When it comes to working hard, and accomplishing your goals… it seems that the new buzzword is ‘Hustle’.

Entrepreneurs and ambitious types are nowadays enamored with the concept of ‘hustling’ their way to the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

More than this, it seems to me that this 24/7, balls-to-the-wall, all-or-nothing attitude is becoming the way that many aspiring people loudly assert their value.

Essentially they repeatedly tell the world they are ‘hustling’. Especially when they don’t yet have the worldly results to back it up.

At times, I have heard myself dropping the word hustle into my conversations. I’ve been guilty of talking a big game, telling people how much I’m pushing myself. In a way, The Sprint concept I shared a few weeks just another way to say I was hustling.

I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something a little off about this whole concept of the ‘hustle’.

The word ‘hustle’ itself is probably worth looking closer at.

Originally it meant to ‘hurriedly push someone into a decision’. It then morphed to mean the act of unethically convincing people. If you were hustled, it meant you were swindled.

Today it has morphed again to mean somebody who is pushing themselves very hard to achieve a specific result.

For me, the modern concept of ‘hustling’ has a smattering of the sybaritic business card scene in American Psycho about it… everyone just trying to be better than everyone else by demonstrating more ‘hustle’.

So here’s my question… when we are ‘hustling’ are we truly working towards a better future, or are we just trying to impress others?

Please understand: I don’t mean to criticize people who are working diligently towards their goals. There is no more noble pursuit in life than growing yourself towards a better version of you.

My question is… if we are ‘hustling’ so hard, why do continually feel the need to tell everyone about it?

Perhaps the need to tell people we are hustling is a little redundant. Talk is cheap. It seems that the word hustle gets cheaper the more we use it.

Here’s my new version of the hustle: keep quiet, keep moving, and let my results speak for themselves.

– DMS