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It's Your Own Race, Stay In Your Lane

You might miss out on enjoying what's around you because you're rushing to the infinite finish line!


Black man running


I'm exhausted at this moment! Some days I kick myself for having missed opportunities due to pride or naïvety. At times I suffer from FOMO like the rest of our generation as I scroll down my Instagram timeline. I think my LinkedIn makes me feel worse, as I fall short on qualifications. But as I write this, I know that I'm not where I used to be. I worked damn hard - walking, getting sunburnt, looking disheveled, sleepless nights, and no social life. I'm nowhere near halfway to where I really want to be, but the pandemic has taught me to 'count it all joy.'

So why do I continuously feel the pressure 'to be'?

Tu ne comprends pas la question?

It seems that everywhere I go, people are suffering from the “hustle culture” pandemic. By hustle culture, I mean the collective urge we currently seem to feel as a society to work harder, stronger, faster.(Then Daft Punk starts playing in my head before transitioning to Kanye's 'Stronger'. To grind and exert ourselves at our maximum capacity, every day, and accomplish our goals and dreams at a lightning speed that matches the digital world we’ve built around ourselves.

There's a certain man, let's call him Iago (inspired by Othello). Iago is smooth, he knows how to push buttons. Now they aren't all positive but he's so good, you'd deem him a chess player. I once had a sit down with him, and I didn't feel great after that. He showed off his portfolio and name dropped his network. He stated that I don't work hard enough! I'm doing the black woman lean as I write this. Do not work hard enough! Que?

While I love to be challenged, n***@ don't know me from a bar of soap. To actually get to a place where I have my own office, I've worked damn hard. He wasn't there when I would had a pair of high heels in my handbag, to make an impression to get noticed. He wasn't there when I slaved to design a whole magazine and publish the first issue. He wasn't there when I would walk halfway across town to catch public transport home. The times that I stood by corners to get WiFi connection so that I could create and post content online. And he doesn't know what I still go through. I'm overworked and underpaid, yet I know that where I am is a means to an end.

Degage!

I will say that hustle culture is toxic. It's also disrespectful to every nine to five and blue collar trade. Even the Creator had a day of rest. Why are we these people who put so much pressure to succeed. Actually we have a warped sense of what success looks like. It's taken me over five years to scale up my salary. And this happened in between every job that I had. I have a business that hasn't made any revenue yet, but the team and I are building momentum. In the words of Kathryn Budih, "Take your time. There's no rush to be good or renowned." 

We love to microwave success but even the greats and  captains of industry will tell you their journey. Those journeys include a lot of failures, brokenness, some homelessness, others rejection. It wasn't easy. And it will never be easy. Didn't we learn anything from the pandemic? Sometimes slowing down is the best way

The important thing is to take your time and not get stressed.
Diane von Furstenberg
Let those who enslave themselves to the faux capitalism do so. They can show off their trips to Greece, selfies with the who's who and wear all the trendy labels in the world. Remember that on social media, it's a choice to be poor or ugly. Take everything with a grain of salt. Your race isn't against the next person, it's with yourself. Remember that the level that you are at is way better than where you were in previous periods. "Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking, "Steve Jobs.
Don't be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people's thinking. 
Steve Jobs
You might miss out on enjoying what's around you because you're rushing to the infinite finish line!
Stay in your lane, run your own race and in time, you will get the prize.
Stay strong!
P.S.: Always write your own love story!
Lady E
Ciao!




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