Rise and Grind
and
hello everyone uh let me know if i’m
audible by
say not a show of hands but a show of
thumbs up if possible
thank you i will now present my screen
and i really hope
that you guys relate to this because
it’s something that
i really want you to resonate with so
i am ankita chabla as the arushi has
given a very
generous introduction and my topic for
today’s
tedx this is my second telex and i
really want to take this opportunity to
talk about
something that i have like come to the
realization of
during the pandemic and i’m really glad
that i’ve done so
rise and grind and other lies around you
so you probably would have heard of the
badge of busy
you’re probably even wearing it right
now it’s when you wear and communicate
your business
as a badge of honor valuing a fully
booked schedule
the number of classes you have over the
free time that you actually deserve
we often think that busyness and
productivity go hand in hand
but the truth is taking time off is one
of the
best things we can do for our brains our
creativity
innovation and focus
uh you must have heard of uh phrases
like you have
as many hours in a day as beyonce wake
up
grind repeat five all nighter habits of
ceos
i’m pretty sure you’re familiar with
them right these
might sound like motivational slogans at
first but over the course of the last
few years
have become symptoms of a problem that
is deep rooted in our generation
neon signs demand us to hustle harder
and our instagram feeds want us to share
every moment
of our living and breathing day and
murals
spread the gospel of tgim and if you’re
wondering what’s tgim
it’s thank god it’s monday i haven’t
seen anyone
in my life being so excited about the
tgim and now i’m going to talk about
why the media wants you to listen to
this message in the first place
i know you must be wondering that what i
am talking about
is literally in my pen name so why am i
going against it
my short answer is no and my long answer
is going to be explained in the next few
minutes
of my talk uh
one second good morning everyone i am
ankita chawla or better known as hassel
rani
in the digital world i’m a visual
content creator and a marketing
professional currently working with the
big four
and today i will be asking for your
precious time to talk
about redefining what it means to hustle
in today’s world so getting things done
for me
has always been like you know my
approach to accomplish any task
say if it’s a dentist’s appointment like
i just want to get it done with if it’s
a difficult conversation i want to get
it done with
if it’s a simple mail that i have to
write but it requires me to think a lot
let’s just get it done with trying to
accomplish four years worth of
experience in two years of my career
let’s just get it done wait that doesn’t
really sound right
a lot of the pressure on us in today’s
generation and especially
with the pandemic is surmounting to a
level that is often not
achievable and the concept of people
both
young and old striving to be better
versions of themselves
be it academically physically
professionally
or socially is not a new one and it’s
completely okay to do so
as young people in schools colleges and
jobs
we have hundreds of papers to write
millions of assignments to submit
uh lots of instagram stories to be put
stories of sleep deprivation to be
shared
and so many handmade lunches made with
love to be refused
for you as students with the most
crucial times of your lives around the
corner i understand
how this pressure is mounting and i
truly empathize with your need to push
harder
but because it after all it’s all about
scoring some of the most important and
permanent grades of your lives
but hear me out i want to focus on three
topics today under the discussion of
hustle culture
the first one talks about why buying
into the hustle culture
is so easy second i will be talking
about the effect
on our mental health and third i will be
talking about
creating a rest ethic as strong as our
work ethic and trust me
it’s a lesson i’ve had to learn the hard
way after i went from my school to
college to job
process and while i have the opportunity
to talk to people who
like i have been in the shoes of i would
want you to know of this lesson
even before because the only reason why
we are here on a platform like tedx is
that we share our experiences so you
guys don’t have to make the mistakes
that
we did so let’s dive right into it
why buying into the hustle culture is so
easy
uh just to let you know all the
illustrations that i’m currently
presenting
are made by me and this illustration is
made by one of my friends called
prakriti bisht
and i just wanted to keep the tonality
of this slightly lively
so that this does not seem like a sermon
session to you
rather than something that you all can
relate to and take a lesson from
so let’s get to it why i feel getting
into hustle culture is so easy
why is it so easy to subscribe to the
idea of pushing our bodies beyond its
limits
and why is it that aggressive
motivational quotes on instagram
are only only present on pictures of
lions for some reason i mean leave the
lions out of this i do not have an
explanation
for why lions are used to motivate us
but i do have an explanation for why we
fall into this trap
it’s very simple we as humans we are
very driven to do good things
we are also quick to seek inspiration
from others good work
but social media wants to make sure we
