Stop The Hustle to Achieve Financial Stability | A Guide For Business Owners and Creatives
As business owners it’s easy to get trapped in the endless pursuit for success so today, we’ll look at how to escape the hustle for more. (If you prefer to watch the video, please check it out here…)
Welcome, My name is Lucas and I love to help business owners simplify their lives and finances. In my 20’s and 30s I assumed that lot’s of money and nice things would make my life better so I worked my ass off.. By my late 30’s, I was worn out and exhausted.
The anxiety was relentless, my stomach was always in knots and my jaw and shoulders were always tight. I had a lot of stuff and according to my social feed I should be happy and that’s when it hit me… My pursuit of success was never going to end.
Peter Crone has a great line in his financial freedom workshop, “Chasing success is like chasing the horizon - you never actually get there.”
Plus, it requires constant energy which is why it’s so exhausting. When I recognized this and then stepped off the hamster wheel of “success”, I relaxed and life became much easier and more fun. So let’s stop the chase, turn down the noise and relax.
Who’s Idea of Success Are You Chasing?
When was the last time you checked in with yourself? What is it that you’ve been chasing?
I spent decades pursuing society’s version of success and was so distracted by all the shiny objects that I didn’t even think to question it or get clear on what I wanted.
If you’re exhausted or totally stressed and anxious like I was, that’s a pretty good sign that you’re not on your own path. So, the first step is to figure out who’s idea of success you’ve been chasing? Your Friends, neighbors, Parents?
It’s totally fine to take inspiration from our peers but when we blindly follow the path of others, it usually leads to a dead end. I invite you to take an afternoon or a week and get clear on what exactly you’ve been chasing.
Once I realized that the expensive car and giant house were were someone’s else’s idea of success and were completely useless to me, I stopped chasing them.
Get Clear on All of The Things That Are Promoting The Hustle
Once I was aware that I had been chasing a bunch of unimportant stuff, it made a lot more sense as to why I was feeling so anxious and depleted all the time. Anxiety is a warning system - our Soul’s way of saying, “what the f..k are you doing?” but I hadn’t been paying attention to the warning signs.
I was running on autopilot and each day, when I checked my social feeds, I was programming myself to hustle and buy more stuff. Now, it took me a few decades but when I finally woke up to this reality, I started opting out.
So, the 2nd step to moving beyond the hustle is to get clear on all the things that are promoting the hustle:
What are you doing on a daily basis and what are you exposing yourself to that is adding to your stress, anxiety and the endless desire for more?
It could be obvious like scrolling through your social feeds and garbage tv but it can also be a lot more subtle. For instance, thinking that you’re not good enough or smart enough.
I used to think that if I was a cool guy and had a lot of cool stuff, people would like and accept me - so I hustled to get things. Thinking that I wasn’t accepted was an idea that formed when I was a kid, imbedded deep within my subconscious - kind of like a piece of shrapnel.
I never learned how to process the feelings of not being accepted so the shrapnel wound festered over the years and because I wanted to avoid that pain, I distracted myself by pursuing “success” and shiny objects.
But, when I sat still for just a minute and listed all of the behaviors that were promoting “the hustle” and got clear on WHY I was doing these things, I was able to remove that piece of shrapnel and the wound could finally heal.
Like I said, some of the thoughts and behaviors are quite subtle so if you’d like help discovering yours, I walk you through the process in this four-part video series. And if you’d like to go really deep, check Out Peter Crone’s free your mind workshop here.
Get Clear On What You Want
Once I understood why I put myself on the hamster wheel of success and started opting out of the harmful behaviors, I was ready to create a new path forward. So I asked myself, what does success look like to me? If I didn’t spend all of my time hustling, what would I do?
In the beginning, I had no idea but, I was very clear on what I didn’t want. No more anxiety, no more living in survival mode and no more chasing after an endless horizon. And just like that, I knew exactly what I did want: to feel free, relaxed and happy.
The 3rd step to moving beyond a life of hustle is to get clear on what you want:
What’s important to you?
What does success look and feel like to you?
How would you spend your time if you no longer worried about getting more?
There’s another great quote from Peter Crone’s Financial Freedom workshop,
“The MOST successful people I know, have no focus on Finance. They focus on qualities of existence. Their own true freedom, their own true peace, their own true inner sense of worth”
I love creating new things, contributing to other people and spending time with family and friends. Each of these creates a tremendous amount of joy and that’s when i knew.. For me, success is being able to do all of these things on a regular basis.
Funny thing is, I was already doing a lot of it and I didn’t need a bunch of fancy stuff or a ton of money. All I needed was to be financially stable and thanks to The Big Split Method, I was already there.
Letting Go of The Hustle
Take a moment to think about the path you’ve been on for the last few years or even decades. If you’re tired of chasing after the endless horizon, tired of surviving and stressing, I invite you to stop.
Turn down the noise, take a few deep breathes and move beyond the hustle. Get clear on the few things that are actually important to you and focus on those.
Transform Adversity into Prosperity
It took my years to recognize that chasing after success, especially someone else’s version of it, was never ending. I gave so much of my time and energy to people, ideas and things that I didn’t care about and it sucked the life out of me along the way.
I don’t regret any of it because it taught me a tremendous amount and brought here with you today but as I move forward, I can now see the difference between chasing success vs. getting clear on what I want and then building a strong financial foundation that will support my lifestyle.
Chasing success is a very different path than creating financial stability. Chasing requires constant effort and it takes and takes. But when we build a strong financial foundation, we can relax because it’s a gift that continuously gives back
If you’d like to learn how to create financial stability, check out this video or if you’d prefer personalized guidance, one on one with me, i’d love to learn more about you and your situation. Click here to schedule a free coaching call.
Next Steps:
As we wrap up, I invite you to do a few things:
Figure out who’s version of success you’ve been chasing.
Get clear on your habits and behaviors - what choices are you making on a day to day basis that are creating stress, overwhelm and the endless desire for more?
Get clear on what success looks like for you. Figure out what you don’t want to help you get clear on what you do want.
Do this and you’ll be well on your way to stepping away from the “hustle and grind” of life.
Thank you so much for your time and energy and thank you for choosing to show up for you!
- Lucas Z.