How to overcome the hustle culture paradigm?

[Pedro M]

My intuition tells me in the back of my mind that there's more to life than this. Life is bigger than just pursuing your goals and ignoring the other aspects of life. But my rational side tells me I should do this for a long time (ignoring everything else and focusing on my goals). I believe I'm open to listening, and insights that prove me wrong would probably be beneficial. But perhaps the solution is for me to be patient and reach a point in my life when my rational side and intuition agree to slow down all this effort, but I don't think that moment has arrived yet.

[Leo Gura]

At your stage of development grinding might be the right thing, for a time.

However, eventually you'll realize that no matter how hard you grind and how many material goals you complete, you will be no more happy or satisfied than you are now. Even less satisfied because now the illusion of goals making you happy will be shattered.

If you want real progress you need to work on changing your internal relationship to reality. That's the only thing that will change your condition.

Of course if you are just looking to break free of wage slavery, hustle culture has its purpose. But once you are free of wage slavery you will still be exactly the same slave of your mind that you are today.

I've spent so many years achieving goals that today the prospect of pursuing a material goal hardly interests me. My only goal now is higher consciousness of God. But it took me 10-20 years of work to get here.

Edited August 2 by Leo Gura

[joeyi99]

I wonder what keeps Warren Buffet going...

[Miguel1]

Leo is correct here. I have personally put my serious spiritual work on pause, so I can fully work on financial freedom.

Master your survival, otherwise it will come back and bite you later.

[Miguel1]

36 minutes ago, joeyi99 said:

I wonder what keeps Warren Buffet going...

Illusion

[freddyteisen]

@Leo Gura Bookmarked this answer. Very valuable to remember. Changing your internal relationship to reality is the most important, even though materialistic pursuits also has its place.

[Pedro M]

On 02/08/2025 at 1:01 PM, Leo Gura said:

At your stage of development grinding might be the right thing, for a time.

However, eventually you'll realize that no matter how hard you grind and how many material goals you complete, you will be no more happy or satisfied than you are now. Even less satisfied because now the illusion of goals making you happy will be shattered.

If you want real progress you need to work on changing your internal relationship to reality. That's the only thing that will change your condition.

Of course if you are just looking to break free of wage slavery, hustle culture has its purpose. But once you are free of wage slavery you will still be exactly the same slave of your mind that you are today.

I've spent so many years achieving goals that today the prospect of pursuing a material goal hardly interests me. My only goal now is higher consciousness of God. But it took me 10-20 years of work to get here.

Very good. I appreciate it.

[Pedro M]

On 02/08/2025 at 5:05 PM, Miguel1 said:

Leo is correct here. I have personally put my serious spiritual work on pause, so I can fully work on financial freedom.

Master your survival, otherwise it will come back and bite you later.

I've done this in the past, but for me it has to have at least something related to spiritual work, even if it's just meditation sessions. Although Leo says it's not as effective as other practices, I use it for anxiety and other issues.

[PenguinPablo]

On 8/2/2025 at 3:05 PM, Miguel1 said:

Illusion

Bagina

[Rafael Thundercat]

As long as you dont follow Lil Tay path you are ok 😂 

This may the one of the signs of how far capitalism can go. 

[Pedro M]

On 06/08/2025 at 6:04 AM, Rafael Thundercat said:

As long as you dont follow Lil Tay path you are ok 😂 

This may the one of the signs of how far capitalism can go. 

It's amazing how there are so many subcelebrities.

[Lyubov]

I don’t think it’s something to overcome but rather take as part of the whole. Unless you got a large inheritance you probably are gonna need to role your sleeves up some and do a lot of work, especially with the way the world is headed. Don’t lose sight of your true value and spirit. You’re valuable no matter what. There is always the true power and love within to call upon when faced with obstacles in life. 

[ryoko]

On 8/2/2025 at 9:31 PM, Leo Gura said:

At your stage of development grinding might be the right thing, for a time.

Leo you underestimate the pace of evolution. With every passing year, I'm finding more and more young individuals who absolutely cannot relate to the concept of capitalism and refuse to be a part of it. 

It's not good advice to tell a generation to hustle and make money when it's fundamentally against their values. Mind you, these are very strong values. 

Edited August 15 by ryoko

[ryoko]

On 8/2/2025 at 9:31 PM, Leo Gura said:

illusion of goals making you happy will be shattered

Goals still make people happy, material goals don't. Goal now is what you're creating, it's got nothing to do with money. Money is meant to be a foundation, and it's a bad one at that. Not something to waste energy over.

Again, writing these are leaving me with a bad taste in my mouth, these are so obvious, having to write this is like telling someone how to breathe. 

 

Edited August 15 by ryoko

[Schizophonia]

What makes humans happy is having a barbecue with several people.
Material goods probably won't make you happy because they don't exist in nature.
You can have fun with a car and enjoy a nice apartment, but to take a materialistic view, you don't have dopamine neurons associated with the recognition of a big car or an apartment, so it's far from being systematical.

Happiness comes when you do what the human structure is made for, which is to live in community, live close to nature, kill animals and eat their flesh, make music and do creative things.

Basically there is no need to do personal development/learn anything to be happy, understand women or whatever; it is about surrendering to our true nature.

Edited August 15 by Schizophonia

[Leo Gura]

18 hours ago, ryoko said:

I'm finding more and more young individuals who absolutely cannot relate to the concept of capitalism and refuse to be a part of it. 

That's like criticism from below not above. You gotta learn success within capitalism first before you reject it.

Just rejecting capitalism will leave you broke and miserable, so be careful about that trap.

[Rigel]

3 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

That's like criticism from below not above. You gotta learn success within capitalism first before you reject it.

Just rejecting capitalism will leave you broke and miserable, so be careful about that trap.

It reminds me of a saying that goes around musician circles.

“You can break all the rules, but you gotta learn them first.”

By definition, the cutting edge exists only at the edge. And to get to the edge you gotta learn history.

To transcend is to include.

[r0ckyreed]

Hustle culture is BS.

Edited August 16 by r0ckyreed

[nerdspeak]

The best way to get over hustle culture is to make friends with people who aren’t caught up with it and are doing what they find exciting, regardless of the material payoff. They know how to deal with material insecurity without it driving them insane. 

[Sandhu]

39 minutes ago, nerdspeak said:

The best way to get over hustle culture is to make friends with people who aren’t caught up with it and are doing what they find exciting, regardless of the material payoff. They know how to deal with material insecurity without it driving them insane. 

Gem