As I got my math test handed back, I couldn’t help but fixate on the grade: 48/50. In a room filled with perfect scores, my near-perfect grade fell short. Should I have studied harder? Substituted that hour of sleep for some extra practice? I spiraled.

Rushing to my next class in disappointment, I overheard snippets of college conversations. “Are you going for an Ivy League?” I heard someone say. “The top 2% get into that one.” I couldn’t help but think that the top 2% only receive 50/50s.

The reality is that suffocating ourselves in academic pressure in pursuit of success is commonplace, making its way into school environments, university campuses and eventually the corporate world. This grind culture, according to Forbes, is defined as “a mindset that emphasizes working hard and constantly striving for success.”

Grind culture has subconsciously ingrained itself into our ideologies of success and everyday processes for decades; however, it exacerbates burnout, promotes toxic comparison and, as a result, comes at the expense of physical and emotional well-being.

Burnout is an overlooked by-product of grind culture leading to chronic mental fatigue. According to Luzolo Matundu, a college student at the University of Notre Dame, the experience of being a high-achieving high schooler led to chronic fatigue when she sought the same academic success in university.

However, burnout doesn’t only affect students. According to Mental Health UK, more than 93% of U.K. adults experience burnout, yet over 68% mistake it for anxiety. In fact, the consequences of burnout worsen the more its symptoms are ignored or misidentified, actually leaving us further from our initial goal of professional success.

One of the most unforgiving aspects of grind culture is the toxic comparison it promotes. According to The Stanford Daily, the achievements of the people around us lead us to believe that the only way to lessen the gap between us and them is to work ourselves to our limits.

In addition to measuring our academic success by how we compare to our peers when we partake in toxic comparisons, we find ourselves sacrificing pastimes and social interactions that form the foundation of our well-being.

According to School Management Plus, school teachers across the country see a dip in performance in the weeks leading up to an exam. This is due to students cramming material and allowing themselves little downtime and rest in those high-pressure weeks.

Not only can this reliance on comparison deprive us of our passions, but it also encourages us to project an image of academic achievements being effortless when that isn’t usually the case, a phenomenon referred to as duck syndrome. This habit, which takes its name from the way a duck paddles hastily underwater whilst looking poised on the surface, presents itself in most competitive environments.

In fact, it’s likely that that friend who always seems to come to class prepared, while juggling two varsity sports, running their own business, leading their own club and taking the most advanced classes all at the same time may not be juggling their workload as well as they appear to be.

Furthermore, grind culture wrongly prioritizes academic and professional achievement over health and emotional well-being. According to The Stanford Daily, grind culture forces you to inherit the belief that taking care of your own health is a guilty pleasure as opposed to a prime concern, which in turn justifies burnout. In reality, extreme cases of overworking can be deadly. According to the Financial Times, heart failure proved fatal for a Japanese journalist after he worked 159 hours of overtime per month in 2017.

Although some may still contest that near-total devotion to the workplace is necessary for success, being a devoted employee is a narrow definition of true success that ignores the way that social interaction, health and happiness can also make someone feel triumphant.

Well-being deserves attention. Associating all-nighters with perfect grades, thinking burnout is a positive byproduct of hard work or congratulating someone who is running on two hours of sleep are not behaviors worth promoting.

Instead, balanced personal and professional success can be achieved through the prioritization of sleep and well-being, the cultivation of a lifestyle with consistent, realistic, and enjoyable habits, setting challenging yet attainable goals and the nurturing of family and social relationships.

Grind culture is no longer worthy of our time, energy or well-being. Your vision of success should not come before your health and happiness.

This story was originally published on The Standard on September 11, 2024.