Its obvious women are not the same as men. We aren’t inferior or superior, just different. But we seem to forget this. We adopt seemingly “normal practices” and then wonder why we feel so drained. Maybe those “normal practices” are built for the masculine. What if women have a completely different way of getting things done? What if there is a more exciting and feminine way to build wealth and create your dream life? What if you don’t have to follow what hustle culture preaches?

My article gives you the information you need in order to create your life from a more feminine perspective. At the same time, if hustle culture works for you, keep at it. I just want to provide an alternative for women who feel like hustle culture doesn’t work for them. 

Why Hustle Culture Is Masculine-Coded

Cortisol Production:

Hustle culture hits women’s bodies differently and more harshly. Under the constant stress and go-go-go mentality that hustle culture produces, men’s stress hormone systems reduce cortisol production. 

On the other hand, cortisol production in women increased. The constant stress from hustle culture just hits women way harder. The stress that women accumulate long-term is ultimately higher. 

A woman’s stress response systems are way more reactive, produce larger amounts of stress hormones, and take longer to recover. Hustle culture often ignores these realities. 

Estrogen and Progestogen:

Lots of cortisol can block your progesterone levels. Even if you have lots of progesterone being made, high cortisol levels prevent your progesterone from doing its job. 

The chronic stress that hustle culture creates keeps our calming anti-inflammatory hormone (progesterone) working. Your body then chooses survival mode (cortisol) over calm (progesterone) every time. 

Elevated cortisol levels influence estrogen levels. High cortisol levels disrupt the menstrual cycle by suppressing estrogen levels. Don’t get me wrong, super low cortisol levels also impact estrogen, but that’s another topic. 

Those days when you think you’re being “lazy” are actually your progesterone crashing while your cortisol levels remain high. 

Menstrual Cycles Make Rigid Routines Nearly Impossible:

Women have nearly 4 different phases every 28 days. We have our menstrual, follicular, ovulatory, and luteal phases. Hustle culture, on the other hand, follows a strict 24-hour cycle; men also have one cycle that just repeats every 24 hours. It was not built for a 28-day cycle. 

Our energy, appetite, and capacity fluctuate dramatically throughout these four phases. Our energy, focus, and productivity are lowest during menstruation, with progesterone calming our mind down during our luteal phase. 

Then, due to estrogen and the luteinizing hormone, our energy and strength come back up during ovulation. This is what the science says, but I don’t believe this is a one-size-fits-all. Your phases may look different. 

As you can see, our bodies go against any super rigid structure. Structure is great; I plan out my days beforehand as much as possible, but I also recognize how my body changes throughout the month and how that impacts the work I do. You should also take some time to see the times when you feel exhausted and modify your schedule accordingly. 

THE WEALTH COST OF BURNOUT—How Exhaustion Steals Your Financial Future

Burnout → Awful Financial Decisions

When you are burnt out, your brain cannot make good decisions. According to the Global Organization of Stress, 75 percent of adults in the US live with chronic stress. 

This “stress brain” condition is not only responsible for bad mental and physical illnesses but also for misjudgment in financial decisions. Chronic stress results from us making decisions from our emotions instead of logic, which tends to be riskier. 

None of this is your fault; it’s just the brain’s way of reacting to too much stress. 

CORTISOL MAKES YOU CAUTIOUS EXACTLY WHEN YOU NEED TO INVEST

How ironic is this: burnout makes you financially conservative in the worst possible times. Scientists who studied financial traders found that elevated cortisol levels shift risk preferences substantially. During the credit crisis that took place from 2007 to 2009, market volatility increased, and much research suggested that chronic stress from this volatility decreased risk-taking when the economy needed it the most. 

When people are stressed from uncertainty, their endocrine systems prevent them from taking risks. Women already experience high cortisol levels from hustle culture, meaning we are making risk-averse decisions when it comes to money. 

You are not bad at handling money. Your stress hormones are messing up your ability to make wise financial decisions. When you start to reduce stressful circumstances in your life, you will be better at assessing risks. 

OVERWHELMED WOMEN DELAY INVESTING—And Lose DECADES of Compound Growth

Burnout causes you to lose hundreds of thousands of dollars. 64% of women have never invested; compare that to 47% of men who have never invested. Many millennial women have stated they have the finances to invest, but fear holds them back from getting started. Lots of women say the reason they don’t invest is because they are worried they will make a bad investment and lose money. 

Women’s propensity to start investing later in life means that they miss out on the amazing opportunity compound interest provides. This tendency makes achieving financial security much more difficult. 

Each day you spend in burnout is another day where you don’t put your money to work for you. The way through this is to exit burnout and find small, consistent ways to build your wealth. 

