Episode 220 – No Side Hustle Without a Main Mission

What is Side Hustle?

All the gurus tell you to side-hustle. Wear it like a badge of honor!

Gary V tells you to side-hustle.
Others tell you to #hustleharder.
Even my dad’s voice resonates in my mind: “hustle to the ball”.
Seth Godin hates the idea of hustle and grind.
But, everyone i know is scratching their heads wondering ‘what exactly is side-hustle, anyway? What are we working toward again?’

Hustle, simply put, is energy we put to something.
It is, in its simplest form, work. To hustle is to work.

To hustle is to work.

Side-hustle then is simply side work! Demystify this thing! Side-hustle is side work.

What the gurus are getting at is that if you want big dreams, it is going to take big effort. And that big effort can typically only fit into your life the way a side-job would. It would happen in the after hours, between putting the kids to bed and falling asleep at midnight, or on your work break, or before your family dinner.

As a coach for small business owners and other coaches, I find this to be a true thing: people are responsible for their results. And if they have low results they either:

• aren’t working hard, or
• are working hard at the wrong things.

To have a side-hustle implies you know what you should be working toward and that you go all-in on the work.

What Side Hustle Takes: Everything

Side hustle takes every ounce of what’s left in you.

Side hustle takes grit. It takes passion. It takes power.

It takes early mornings, breaks, evening appointments, then delivery, and most weekends. It takes your social events. It takes needless birthday parties.

It takes your comfort zones and craps out petunias. Side hustle asks no less than your most gut wrenching fears. It asks for patience when the tank is empty.

Your side hustle will demand that you learn knew skills, forge new friendships and close out fruitless friends.

Side. Hustle. Will. Own. You.

Personally, I believe that there is a certain amount of right work to get your side-hustle off the ground. Perhaps one day I will identify that magic number.

Just know, that if those of us who have rigged our lives to be able to do it full time take months or years to get our first sale, side-hustlers can expect to invest that long and more as they do it part time, sneaking effort between normal every day work.

It is worth it! Let me encourage you, it is definitely worth it!

But it is so, so hard.

So, how is one to carry through?

How is someone supposed to clear their mind after work, shift their attitude, and leave their fears and worries at the door?

A Main Mission is the only thing that will ensure the side hustle is carried over the finish line.

What Makes Side Hustle Work? Main Mission

You. Need. A. Main Mission.

You need to know what pulls you out of bed in the morning. (And, no, ‘Mo’ Money’ doesn’t motivate people.)

You need to know the face, the name, heck, the very smell of the mission you are working to achieve.

It has got to be absolutely convicting in your bone marrow. To carry you further than you could ever go on your own.

If you know your Main Mission, you will be able to find the energy necessary to push through the challenges that will come.

Having a Main Mission Applies to More Than Just Entrepreneurs

Remember, side-hustles are just limited to entrepreneurs. Perhaps you volunteer with your local Habitat for Humanity. Perhaps you work toward saving the sea turtles, introducing people to nature, or attending night school.

Whatever it is you do that doesn’t fit into your normal walk of life is a side-hustle. It will take effort beyond the normal.

For single moms, it is most likely that ACTUAL second job. (Or in the case of one woman I know who is trying to make a better way for her family, her second and third job!)

Entrepreneurs aren’t the only ones with a monopoly on the extra effort.

Having a MAIN MISSION will carry when sleep is in high demand and calories are low. It will carry you to the next major important task that needs to be accomplished.

Main Mission Helps Solves Problems

When you know a main mission, you solve problems. You start a business or invent a solution. You bootstrap an automation to make that one part of your business smoother. You find a cheaper solution.

With a Main Mission, you think of answers in the shower or on your 15 minute break at work. With a Main Mission you overhear a thought that leads to an idea when at the coffee shop.

And, that is just for you!

Think of the people you’ll serve!

Your product or service or volunteer hours will make a huge difference in their lives. You could be solving housing issues, or solving a more balance ecosystem, or solving your children’s schooling needs.

If all you have is grit to carry you, when your will power gives out so will the hustle. But with a main mission, you find deep reserves of talent, ability, and energy that will carry you further.

David Goggins famously shared his experiments with will power. He found that when you want to quit, it is your mind and body throwing up warnings to conserve what energy you have left.

But that’s the secret! You have energy left. According to Goggins’ work, you have only used about 40% of your energy when you want to tap out.

That means you have much more in the tank, available to you to make that huge difference you are desperate to make in your life and the lives of others!

Without MAIN MISSION, side-hustle is usually an exercise in futility.

Find your main mission, whatever it takes. Do whatever soul searching you need to do. Do whatever spirit recon you need to do. Visit gurus. Pay coaches. Travel to the ends of the earth.

Find what resonates with you, and once you do, let it drive you!