Talk about #hustle inspiration.
Whether you are in the midst of summer classes, internships, or planning your fall semester, you should watch Shonda’s TED talk for a catalyzing twenty-minute break. It’s sure to enable and inspire creativity, while simultaneously challenging viewers to find their fuel for joy.
This pure joy, the Hollywood high-profile household name explains, can come from the simplest of concrete actions—saying yes. Her hum, she expresses joyously, is the inexplicable feeling she obtains when she’s grinding and hustling through her work. Rhimes can listen to the hum as an “open road” that she could drive forever. In the hum she finds her drug, music, and God’s whispers expressed in her ear.
In her book (buy it here, it is worth it, I assure you), "Year of Yes: How to Dance it Out, Stand in the Sun, and be Your Own Person," the silver-tongued articulates her thoughts on happiness: “There is no list of rules. There is one rule. The rule is: there are no rules. Happiness comes from living as you need to, as you want to. As your inner voice tells you to. Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.”
In her February speech, Rhimes painfully admits that “all the colors were the same [in her work life], but I [she] was no longer having any fun.” She finally made concrete changes in her life to say one word to all that scared her: yes. By this simple word, Rhimes gave herself permission to be free from “workaholic guilt.” She discovered that this simple word wasn’t a magical potion nor a secret; yet in actuality, yes represented authentic joy and love.
What should we take away from all of this? Well, Rhimes is the epitome of a titan, a hustler, the girl in a white hat, and a gladiator. She makes stuff up for a living; in other words, she’s a serial liar. Yet in the midst of all her successes, rather than wearing a facade, Rhimes proclaims: “find the fuel that feeds your hum.” Or, as Scandal’s Olivia Pope would express, Rhimes found how to stand comfortably in the sun.
In order to stand in the sun with an innate ability to hustle like the gladiators of the world: Pope, Rhimes, Perkins, Wright, the honorary gladiator Ballard, and M. Grant, give yourself permission to let go, even for fifteen minutes. Find that hum that’s joy specific, tailored to your needs. The work hum can still be present, but its just a “replacement” for the self-proclaimed, joyous, and rhythmic hum of life’s unornamented pleasures.
For Rhimes, its playing with her kids. For others, it may be reaping the benefits of Rhimes’ empire; the powerhouse cranks out 70 hours of television season after season.
She despises public speaking; yet, she said yes to what terrified her. During Dartmouth’s 2014 Commencement Address, Rhimes admitted previously attempting to commission Kerry Washington to give the speech in her absence. The alumna uttered a few sentences that we should pay heed: “Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It's hard work that makes things happen. It's hard work that creates change.”
This hard work allows us to thrive with inexhaustible purpose and a propensity of agency; however, the hard work would be irrelevant without taking the time to find what makes us tick, quite literally.
