Day
(I’m not quite at the 4-Hour Work Week yet, but we’ll get there, don’t worry.)
The thing is, I love my work. Still, he persistent belief I’ve held about it for most of my life is that if I don’t work hard, I will neither get to, nor deserve, the reward. I complain about how much I work, but the truth is also that for most of my day, I don’t want to do anything else.
However, I’m incredibly aware of the difference between hustle and flow.
The point is never how many hours in a day I work. If I work eight hours and hate it, I’m hustling and working hard, but if I’m working eight hours and loving it, completely unaware of where the time went, I’m in flow.
The hours are the same, but the experience is entirely different.
For me, the difference is knowing when I’m hustling or “working hard” and when I’m in flow. And lately, I’ve been observing that I have three to four hours of flow, while the rest of it it just hard work for the sake of hard work.
A bad habit, really.
Or a bad mindset.
One that I was taught, that you’ve probably been taught, and that most of us have internalized as a culture and society.
Even though I don’t want to suffer for my art, I want the world to believe that I suffered for my art.
And so I (subconsciously) create that suffering sometimes, so people won’t point to me and say, oh it came so easily for her.
The more failures I can list out for you before I get to my success, the more worthy I can convince myself that I am, the more worthy I can convince you that I am, the more I can enjoy my success guilt free.
And the truth is, deny it as you might, you absolutely buy into the idea that success that comes from hard work and repeated failure is “earned” while success that comes easily, quickly, and without much effort, isn’t.
It’s why you create struggle for yourself.
It’s also why we as a society judge people so harshly when they rise to fame for “doing nothing.” (Side note: No one rises to fame for doing nothing. They just haven’t done enough of what you believe should have been done.)
The problem, when you judge other people for these things, is that what you’re really doing is solidifying that belief in yourself.
As long as you judge other people for having it easy, you’ll never allow yourself to have it easy or sabotage that ease when it comes.
The hardest workers in our society are often the least paid and yet we continue to teach our children that if they work hard, they will be rewarded.
They won’t. They aren’t.
And I, for one, am done perpetuating the myths that have led to a sick society that does nothing but sabotage itself repeatedly.
Starting with my own life.
I’m not interested in suffering.
I’m not interested in working “hard.”
I’m so over trying to prove to you—or myself—why I am worthy of success.
I’m worthy because I choose to be.
And you are, too.
So I worked three hours yesterday and I’ll work about the same today. I’ll be in flow, which means I’ll work faster, better, and achieve a lot more because I’ll be focused.
And then, like I did yesterday, I’ll go lie on the beach for a while.
Because that’s the point of this, right?
Cheers,
Natasha