How to Unsubscribe from Hustle Culture & Embrace A Biologically–Aligned Way to Work Instead

“Hustle culture thrives on urgency, not importance.”

Brené Brown

Hustle culture teaches us that constant productivity equals worth. That rest is something you earn. That slowing down means falling behind. But your nervous system doesn’t understand any of that. It only understands speed and sensation, safe or unsafe.

When our needs are ignored, the body doesn’t reward you with success like capitalism does. It responds with fight, flight, or shutdown. This doesn't mean you’re failing or flawed. Your brain and body are doing exactly what they were designed to do. There is a systemic mismatch between how humans are wired and how modern work operates.

Across the globe, people are waking up to the toxicity of grind culture and saying "That's not for me." We're learning, the hard way, that it’s simply not worth engaging in the Rat Race as it almost never yields the results you desire or deserve.

Younger generations watched older generations make work their personality, constantly seeking validation and glorifying exhaustion. In it's place they are now choosing balance, boundaries, purpose, and sustainability. And while some leaders still confuse burnout with loyalty, the truth is: self-preservation is the new commitment.

Your nervous system doesn’t understand the language of capitalism. It understands the language of safety, connection and rest.

Today, traditional work is essentially a dead end. There are very few incentives to the hustle and grind when the reality is that no matter how hard you work, affording a home, a vacation, retirement, or other luxuries and privileges are still so far out of reach.

We Are Not Built for Nonstop Hustle

From a polyvagal theory perspective, your nervous system is always scanning for cues of safety or threat. In a culture that glorifies overworking, overextertion, and over-functioning, the body often interprets work and urgency itself as danger.

Internalized capitalism can look like:

• "Running on empty"

• Disconnecting from your body

• Ignoring needs- pushing past limits

• The burnout-overwork cycle

  
  

Chronic overfunctioning isn’t just “working hard.” It’s a nervous-system-driven adaptation where someone:

• Takes responsibility for others’ emotions, outcomes, or mistakes

• Anticipates needs before they’re expressed

• Overperforms to maintain safety, approval, or control

• Struggles to rest without guilt or anxiety

Over time, this leads to burnout, resentment, identity loss, and physical depletion.

“Workaholism is not a badge of honor. It’s a sign of survival behavior — not mastery.”

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang

Release the shame and guilt about your capacity. Many of us are simply not built for peak performance. Stop centering activities and people that take all of your energy and instead focus on the ones that your body and nervous system can actually sustain.

Cycles & Seasons

Hustle culture keeps us oscillating between overdrive and collapse, while intentional regulation allows for balance, recovery, and sustainable output.

Nervous-system–aligned work may seem slower but it's ultimately more effective. And it looks different because it's biologically supported and doesn't cost your health and well-being.

• It includes cues of safety

• It values co-regulation and support

• It prioritizes pacing over pressure

• It rests before burnout

• It allows flexibility after stress

• It supports sustainable growth and progress.

  
  

"Build margin into everything. Your calendar. Your budget. Your energy. The difference between stressed and calm isn't more resources. It's more space. Operate at 85% capacity and you'll have room to breathe when life happens. Because it will."

Scott Clary

Think about it: If hard work was really the measure of success, then wouldn't sweatshop workers and fieldcrop pickers across the globe would have the best lives?

The Wisdom of Underfunctioning

Many overfunctioners learned early on that “My value is based in my usefulness"

However running your life at max capacity all the time means you’re one unfortunate incident or one sick day away from collapse.

We need a mass culture shift. Operating at 80–85% capacity should be the norm—so we can deliver at peak performance 100% when it truly matters. Think of low-demand, low-effort work as an insurance policy for our mental and physical health!

Deliberate "underfunctioning" can help those who are chronically overfunctioning. It's not about doing the bare minimum because "you don’t care.” It's not neglect, laziness, disengagement, or withdrawal. It is simply pausing your automatic rescue and repair response.

This looks like

• Doing only what is actually yours to do

• Allowing others to experience natural consequences

• Waiting before responding instead of jumping in

• Doing a task sufficiently and adequately, not exceptionally

• Letting someone be disappointed or discomfort without fixing it

• Not filling slowness, silence, confusion, or gaps immediately

This can feel deeply uncomfortable at first, especially for people with caretaking or perfectionist identities.

Deliberately doing less signals: “I am safe even if I don’t fix everything.” It's not about doing less, caring less, or checking out— it’s about stopping the theft of your own life force.

The result?

• Reduced stress and anxiety

• Adrenal system restoration

• Balanced, healthy relationships

• Clear responsibilities and roles

• Accurate and authentic pacing

• Clear limits and boundaries

• Recovery of creativity and intuition

• Clearer “yes” and “no” signals from the body

Of course, deliberate underfunctioning is not appropriate when:

• Safety is at risk (children, vulnerable adults)

• Power dynamics are coercive or abusive

• It’s used as punishment, withdrawal, or control

Reminder: Nobody drives their car at max speed all the time. Operating at a lower gear should be the norm so that we can still reach max speed when it's actually needed.

