Episode 75. Hello my dear listeners and readers. I'm typically honest on this podcast and blog, but this time I'm going to break it down and be super honest. Despite being VERY intentional and trying everything I could try to not buy into hustle culture in my business, I fell into the trap. At times, I have pushed myself and my team too hard and ultimately this led to less quality work and some degree of failure. I've thought a lot about this over the past few months. Including, but not limited to: * How diet culture and hustle culture overlap, * How failure truly can be a good thing,* How you can learn from my experiences and regrets What To Expect in This Episode: I will cover: * Some of the personal lessons I've learned about "Hustle Culture" in the past few months* How Hustle Culture and Diet Culture are related and how they impact our motivation* My early reflections on the reality of being a woman in our culture and how this impacts our relationship to food and ourselves* About how my mind and body are telling me I must slow down, and how I'm learning to truly listen (even when in many ways it would be easier to keep hustling)* What you can expect from me and the Motivation Made Easy podcast and blog moving forward (what the heck I mean by intuitive podcasting, lol)* Some teasers for the upcoming topics on the podcast* How you can stay in touch with me! Hustle Culture & Me Even when we try SO DARN HARD, sometimes we can't escape it. Despite doing a business training for 12 months all about "working smarter, not harder" and truly giving it my all, I didn't quite create what I'd wanted to create. I wanted to create a team who was invigorated and enthusiastic about the work. Who was intrinsically motivated, where it didn't really feel like "work." I certainly accomplished some of our objectives, but something was off. As the owner and CEO, I must look at myself first. "You Have to Be Consistent." For 75 episodes, I've come out with a podcast and corresponding blog post every single week. I heard over and over from online marketers, "consistency is key"! I also heard that "If you stop creating consistent content, you will lose your listeners. I also heard messages like, “Most people give up just when they’re about to achieve success. They quit on the one yard line. They give up at the last minute of the game one foot from a winning touchdown.” I feared (and still fear a bit) that if I slow down, I'll lose momentum somehow. I'll lose you my dear listeners. You will be swept away by some other podcast that does come out with weekly episodes NO MATTER WHAT and I'll be lost to you in the abyss of the internet. "I Don't Want to Lose What I've Gained" - "Shoulds" and Online Marketing Have you ever heard of the idea of "sunk cost"? It's definition is: The phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested heavily in it, even when it is clear that abandonment would be more beneficial. It makes sense in many ways that once we've worked really hard at something, we don't want to let it go. Abandon the effort. This can apply to relationships ("But I've invested SO much time in this already, we have so much history I don't want to start over."), education ("But I'm already 1/2 way through my degree program, I should just finish"), or work ("I've been in this career for so long, I can't start over").