martina vs. #trashhustle

It's finals week and, right on schedule, I'm going through a crisis of sorts. There are a few people in my life, people who aren't even acquaintances but who I know simply through the weird tinyness of the world, who continually reappear in my life through their success. Success is great. May we all be successful in our endeavors, amen. But success stemming from thoughtlessness and/or a general lack of talent bothers the shit out of me. The fact that it bothers me bothers me even more because who am I to judge how garbage people make a living. Get that money. #trashhustle, etc.

I guess what I need to do with this obviously poisonous feeling I have towards those who I think are undeserving is use it to prioritize my own goals as someone who wants to be successful and who assumes she is talented. (Can you even process the amount of narcissism in the sentence? Plz write to me in 23 years when you finally do.)

At a mandatory conference I attended last quarter, I sat in on a lecture about mindful meditation. Since then, those words have popped up everywhere for me and yet I have opted to ignore the obvious signs that I should adopt this practice myself and, instead, have focused on the mindful part. Everything we do should be mindful. (With the exception of reality tv indulging, maybe?) We should be mindful of how we talk to and treat each other, of what we are consuming, and of what we are creating. #trashhustle seems to be dependent on people creating a large quantity of things they aren't exceptionally mindful about.

Therefore, here are three steps we can take to combat #trashhustle and use to ensure we are meeting our goals of creating mindful content:

1. Create things that answer questions, whether universal or particular.
2. Create things that do more than advance your social status.
3. Create things that hold more value for others than they do for you.

I'm such an asshole. Bye.

(edit: The day after writing this post, ONTD reposted this article with similar grievances. Really helpful to know I'm not alone in this feeling.)