“Almost everything meaningful happens outside of the hustle.”

Cal Newport

A regulated, rested nervous system does better work than an exhausted one. Working fewer hours translates to better focus, fewer mistakes, and more sustainable energy over time.

You Are Not Here to Prove Your Worth

Capitalism has convinced us that worthiness is something we earn through output when in reality our worth is inherent.

You are not here to convince anyone that you are good enough, fast enough, smart enough, skilled enough to "climb the latter". You are here to simply be your authentic self so that the people, workplaces, and opportunities that honor your energy can magnetize into your life.

Global research shows trust and confidence in social mobility is erroding and the hope for "the American Dream" is at a record low. Many people no longer believe hard work alone leads to a better life or achieving goals, as it's becoming more clear that economic and social status increasingly shapes outcomes. Skeptics point to rising living costs, inequality, and limited opportunity. Fewer children out-earn their parents, while housing, education, and healthcare costs strain financial stability and longterm growth. In other words? Hard work is becoming pointless for many.

“The cost of never stopping to rest… is not less stress, but more mistakes, poorer quality, and burnout.”

Adam Grant

Sustainability Is the Solution

Whether you're an employee navigating deadlines and expectations, or an entrepreneur managing inconsistent income and uncertainty, unsubscribing from hustle culture can benefit all aspects of your life: health, wealth, and relationships.

You are not lazy, unmotivated, or undisciplined. You do not need to prove yourself to anyone! You are wonderful and worthy exactly as you are- without providing any delivery or output.

Grounding Affirmations

Say these before your work day to ground into your natural rhythm and energy:

• I was hired for a reason, for my capability and personality.

• I set the tone for every hour, every day.

• I refuse to carry stress that isnt mine.

• I am the boss of me.

• I hold my pace and boundaries without guilt

• I do not overfunction for people who undercommunicate

• This is not a true emergency. It's not that serious. I'm not saving lives.

• I trust my capacity and capability at its highs and lows

• I decide what my priorities are

• I am worthy without constant output

• The most aligned connections will survive anything

• I create space for true capacity

• If there's a systems problem, that's not an invitation to try harder

• I trust others to stay in their lane and learn on their own journey

• No matter how few hours I work today, the best work will still get done.

• Outcomes matter more than time logged

• I will not overexert or overextend myself today

• As an employee, my effort is based on my pay, not my capability.

  
  

Like everything in life, you get what you pay for. Same is true for employers. If you want more effort or enthusiasm out of your team then pay them more.

The Sacred Pause

To stop over-functioning and people-pleasing, and really hone your energy and resources, commit to a 24 waiting period for agreeing to anything. This lets your nervous system regulate so you can make a grounded decision about your actual interest and capacity.

Normalize saying:

"I'll get back to you within the day"

"I have a 24 hour personal policy for commitments"

"I'll let you know tomorrow"

In business and in life -- slow, steady and sustainable wins the race.

If you're juggling work, family, friendship, pets, housework, hobbies, rest, play, exercise, and meal planning and mealprep without any help or support then Congrats- you are superhuman!

The Modern Work-Day

The 8-hour workday was designed around machinery efficiency, not cognitive or emotional labor.

For knowledge work, care work, creative work, and leadership, output does not scale linearly with hours.

Research shows that most people are only capable of 4–6 hours of truly focused, high-quality work per day. Deep work is mentally taxing, by nature.

After the 4-6 hour mark, error rates increase and decision quality drops. We usually fill the rest of the day with context/task switching, low-value tasks, stress-driven “busywork” and yes- recovery. This is why many high-performing people naturally compress their real work into a shorter window — whether they’re "supposed" to or not.

A shorter work day may be for you if you are regularly...

• doing cognitive, creative, or emotional labor

• managing chronic illness, pain, neurodivergence, or trauma history

• recovering from burnout

• in leadership or strategy roles

Release the shame and guilt about time working. The 8-hour work day and 40-hour work week comes from antiquated industrial factory models. What actually matters is consistency and performance over the longterm, not daily overdrive. A shorter work day is scientifically optimal, NOT deficient.

Your career should support your nervous system—not constantly activate it.

An Act of Remembering

The American Dream is evolving. You can still be ambitious and want impact, success, and money, but not at the cost of their health. And of course there’s a healthy middle ground between not wanting to work at all, and overworking yourself to exhaustion.

You are not broken for struggling under this capitalist culture. Your body is responding intelligently to an unsustainable and toxic system.

True growth doesn’t come from relentless individual effort. It comes from REMEMBERING your innate value, listening inward, regulating stress, and restoring balance. It also comes from real social change and political progress and fairer systems.

Start moving at a pace that allows you to stay connected—to yourself, to others, and to what actually matters. And what matters most isn’t how many hours you worked in a day, but the clarity, outcomes, and sustainability you did so with.

"You are not here to prove your worth. You are here to embody it and then invite those who also honor it into your space."

Hazel Satija

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Erin Ratliff is a holistic business coach and consultant specializing in organic growth + visibility for heart-led soul-preneurs and energy-sensitive self-starters in pursuit of personal and planetary healing.

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