EMOTIONAL EXHAUSTION = UNDERCHARGING (The Confidence Tax on Your Services)

For all my entrepreneur and service provider girls out there, burnout is making you lose 20%-30% of your income. Research shows that women entrepreneurs earn 28% less than men, not because women aren’t skilled, but because we undercharge. 88% of women-owned businesses generate less than $100,000 in revenue annually because women are concerned with being too expensive. 

If you fear that if you raise your rates, customers will disappear, that is your scarcity mindset speaking. Undervaluing yourself only backfires. If you aren’t getting what you deserve for the work you put in, over time your business becomes unprofitable. You don’t get anything but burnout if your rates are too low and you have to work twice as hard to earn a sustainable income. 

When you are in burnout, your body is in survival mode. Survival mode literally makes you think, “I’m going to take any money I can get.” A regulated nervous system says, “I charge what I’m truly worth.” 

Alternative To Hustle Culture: Soft-Wealth Building

REGULATED NERVOUS SYSTEM = BETTER FINANCIAL DECISIONS

You cannot create financial abundance from a place of lack or fear. Real prosperity is built on a foundation of safety and calm, which requires your nervous system to be regulated. Many women want money for the feelings it brings—safety, security, and freedom—but you cannot manifest those things unless you feel them internally. The more you create internal security, the more your external mirrors reflect that back. 

The problem with hustle culture is that our nervous system never has time to relax. Every ping for a new notification and the immediate pressure from a performance review happen to be things our bodies interpret as threats. This causes our bodies to be flooded with cortisol and adrenaline, which weakens our vagus nerve. 

With a weak vagus nerve, you make poor financial decisions, you can’t focus on deep work, and you’re just incapable of performing the tasks that are required to create prosperity. 

A strong vagus nerve, on the other hand, helps you experience setbacks without being completely overwhelmed by stress responses. 

When you regulate your nervous system, wealth building becomes easier because you can make wise decisions. This is exactly why soft wealth building will always top hustle culture. 

CONSISTENCY BEATS INTENSITY (The Compound Effect)

Hustle culture demands intensity, but that’s actually scientifically backwards. The real magic is in consistency, not intensity. This is just like how compound interest grows your money; increasing by 1% every day leads to a 37x improvement after a year. Constant repetition strengthens neural pathways in the brain, which creates automatic habits, reducing the need for willpower. 

Reduced resistance means changes are less intimidating and easier to adopt, which decreases procrastination. Habits are just automated behavioral patterns that account for 40% of our daily action, which means they are powerful drivers for success. 

Always choose consistency over intensity. Remember that these habits are small habits that you can get consistent with. 

SOFT DISCIPLINE → SUSTAINABLE HABITS

Soft discipline is not an excuse for you to get lazy; it’s about working with your body, not against it. The key to this is what we discussed above: consistency over intensity. When you focus on small actionable steps, you create strong foundations for long-term achievement. These small actions detour the resistance that is often associated with major life changes. 

Examples of soft discipline for wealth building (intensity):

1. Instead of saying “I’ll invest $10,000 this year” (intensity), say:

• I’ll read one article a day about investing (consistency)
• I’ll put $30 in my investment account every friday (soft discipline)

2. Instead of “I’ll launch a $100k business this year” (intensity) :

• I’ll spend 30 minutes a day on my business (consistency)
• I’ll create 2 pieces of content each week (soft discipline)

3. Instead of “I’ll work super hard to get clients” (intensity):

• I’ll send one genuine connections message a day (consistency)
• I’ll comment on 3 posts in my industry daily (soft discipline)

Do not make the mistake of believing intensity is the key to success. Consistency is so much more important because it creates habits, and habits shape your identity. 

Remember that as a woman your hormones fluctuate, your energy varies across all the phases of your cycle, and your mental load is overwhelming. Soft discipline takes all of this into account. 

On low-energy days (menstruation phase, high cortisol, luteal phase): Slow down but don’t stop. 

On high-energy days (follicular, ovulation, low stress), you will naturally feel inclined to do more. 

Hustle Culture Tells You To:

• Do the same amount of work all throughout your cycle
• Ignore signals from your nervous system
• Trade time for money
• Work intensely instead of consistently
• Keep grinding till you break

Soft Discipline Encourages:

• Do work according to your cycles
• Regulate your nervous system first
• Build leveraged income streams
• Be consistent instead of intense
• Build until you are prospering

This is how you will build wealth with less burnout. In a way that is more sustainable with our female biology. 

Hustle culture just doesn’t take women into consideration. I felt resentment towards this whole movement as I was juggling school, my business, chores, and my emotional waves—it was all just way too much. My goal with this post is to give you ladies permission to slow down. In reality it’s not really slowing down if you’re doing it to prevent a complete halt to all your goals because of burnout. 

Go slow and stay consistent with any goal you have. I know I mainly focused on revenue-generating activities, but honestly this whole concept goes for anything that requires constant action and progress. 

I really hope I could have helped someone today. Please sign up for the newsletter and come back for more. xoxoxo