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.