talk about it 24
- in the new work culture
liking your own job liking your own
school
liking your own hard work is just not
enough
it’s imperative that we have to promote
that love
everywhere we go it makes sure that we
measure our levels of work ethic
with our productive capability seeing a
heavily filtered version of someone
else’s career
of someone else’s life has given us an
unrealistic expectation
of what we should be achieving and to
put this sentiment in one
simple sentence there’s just a feeling
of having to accomplish
so much so quickly in such a short time
frame
and i know you of all people will really
relate to this
because i feel this pressure is like
quite excessive when it comes to gen z
the pressure of having to achieve what a
person three years older to you would
have achieved in say a span of six years
to achieve in a span of say two years
the pressure
is incredible and it’s overwhelming to
say the least
is it a good thing i mean it could be
sometimes
you know these uh like heavily version
heavy
heavily filtered versions of other
others careers often drive people to
reach their goals and sometimes they
eventually do
but is it extremely necessary to glorify
an
unhealthy work standard absolutely not
in a world where we’re always connected
it’s gotten so difficult to disconnect
this means it’s always easier for us to
keep working and never shut off
in competitive environments over
glorifying stress taking
is not uncommon but has this process
gotten out of control
social media for me personally has
inspired a creative journey that
i think no other platform has and i
would be taking away a lot of credit
from social media and especially
if i do not acknowledge the fact where
on days it has given me the inspiration
to create art
on days where like i have reached out to
other creators to help me create art
on days where other creators have sought
inspiration
and solace in my work and where people
like you
and me have looked at others work and
felt better about ourselves
but i want you to picture this scenario
you wake up
you check your phone you scroll through
your feed your messages
the explore tab oops now you’ve clicked
on the reels tab because instagram has
changed its user interface too many
times so now you’re watching reels
you get an email you swipe up you ignore
it you go back to instagram and now you
wonder
how has it been 22 minutes already
that’s the cycle i’m talking about we
have been called the addicted generation
we’ve been called the impulsive
generation we’ve been called the lost
generation
and now we are being called the burnt
out generation
and rightly so which brings me to the
second part
of my talk that is the effect on our
mental health
uh a google search for how to be
productive during the quarantine
yields over 10 million results in a
second
and it’s not that i’ve done a research
or something if you were to google that
right now
it’s something that google boasts about
that i have given you 10 million results
within these many seconds so here you go
the sky is your limit the world is your
oyster go crazy
so our hyper productive response to this
pandemic is a big sign of an
already looming mental health crisis in
our generation
and i’m talking about that especially
with respect to gen z that is you and me
the pandemic productivity guilt trap is
real
that has been heightened by tone deaf
messaging
like this now this extremely smart guy
jeremy haynes said on twitter if you
don’t come out of this quarantine
with either a new skill starting what
you’ve been putting off like a new
business
three more knowledge you didn’t ever
lack the time you lacked the discipline
i
hate to break it to you jeremy but not
everyone comes with the privilege to
access twitter
not everyone comes with the privilege to
have
uh say a 5g
internet in a stable mental health
during a world crisis
which is why tone deaf messaging like
this
is like the biggest trap it’s an evident
trap
where we are pushed to subscribe to the
idea of hustle culture
and believe that pushing our bodies and
our mental health
beyond limits is the only way to success
but i
am your to beg to differ
and i want to rewind to a little quote
that i mentioned earlier
remember i said this little quote in the
beginning of my talk which went like you
have as
many hours in a day as beyonce
now i have to use a pop culture
character to be relatable to you all
but beyonce if you’re watching this when
this video comes out
i want you to know that i really really
look up to you but
this quote really annoys me now and
as it should uh for the rest of you who
are watching this
uh beyonce i want you to know i might
have the same number of hours as you in
a day
but i also have different capacity for
stress i want you to know that i come
from a different place of privilege than
you
i want you to know that we have
different access to resources available
to us
and we have very different recovery
speeds as well
i will share a little personal
experience here cut to october 2019 i
was taking up projects
events talks anything that came my way
because an instagram post
on my feed told me that my 20s
are the time i need to be out there
hustle hard and life is going to be
sunshine and rainbows
and if you’re wondering yes i did save
that post
and i tried to implement that mentality
to
like it’s like furthest extent as i
could in my daily life
