Reframing Sacrifice
Reframing Sacrifice
At risk of beating a dead horse (terrible saying, isn’t it?), I would like to spend one more post discussing sacrifice. As you recall, I originally talked about front-loading the sacrifice in order to propel one’s financial journey. Later, I gave a little friendly advice to the next generation of young, smart and broke financial independence enthusiasts. One of the comments from that last post pushed me to consider whether sacrifice is a four letter word. My conclusion, after all this wheel spinning, is that this much beleaguered concept needs a rebranding. in other words, it’s time we started reframing sacrifice. Sacrifice, if done correctly. is nothing more than good old hustle.
You know hustle? That much glorified superpower so revered in the financial independence community. Very few would argue about the positivity of hustle. Yet, we use the word sacrifice to describe the same exact thing, and the crowd starts to boo!
I don’t believe this dichotomy is intentional.
More likely, it’s a failure to communicate.
Main Sacrifice
In many ways, we are already reframing sacrifice.
I like to refer to being a physician as my main hustle and then all those extra little jobs I have picked up over time as side hustles. I am passionate about my field, and especially in those early days, I was willing to work some unbelievable hours to study and learn the practice of medicine. As my career progressed, I was willing to be even more engaged to move up both the salary and promotional ladder.
Of course, there were sacrifices. I missed out on sleep, vacations, family get togethers, and much more. But when you are young and working to build a career, very few (even in the financial independence community) would use the word sacrifice to describe this journey.
They would say that I was hustling. Hustling to build a life and career.
Hustling carries so much more of a positive connotation. But is there any difference?
Side Sacrifice
I am a big fan of building independent revenue streams outside of the normal W2 wages. In fact, some would say that I have a ridiculous love affair with side sacrifices. And don’t get me started on lazy side sacrifices!
Although I am clearly being silly here, I think you get the point. I’m reframing sacrifice. Sacrifice is nothing more than good old hustle.
Side hustles are wonderful, fun, and revenue generating. But they come at a price. How many hours do I spend blogging that takes me away from other more life-affirming activities? How many times has a family member asked me a question and I was somewhere in space thinking about my next post?
Reframing sacrifice as hustle allows us to look at our struggles as glorious and productive as opposed to viewing them in a more negative light.
But either way, the fact remains true, we are trading our precious time for something else.
Final Thoughts
I postulate that we have spent too much time attaching negative thoughts to the term sacrifice. This maligned concept has become the harbinger of millennial rage, and is now a major driver for seekers of financial independence.
Whether financially responsible or not, we make choices on how we spend our time and energy. We sacrifice. The positivity or negativity of such acts really depends on the overall outcome. When we are working towards building a better life, or in our case reaching FI, I think reframing sacrifice as hustle makes great sense.
When spending our time sitting behind a desk dreading each and every moment at the W2, we are no longer hustling, we are wasting our lives.
Sacrifice isn’t a four letter word. Success is hard, it requires discipline. We are faced with choices every day on how to earn money and how to spend money. As someone professionally corrected me said “Its difficult, but its not complicated”
“It’s simple but not easy”
My concern with sacrifice, realizing I’m gen-x not a millennial is what it causes me to picture. I picture sitting in a room with nothing but work for years on end, skipping lunch like my grandparents did when they were kids, etc. When I hear focus or hustle meanwhile I think bust your tail and forgo some things. I still however view it as inline with my goals. Maximizing life across all ages, not just young or old.
I think its a definitional thing between sacrifice and hustle. Although they sound different, I think for most of us they are the same.
I love this! You are absolutely correct, there is little difference between “sacrifice” and “hustle” in terms of physical work. But there is a HUGE difference in terms of the “mentality” and the “mindset”.
I equate “sacrifice” to dragging your feet to work or do something (without zeal, passion, and enthusiasm) simply because “you have to do it”. “I don’t want to do it, but I’ll sacrifice.”
“Hustling” on the other hand is a totally different mentality. When you hustle, you work hard because you really want to and you do it with passion, zeal, and enthusiasm!
The difference is our inner psychology, which can be powerful!
See…I always looked at everything more as hustle. So I never felt that horrible feeling that comes with “sacrifice”.
I love this concept of frame of mind. Your position on not wanting to retire, but still be totally FI is similar. It’s like this to me: I suspect that your calling as a doctor is such that you would do it for free. I know you don’t, but since you are FI, you could. In my case, I’ve chosen to retire, so I do lots of things for no charge. Apparently, those who argue that it’s better not to retire are only distinguishing between taking money for their work or not.
So maybe that type of sacrifice, called retirement, where the work we do for others is without charge — that needs to be reframed as hustle too. What do you think?
Yes, we don’t “sacrifice” in retirement. We just choose.
I love the idea of taking two words that can have similar meanings and pointing out the marked difference in connotation. It makes the liberal arts major in me very happy.
One Thought, as much as I love a good side sacrifice, we are not the only ones these side sacrifices affect. Every hour we spend chasing FI takes us away from the ones we love. There is always a balance. Push it too far and we could end up hustling away the things that matter most (see what I did there 😁). Good stuff as usual, thanks for the post.
-Ray
There is always balance and there is always choice. Every activity we engage in is a decision towards one thing and away from another.
The wily Doc G pulls the switcharoo!
I think people, especially doctors like to play the victim and spread the drama. They like telling the chickee in the bar: Oh woe is me! I worked a 20 hour day! I’m gonna be a Doctah! I worked as hard as anybody, it was more than manageable. My eyes never bled out once. I got wealthy. I wrestled in high school. The gym opened at 6 AM. To get better I was there at 6:01 to run those **** wind sprints and lift weights. I knew the joker I was going to face come tourney time was in the gym at 6:01 too. Afternoons were devoted to scrimmages. Is that sacrifice or requisite? Is that sacrifice or force readiness? Forbearance? In wrestling it’s all about who’s patootie gets handed to whom and the rapidity with which that happens. So is “sacrifice” really just living in harmony with reality?
So is “sacrifice” really just living in harmony with reality?
It is if you frame it that way in your mind.
Great article. I feel like the odd one out. Maybe it’s a cultural difference. I have always been fine with the concept of ‘sacrifice’, as I associate it with virtue. But ‘hussle’ I have always rallied against, mostly because I feel as though one full time job ought to provide a person with enough income on its own to support a family, and having to have two or three incomes is not fair. Look up the Harvester Judgement in Australia. I have also always thought huddle meant extra side jobs. So I have never minded a bit of sacrifice, but woah don’t mention huddle haha I get bitter.
Hussle* you know what I mean 😄
Hey, thanks for stopping by. Hustle I guess can mean an extra job or just working really hard. I agree that one income stream should be enough, but it has always been fun for me to do things on the side and uncorrelate revenue streams from my main gig. It’s own form of diversification.
To me hustle has the (assumption?) of more energy and desire behind it, probably to achieve. Sacrifice has necessity behind it. Both can be overdone, or enjoyed for what they are (the stoic in me…)
I think the difference is mostly artificial.