The year is 2009. It’s 7 in the evening and you take your place in front of the tv set, which was still cable back then by the way, eagerly waiting for Miley Jab Hum Tum to begin on Star One. Your dad comes home not long after and over dinner laughs and stories of what happened throughout the day are exchanged and plans to visit the zoo or go on a road trip during the weekend are made. You feel alive.
Cut to 13 years later. The tv set to which you used to glue your eyes to and the remote for which you would fight your siblings to death for is now replaced by the OTTs on your phones. Although your contract said the working hours were 9 to 5, you consider it a miracle if you’re somehow home by 9. You somehow find the strength to call your mom up to let her know you’re are doing good when in reality, you’re barely functioning. Your weekends, which used to be full of plans and trips now only have one agenda on them – to sleep. You go to bed scrolling through your social media feed, seeing your friends living their lives to the fullest whereas all you feel is tired and unsatisfied. A little restless and a whole lot lost, you ask yourself if this is where you are supposed to be, if this is your end goal. But then you quell yourself by rationalizing that this is adulting, this is grind culture, this is hustling and this is called being a grown up as your eyes fall shut.
Pretty bleak and morose picture that was, wasn’t it? However, what’s even more sad is the fact that the majority of our generation can see themselves fit in this painting with a minor change or two. How did this happen? How did an entire generation that grew up with the perfect example of work-life balance, for the most part, become so caught up in life that it forgot to live? Simply put, the answer is: Grind Culture.
‘Grind Culture‘ or ‘Hustle Culture‘ is basically a school of thought that advocates constant hardwork and being ‘available’ all the time as the basic metric for success and achievement. Basically, as the New York Times put it, it’s ‘performative workaholism‘ that is addicted to the endeavor of ‘one up-ping’ and pushing a little bit further with no end goal in sight. What’s worse is that it’s not just the folks in their 20s and their 30s who are trying to navigate through life and climb the corporate ladder that fall prey to this culture. With the advent of social media, technology and ‘networking’, everyone, right from a pre school toddler to a 47 year old businessperson is running to win a race- a race against each other, against themselves and against time with absolutely no victory banner in sight. While at a glance it may seem that grind culture is productive and rather helpful, a closer look at it would show it to not just be comically absurd, but even physically and mentally draining.
The continuous mental pressure of staying late at work, burning the midnight lamp to study, skipping meals and your leisure time to ‘hustle’ are some primary examples of how exactly the Grind Culture is detrimental to us humans. People have, in essence, forgotten what it is to take some downtime for themselves because of this constant fear of falling behind if they’re not ‘available’ or ‘on’ all the time. What is ironic however is that while our generation is ‘hustling’ harder and harder everyday to strive and reach the unattainable, or in the majority of the cases: the unknown; we are the same crowd who advocate mental health and talk about prioritizing our inner peace. Where goes this mantra of inner peace then when you stay up till 1 in the night doing the project your boss didn’t even assign you in the first place?
Does this mean that this article is a propaganda against development or progress or modernity? Not really. If the words of Elon Musk are to be recalled, the billionaire entrepreneur rightly pointed out that “nobody ever changed the world by working 40 hours a week”. While competing with this ever developing world, we humans have forgotten the joys that lie in moderation and taking things as they come. Honestly, when was the last time you took a walk in the park without checking your phone or woke up without the thought of having to check your mails the first thing? With every aspect of life demanding our 200% percent from us every second of everyday, it is very easy to lose yourself in the chaos, and ergo, it’s definitely not easy to just unplug and relax. However, it is a must. Let your hair down. Watch that movie you’ve been keeping on hold for months. Take your dog running. Make your own habromania.
In today’s world, it’s difficult being able to do well in your work life and feel at peace with yourself at the same time. Grind Culture, which has swept over the world in the past few years sure has left a massive destruction in it’s wake. However it is up to us to find that little niche, that little cocoon of happiness and see, as When Chai Met Toast said, ” The Joy of Little Things in Life“.