I was laying in bed yesterday around 2-3am, doom scrolling on my phone. And I felt like absolute ass. I was writing about aspirational vs practiced values, and here I was – a big hypocrite.
Here lies the importance of self-compassion and positive self-talk. We are our own biggest critic, and we can be really mean to ourselves; but we’re human – we’ll inevitably make mistakes. So what’s more important are the lessons we learn from them, not the fact that we make them.
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Toxic Productivity: Hustle Culture
One of the largest lies sold to this generation is the glitz and glamour of hustle culture – the constant pursuit of productivity and growth. And I think the following image is a great example of that:
This image1 is commonly cited by James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits. Now, I really do like what he has to say about making incremental gains rather than going for large jumps. But I think it’s way too idealistic to imagine that you will grow 1% every. single. day. That puts a lot of pressure on yourself to have to keep up lest you miss out on being 37 times better you were a year ago. It doesn’t give us the option of having a single off-day.
More Sustainable Growth
I think the biggest fallacy of James Clear’s illustration is that it paints it as a dichotomy of a year of everyday 1% growth vs a year of everyday 1% decline. Realistically, most of us fall somewhere in the middle and will likely have a path like this:
We deserve to have off days where we remain constant or even decline. Because we’re humans, not robots – we’re not programmed to keep learning and growing every day. That would be exhausting and draining; I would actually argue that even if we managed to grow 1% every day and make that 37x growth, what about the following year? This type of growth is unsustainable, extremely likely to lead to burnout.
This growth is sustainable and it’s still pretty attractive. Let’s say that for a year, you:
– Grew by 1%, 4 times every week
– Remained Constant, 2 times every week
– “Shrank” by 1%, 1 time every week.2
You would STILL have improved to 4.7 times your current state. That’s awesome growth, and it’s much more feasible too!
Rethinking our Progress
Instead of constantly forcing ourselves to achieve something that is unattainable, we should focus on our long-term growth. Comparing ourselves to an idealistic vision of what our growth “should” look like or to others is toxic and unhealthy.
We should focus on our progress from the lens of the general trend. If we are trending upwards, it shows that we’re putting in the effort and will thus reap the rewards. However, if our trend is more stagnant or diminishing, then it may be time to consider doing tiny 1% improvements to self-correct.
Let’s not fall prey to hustle culture. And let’s be honest to ourselves, do you REALLY believe LinkedIn influencers or productivity gurus are constantly growing or are they posting a manufactured version of themselves?
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