How grind culture is killing us
[Applause]
let me take you back
to last year my junior year of high
school
i had a rigorous course loan a part-time
job and extracurricular responsibilities
like so many other students in america
and also like so many other students in
america
i was only getting five to six hours of
sleep every night i was hardly spending
any time outdoors
and my diet consisted entirely of coffee
and carbs
i’d create to-do lists and schedules
every night before i’d go to bed
i’d even pencil in time for social
interaction
and bathroom breaks yup that was me
and i did this all with just one end in
sight to
maximize my productivity i wanted to be
a living
breathing machine of a student and it
kind of worked
i mean i was making good grades my
teachers took notice of my work ethic
i was in good shape for college
applications i was making money
the system was rewarding me but you want
to guess what wasn’t rewarding me
my body let me tell you i’ve always been
blessed with relatively good health up
until last year that is
that’s when i started to fall ill very
frequently with
various colds and ailments a different
one every time
it got to a point where by mid year i
was getting sick almost every other week
and every time i’d get sick i just think
to myself
push through it don’t miss school don’t
miss work and don’t
fall behind and once i recover
i’d start up my bad habits again little
sleep poor nutrition no fresh air and my
days planned to the minute
i mean at a certain point i realized i
was leading an unhealthy lifestyle
one that left me especially vulnerable
to disease but i viewed it as a
necessary
trade-off to success and i know this
isn’t a mentality limited to myself
we often view our bodies as just a
vessel to get us from point a to point b
as an obstacle that we need to put up
with in order to reach
peak efficiency now
at the time i did sort of a cost-benefit
analysis
very objectively evaluating the value of
my health
i mean was it really such a problem to
continue living the way i had been
not prioritizing my physical or mental
well-being
well let’s take a look on the one hand
sure
i’m losing free time and i’m getting
sick a lot but the benefits
by putting my health on the back burner
i’m able to focus more time on
schoolwork
i’m able to balance clubs job
extracurriculars and perhaps most
importantly
i am successful in the eyes of others
my mentors teachers parents even
linkedin connections
the whole world was validating my
accomplishments accomplishments that i
thought were only possible
through this unhealthy lifestyle that i
was leading
now why would i quit doing something if
it was getting me the results i wanted
it was earning me respect from people
that i
um also respect if the benefits
outweighed the cost
as it seemed to do in this case the
answer is
i wouldn’t quit i’d continue living the
way i had been
and my situation last year is just a
snapshot
of a larger issue
our culture has stopped prioritizing
health in today’s post-industrial world
we are rewarded for hyperproductivity at
the expense
of our physical and mental well-being we
tend to fetishize
the grind or the hustle as it’s called
and that’s why we see things like rising
workaholism in the united states
phenomena that are inextricably linked
to american society
and american culture a
study conducted by national today found
that the average american
works 140 more hours than his japanese
counterpart
and 500 more hours than his french
counterpart
every year moreover the united states is
one of the
only developed nations that doesn’t
guarantee pay time off
for illness same goes for the thousands
of american schools and
colleges with rigid attendance policies
i mean how can we be expected to care
about our bodies
if it could cost us our jobs our
livelihood our education
to dissect this cultural problem we
really need to begin with capitalism
the free market economic system that
governs the society
and it breeds individualism
under a capitalist system productivity
is the principal driving force of
economic growth
and an improved standard of living
everyone wants to be productive
but capitalism has transcended economics
it’s injected itself into the social
fabric of the united states
it tells us to be productive to an
extreme we begin to feel like
every waking moment of our lives must be
spent towards some greater goal
or we’re just wasting our time now with
that comes a lot of issues but i want to
focus on arguably the most important one
how capitalist pressures combined with
modern grind culture
is destroying perceptions of health and
wellness in america
and to do that allow me to present to
you three myths that american culture
tells us to believe about health and
wellness
the first myth that i want to get into
is that health
is a mindset now let me ask you
have you ever wished that you could just
wish away an illness
follow-up question have you ever tried
to just wish away an illness
with sheer willpower you know how it is
sometimes you wake up in the morning you
feel a little bit of a slight cold or
the chills coming on
but you continuously ignore it and power
through the rest of the day
you’re all the cold never bothered me
anyway until the next day
when it’s full on flu season in your
house it’s abundantly clear
that the world isn’t put on pause when
you fall sick
school’s still in session work continues
on and your responsibilities start to
pile up
but we’re fed this narrative that
somehow our work ethic
can supersede our physical ability to
work for example you might think to
yourself
yeah i don’t need to worry about that
sore throat i can still nail that
history presentation in fifth period
as long as i man up and i’m mentally
strong enough
granted there is some truth to this myth
and that wellness of both
mind and body are equally important to
holistic care
moreover you shouldn’t you shouldn’t
fall into a pit of despair
at every scrape or sniffle you
experience
but this idea that health is all mental
is a complete
lie proper rest and sleep
are important to recovery from any
infirmity
ignoring your symptoms and can only
hinder your productivity and cost
more in the long run especially if it
leads to a more serious condition
with that let’s move on to myth number
two we do not
have a social responsibility to protect
others from illness
up until last year there were hardly any