and cut to november 2019 it was not long
enough that i started to notice signs of
anxiety
cancelling plans had become second hobby
to me
photography or music and other tasks
that used to bring me joy
like were not uh capable to cheer me up
and i was almost too tired to do
anything at all
i realized i needed to take a step back
to focus on my own well-being
or risk a total burnout giving myself a
hard reset was the only way to get
myself back on track
and then the pandemic happened i’m not
that happy about it
as my expression might seem but it did
give us another chance to reset
the conversation around our work
routines our school lives our college
lives
our jobs and our mental health became
louder
and i’m so glad it did and this year i
took upon myself to teach small
businesses how to grow their instagram
profile to reach their customers and
create good content
now don’t get me wrong i still like to
help people monetize
strategize and optimize but i’m trying
to be more careful about using these
words
because i don’t want to do it at the
expense of my mental health
or someone else’s i aim to teach with a
creating mindset
as compared to a hustling mindset i urge
my students
and even you guys who are watching this
right now to work
at your own pace believe in your unique
ideas and most importantly
enjoy why you create learn and consume
which brings me to the last section of
my talk
uh that is creating a rest ethic as
strong as our work ethic
now this illustration is quite close to
me i made it day before
um there is a lot of uh there are a lot
of souvenirs that you will see
uh saying home sweet home but with the
pandemic being there and our work from
home retains
it’s become home sweet cubicle so where
exactly do we get
the home flavor in the cubicle when
exactly do we rest
which is what i’m going to talk about
right now everyone is kind of aware
of a work ethic and a lot of people take
pride them
like take pride in having a really good
work ethic there’s nothing wrong with it
a work ethic is really necessary to get
the job done
but it’s important that you supplement a
good work ethic
with an equally well established rest
ethic
think of your work ethic and your rest
ethic as
two simple processes like inhaling and
exhaling
let me take you for a little activity
all of you who are watching this right
now
uh we’ll do a little breathing exercise
i will take you through the mind and
body of someone who has a good work
ethic
so when i ask you to inhale you inhale
and when i ask you to exhale you would
say
simple is everyone with me with a show
of thumbs up
awesome okay let’s go through the mind
and body of someone who has a good
rest and work ethic inhale
[Music]
and exhale
inhale
and exhale now
pretty normal right that felt like
a very comfortable exercise that’s what
it like that’s what it’s like to be in
the mind and body of someone who has
an established rest and work ethic now
let’s go through the mind and body
of someone who does not have a good rest
ethic
so inhale when i say so and exhale when
i say so okay
three two one inhale
so
you can exhale so you get the point
right
the work ethic is to inhale and it’s
like getting things done
it is going down your task list but you
can only keep inhaling for so long
a lot of people have forgotten that they
try to keep inhaling
inhaling inhaling and that’s how you
reach burnout
especially right now the huge issue is
that all boundaries are disappearing
between
our work routines and our rest ethic
and a lot of people struggle as a result
resting well and taking your rest ethic
seriously takes a bit of work
it’s a conscious decision you need to
make until it gets ingrained in your
body
and mind uh just uh
it needs to be taken as seriously as you
would show up for an online class
as seriously as you would schedule a
work meeting for yourself
as seriously as actually submitting an
assignment
scheduled time even for resting that’s
how you can establish
a good rest ethic because otherwise it’s
not going to materialize
also good rest is not equal to relaxing
and being in bed all day and it’s
something that i’ve learned the hard way
uh there have been days where i have
just
churned out a 70 hour work week uh you
know
hustled from monday to saturday and been
in bed
all sunday only to wake up and you know
look at three screens at
like at the same time but resting
is not the same as relaxing because
resting means engaging in activities
that refresh you
and that rejuvenate you all over again
to engage in the same task with a fresh
mind
and from now on i want to challenge your
thinking as you move forward
i believe in all of you and how
dedicated you are to your passions
your studies your hobbies but when you
talk about
when what you have done on social media
or with someone else
i want you to know there’s nothing wrong
with it but when you talk about it i
want you to be real with it
talk about the good talk about the bad
and talk about the ugly of it
and when the time comes take a break and
if you see someone struggling with
boundary setting
i urge you to lend a helping hand and
help a friend out
because even if you have the same number
of hours in a day as beyonce
i trust you to use them while taking
care of your mental health
and i think with that we can make
resting
just as cool as working in a focused
manner during our working hours
thank you everyone i am ankita chawla
and thanks for coming to my tedx talk