hustle with intention

I was re-watching GaryVee’s interview with Matt D’Avella and loved his explanation of how relentless hustling, minimalism, mindfulness and awareness can not only coexist together but their amalgamation, in fact, can lead us to a much happier, healthier and more satisfying life.

GaryVee shares that he is more passionate about people doing work that they love to do and the overall notion of people experiencing happiness and fulfillment as compared to having them hustle round the clock and focusing on the financial upside. In the end, he explains, it’s about liking what we do and being at a place where we no longer go through internal mindset struggles or conflicts because we have started training ourselves to not worry about other people’s opinions. 

When D’Avella asks him specifically about how to hustle with intention, instead of getting in the hustleporn mindset, and remain grounded as well as ambitious in different areas of our lives, GaryVee emphasizes on the fact that we need to take contextual decisions rather than blindly listening to him or the opinions of other people who usually refute what he says. We come across different phases in our life and we need to make the choices that support us and our well-being the best instead of overly judging ourselves. Things ebb and flow, this is the nature of life, and we need to be flexible in our approach. 

We need to take some time out and have an honest conversation with ourselves. We need to develop self-awareness so that we know what’s right for us instead of doing things just to seek validation from others. Some people direct their entire focus on hustling because they think that’s what they’re supposed to do, and in the process stop paying attention to their health, diet, happiness levels, relationships and other important aspects of their life. This blind devotion to hustling driven by compulsion over a long stretch of time is ridiculous and not recommend. GaryVee clarifies that his intention behind hustling is simply to be happy. He does his work because he unapologetically enjoys it, not because he seeks external validation through it. 

We need to identify our own personal intention behind our hustle, because only then we’ll be able to do meaningful work that brings joy to us, instead of getting on the hustle wagon to make others notice us. We need to ensure that we don’t let our inner critic undermine us as we go through different chapters of our life. It’s okay to take our foot off the gas pedal and relax for a bit, if it is necessary for us to win in the long game. Our priorities keep changing over time and we need to be conscious of when to push hard and when to tone our efforts down. 

GaryVee emphasizes that there’s no right, there’s only ‘right for you’. Our enthusiasm for certain things may change, our passion towards our current line of work may diminish, or we may find a cause or initiative that resonates strongly with us and we may wish to pursue it, there are many things that may happen down the line, and that’s why it’s important to do things only for ourselves and understand that constant change is part of life. We all operate differently and have our own natural inclinations towards our preferred work culture and the projects that we undertake, and it’s wise to act accordingly, instead of doing things that don’t bring joy and satisfaction to us.