Do we have to hustle with a looming recession?

When you've lost your enthusiasm...

If you’re loving your writing side-hustle, I’m really excited for you. Keep rockin’ it.

Today’s letter is for people, like me, who are a bit done with hustle culture. (But not done with writing.)

I saw an essay yesterday about backing out of hustle culture if you have certain things going on in your life.

• Chronic illness

• Burnout

• Mental health issues

• Other health concerns

• Major change or difficult circumstances in your personal life

• Or just being over it!

But is it okay to do that? To stop hustling when the economy is a bit…shaky?

And if it is okay, why is it so hard to let go?

It comes down to that old “sunk cost” fallacy.

We’ve sunk hours into our hustling. Maybe even money. We’ve written 320 blog posts, 4500 tweets, 8 Gumroad products, built a following…Shouldn’t we wait for the pay off?

The more we’ve invested the harder it is to back out.

But you know what, none of that matters if it makes you miserable.

None of it matters if it affects your health.

But won’t hustling pay the bills?

Of course, the cost of living is on our minds right now. Here in New Zealand petrol just increased yesterday—food and other goods will follow.

We all get told hustling will pay the bills. But is it?

Be honest. Are the hours you’re putting in paying off?

Rising costs don’t automatically mean we should hustle harder. Maybe, we need to take a breath and step back. Maybe it’s time to re-examine what’s working for you and what’s not.

For me, that’s looking at ways to financially support more of the writing I want to do (personal essays and this newsletter) and stop doing the “writer-ish” things that waste time.

Most social media is a time waster for me. Gambling on platforms that may or may not pay off is a time waster for me.

I’ve recently returned to more magazine work and freelance clients (even though neither build an audience or will make me “famous”). It feels refreshing.

Perhaps for you it’s focusing more energy on a single platform or type of writing.

It can also mean finding income sources that aren’t writing.

That feels like a strange idea

I’ve been a writer for over 15 years. A lot of people dream of being full-time writers and ditching their 9-5.

But it’s not about quitting the dream. It’s about allowing myself to step back from the hustle. You can be a writer AND have another job. In fact, it might allow you to be a better writer.

This week I was accepted into a training program to do a non-writer job. In a year, I’ll be assessing children for learning disabilities (a job I started training for 16 years ago!)

It’ll free me up to invest more time on the essays and stories I love and to teach other writers (and keep this Substack free!).

Just because everyone has a side-hustle doesn’t mean it works for you.

Check in with yourself and be okay with letting the hustle go.

Kelly xx

---

Make sure you have the writing resources you need. Because You Write Shop