Originally Published January 28th, 2019

“Get busy living, or get busy dying.” —Stephen King, The Shawshank Redemption

Hey gang,

I’m considering writing a whole series on hustling but I don’t have time to do that tonight, so I’ll start with a few quick thoughts.

I hope these inspire you to get out there and create!

1. Do The Work

“Put your ass where your heart wants to be.” —Steven Pressfield

One of my favorite quotes from The Artist’s Journey. It gets me pumped every time.

If you want to be a writer—sit down at a keyboard and write.
If you want to be a photographer—pick up a camera and start taking photos.
If you want to master a craft—start now—no excuses.

2. Change Your Metrics

“Comparison is the thief of joy.” —Theadore Roosevelt

Stop comparing yourself to others—stop it!

Don’t measure your success by how many followers or likes you have—that’s nonsense.

Stop looking at your website stats!

If you want to grow as an artist, innovate, or create something unique—change your metrics.

Comparing yourself to others is not going to help you gain momentum.

Success should be based on whether or not you’re meeting your goals—not someone else’s.

Success is getting up early and doing the work—every day.

3. Say “No” More

Hustling means learning how to say no to more things. Yes, it feel selfish—but sometimes in order to reach our goals we must make sacrifices.

Experiment—spend a whole month saying no to people. They’ll understand.

4. Learn How to Fail

Failure is something that most people want to avoid in life. We’re afraid of looking stupid, becoming an outcast, getting in trouble etc.

One of the things I’m trying to learn is how to accept failure as a part of the growth process. We should be seeking out ways to fail rather than hiding from them.

If you’re failing at something—that means you’re learning.

5. Delete Your Distractions

If you find yourself checking social media every 5 minutes, delete the app from your phan (phone).

Track how much time you’re spending mindlessly staring at your phan (phone).

The time adds up.

3 hours a day equals 21 hours a week!—that’s a lot of time you could spend researching, learning, creating something more meaningful.

Hey again I hope these inspire you. Feel free to share your own thoughts on hustling!

Thanks for reading gang!

-Tim