How I Built an Anti-Hustle Routine That Actually Feels Good

Burned out by hustle culture?

Me too.

What started as a mission to succeed turned into a full-body breakdown.

But walking away didn’t mean I gave up.

It meant I finally started building an anti-hustle routine that supports my energy, my family, and my life.

This is what that journey looked like, and why I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

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The Moment Hustle Culture Took Everything

When I flunked out of college, I realized the chill, go-with-the-flow lifestyle wasn’t going to cut it in a world obsessed with productivity.

So I came back ready to prove myself. I jumped into school.

Then my mom lost her job.
One part-time gig turned into two.

Two turned into never knowing what day it was.

I worked days. I worked nights. I slept in parking lots.

I paid off my debt.

I made it from dropout to med school.

From the outside? I was doing the thing.

But inside? I was slowly disappearing.

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Medical School Was Hustle Culture on Steroids

To pay for med school, I took on a master’s program.
I was juggling:

• A full-time graduate degree
• A full-time medical course load
• Studying for the Step
• Clinical rotations

Every minute was spoken for — except the ones I needed for myself.

And during those rotations, I saw it up close:
The life on the other side of the bed wasn’t what I thought it would be.

The doctors? Exhausted.
The system? Broken.
The tradeoff? My family, my health, my joy.

Harvard Business Review even names this pattern — losing your sense of self to work is more common than we think.

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I Walked Away — But the Hustle Came With Me

Leaving med school wasn’t some peaceful, clean break.

I told myself I was choosing rest. That I’d be more present.

That I’d slow down.

And then I jumped straight into a PhD.

Because hustle doesn’t always look like overwork.

Sometimes, it’s the belief that your worth is measured by how much you produce.

Even if what you’re producing is healing, education, or activism.

It wasn’t until someone told me I wasn’t going to save the world with my dissertation that I finally paused long enough to ask:
Who am I doing this for?

And more importantly:
What am I giving up to keep proving myself to systems I no longer believe in?

If you’ve been there, redefining achievement might resonate too.

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The Truth About Anti-Hustle Routines

The hustle wasn’t just a calendar problem.
It was a values problem.
A nervous system problem.
A self-trust problem.

So I stopped trying to “fix” my schedule, and started rebuilding a rhythm that actually worked for me.

If you’re ready to shift from survival structure into supportive rhythm, I break down the strategy behind that in Purposeful Routines & Rhythms.

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What My Anti-Hustle Routine Looks Like Now

It’s not flashy. It’s not optimized.
It’s human.

• I wake up early for quiet, not performance
• We eat together (when neurodivergence allows)
• My daughter has online classes some days; other days, we chase beach light
• We clean a little. We cook when we’re inspired. We rest when we need to
• We play. We laugh. We move slowly. And I trust my body more than my calendar

We’re deconditioning ourselves — and reconditioning our kids — to believe that joy isn’t a reward for productivity.

It’s a baseline for being alive.

Because hustle culture teaches us joy is earned.

But I’ve learned it can be built in one micro-moment at a time. Download the 7 day micropleasure tracker and begin your micro-moments today.

This shift also changed the way I think about daily rhythms for creativity — especially as a neurodivergent entrepreneur.

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You Deserve a Rhythm That Doesn’t Burn You Out

If you’re skipping meals, doomscrolling at midnight, or white-knuckling your way through another week, just know: you’re not broken.

You’re responding ,beautifully, but to a system that was never built with your body, your brain, or your truth in mind.

You can build an anti-hustle routine that doesn’t ignore your ambition.

It just refuses to sacrifice your aliveness.

And if you’re rebuilding your capacity, these 8 pillars of intentional living can help ground you along the way.

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You Don’t Have to Earn the Right to Slow Down

Here’s the truth they don’t teach in school or success culture:

You don’t have to crash to pause.

You don’t have to break down to re-evaluate.

You don’t have to earn permission to live a life that feels good now — not someday.

Rest is not a reward.
Play is not a luxury.

And joy is not something you buy once you’ve finally done enough.

You can choose ease and still be powerful.
You can choose softness and still be impactful.

And you can walk away from the system without losing your ambition.

You just get to aim it somewhere that nourishes you back.

This Isn’t About Success. It’s About Feeling Like You’re Living.

You don’t need a perfect system.

You need space.
You need rhythm.

You need to feel like your day belongs to you — not to a to-do list, a calendar, or some invisible performance quota.

Because this isn’t about chasing success.

It’s about choosing fulfillment.

It’s the difference between waking up and thinking “is this it?”
vs.
Waking up and saying “fck yeah — this is my life.”*

Your rhythm won’t look like mine, and It shouldn’t.

But if it’s built around pleasure, presence, and permission to be a whole human?

Then you’re not behind.
You’re already on the path.

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🎁 Download the 7-Day Micropleasures Habit Tracker
Start with one small shift — and let that rhythm carry you back to yourself.

Because the most radical thing you can do in a system obsessed with hustle…
is enjoy your life on purpose.