there were little to no
public health safeguards put in place to
protect vulnerable people from illness
and there was certainly no room in our
busy schedules to take on take time off
when we were sick
as a result persevering through sickness
became the norm it was the way to go and
it was seen as an achievement
because of this capitalist pressure to
be productive at all times
working while sick started to
demonstrate resilience to us
rather than carelessness
let me tell you i fully internalize this
myth though
last year i attended a academic
competition
after an 18 hour international flight
and let’s just say
i wasn’t feeling well at all i’m talking
all the cold and fluid symptoms
you can think of you name it i probably
had it
but regardless of my physical condition
my paralyzing fear of inactivity
led me to continue attending this
competition
and i actually did quite well for myself
at the time i remember being proud of
myself
for working through this competition and
attaining success
even despite the obvious obstacles
but then the coven 19 pandemic hit last
year
and everything changed we i
like so many others finally became
conscious of the effect
that my actions had on others and i was
ashamed
by going to that competition last year i
was putting other people’s health
at risk and
i wasn’t just putting other people’s
health at risk i was putting elderly
people’s health at risk
people that were most more vulnerable
luckily
nobody got sick because of bee at the
time but
what about the thousands of coven 19
cases that can be traced back to
ignorance
to someone going out while ignoring
their red flag symptoms
concerns like this are why this myth is
a complete lie
we do have a social responsibility to
protect more vulnerable others from
illness
to social distance during a pandemic and
to disclose when we’re feeling unwell
finally i’d like to move on to the third
and biggest myth
health is not to be is not something to
be maintained
but rather something to be treated once
a problem arises
a study conducted by dr paula prinzi at
university of mississippi
found that only 2.7 percent of americans
met the basic requirements for a healthy
lifestyle which researchers defined
as clean eating weekly exercise and
healthy body weight
this is even more concerning when you
consider the health disadvantage america
has compared to
other developed countries in study after
study
american health outcomes rank far lower
than other comparable modern countries
now why is this the case it’d be easy to
shift all the blame onto the weaknesses
of the american healthcare system
and there’s definitely some fault there
as well but i’d again like to
shed some light on the cultural dynamics
at play americans
share this common mentality that work
comes before self-care in a 2019
one poll survey the most common reason
american respondents gave
for not pursuing a healthier lifestyle
was because they simply didn’t have
enough time in the day to do so
we’re so caught up in being productive
in other ways
for example in the workforce at school
wherever it may be
that we fail to recognize self-care
as a necessary and productive task
but this kind of thinking is so flawed
self-care and maintaining your health is
is a priority and it should
be important to you and it’s not
something that should just sink to the
bottom of your to-do list
your health should be a priority now
taking it’s so much better to engage in
preventative self-care
rather than restorative medical care
once you’ve already developed
a problematic condition taking time
to eat a little cleaner exercise go on
walks
and visit the doctor when needed will
only help prevent illness
in the future so we need to stop using
a lack of time and a surplus of
responsibilities
as a crutch or as an excuse for not
pursuing healthier habits
now now that i’ve gotten into the three
myths spread
by capitalist culture why don’t we take
a second look at that cost benefit
analysis from earlier
upon realizing that i was internalizing
these myths spread by capitalist grind
culture
i took a second look at the
costs of my unhealthy habits
i wasn’t just i wasn’t just falling
sick more often and losing free time
i was actually endangering public health
by going out while i was sick
on a personal level my mental health was
deteriorating as my workaholism grew
i was putting myself at risk for
chronic conditions like heart disease
and diabetes
by not exercising or eating right
the financial costs of such of treating
such conditions would far exceed the
time commitment
of preventative self-care and finally
the ultimate cost was the risk of
mortality
a longitudinal study conducted by dr
keith diaz at columbia university
found a strong association between
premature
death and prolonged sedentary periods
not unlike those that we engage in when
we’re doing desk work or school work
so when i look at the scales now it
becomes abundantly clear
that my lifestyle was a lot more costly
than i
initially thought
so what did i do to turn my life around
well i wish i could tell you
that i ditched the self-imposed
schedules and went full
on carpe diem health nut but i didn’t
what i did do was start prioritizing
myself a little more
i’m more conscious of what i put in my
body
and how i feel and i’m less conscious of
how i look to others and how much time
i’m wasting
i’ll be the first to admit that i’m not
perfect though i still sometimes believe
in these lies
but i’ve seen noticeable improvement in
my health over the
past year and while i can’t be sure of
why that is
i’d like to think that my lifestyle
change and mentality changes
were a huge part of it but
at the end of the day it doesn’t matter
what myself or any one person does to
improve
there will always be others who
prioritize work over their health
as long as these myths that i’ve
identified for you today
continue to be part of mainstream
american culture
and that’s why american cultural
perceptions surrounding health
and wellness need to be revamped
entirely
and the great thing is you can help make
that happen
by taking ex some extra time to sleep at
night
to go on walks to enjoy the world around
you
you’ll be rejecting these myths
perpetrated by grind culture
so take a step back from work
school or whatever occupies the most of
your time
and start putting your wellness first i
promise
your body will thank you in return