Hustling with Hurt: What It Means to Be a “Productive” Business Owner with Fibromyalgia

Kicking butt and shattering stereotypes—one painful day at a time.

Hey Besties!

Let me tell you, I know all about suffering (and hustling) in silence. I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia this month—but the pain started years ago. Since 2018, I’ve been living with this constant, shapeshifting ache and electricity that no one could explain. I’d wake up exhausted, sore, and foggy, even after resting. Every doctor visit ended with shrugs or vague suggestions. Eventually, I started questioning myself. Maybe I’m just weak. Maybe I’m just not built for this. I wondered if I just couldn’t hack it—mentally or physically. Was I lazy? Overdramatic? Broken somehow? It’s wild how quickly doubt can move in when you don’t have answers. But now I have a name for it. And with that name comes clarity, grief, and—strangely—relief.

As a business owner, people often see the work: the launches, the schedules, the strategy, the confidence. What they don’t see is that behind the scenes, im actually living with a chronic illness that causes widespread nerve pain, fatigue, and an invisible weight on every part of my being. And like many others with invisible illnesses, I’ve mastered the art of showing up while suffering quietly.

It’s a unique kind of resilience. And it's real.

Success With Struggle

Even the queen herself, Lady Gaga, has been vocal about her shared struggles with fibromyalgia. She got up-close and personal in her Netflix documentary Gaga: Five Foot Two, allowing cameras to capture moments of her physical pain to shed light on the syndrome. In a 2018 Vogue interview, she said:

“I get so irritated with people who don’t believe fibromyalgia is real. For me, and I think for many others, it’s really a cyclone of anxiety, depression, PTSD, trauma, and panic disorder, all of which sends the nervous system into overdrive, and then you have nerve pain as a result. People need to be more compassionate. Chronic pain is no joke. And it’s every day waking up not knowing how you’re going to feel.”

It’s the same for me. Sometimes I wake up ready to conquer the to-do list. Other days, I wake up feeling like my body’s been unplugged from its own power source. There’s no warning. No predictability. But as entrepreneurs, we’re told that hustle culture is the only way to make it—wake up at 5am, do the thing, crush the day, repeat.

But what if your hustle looks like getting dressed?
Or replying to just one email from under a weighted blanket?
Or writing a business plan with tears in your eyes and pain in your bones?

That’s still hustle.
That’s still courage.
That’s still you, doing the damn thing despite it all.

What Does “Being Productive” Even Mean?

In the productivity world, there’s this unspoken rule: if you’re not hustling, you’re not trying hard enough. But what happens when your body literally won't let you hustle the way they want you to? When every step forward costs you spoons you don’t have?

For me, productivity has had to take on new meaning. Sometimes, it looks like getting through emails and folding laundry. Sometimes, it’s just getting dressed. Other times, it’s planning out a week of client work from my bed with a heating pad on my spine. And that counts. Every small win counts.

The world likes to sell us a one-size-fits-all version of success. But if you’re living with chronic illness—mental or physical—your version of success might look wildly different. That doesn’t make it less valid. In fact, I’d argue it makes it more powerful.

Hustling Doesn’t Mean Ignoring Your Body

We’re taught that success requires pushing past pain. But real growth, sustainable success—it comes from learning how to listen to your body. From building a business that works with your limits instead of punishing you for them. From finding your own rhythm, even if it doesn’t look like anyone else’s.

Productivity, for people like us, doesn’t come from constant motion. It comes from intention. From knowing which days we can give 100%—and which days we can only give 10%, and that 10% is still worthy of celebration.

You’re Not Alone in This

I’m writing this because someone out there needs to hear it. Maybe you’re a business owner. A student. A parent. A dreamer. Maybe you’re all of those at once. And maybe your body doesn’t always cooperate with your ambition.

But you are not alone.
You are not lazy.
You are not broken.

You are living in a world that moves too fast for the kind of healing you deserve—but you’re still showing up. And that makes you a hustler in the truest sense. Not because you’re always grinding, but because you keep going when it would be so easy to give up.

You redefine what it means to rise.

And that’s a kind of success no one can measure—but you can feel it, in your bones, every time you get up and try again.

💌 Let’s Keep This Conversation Going

If you’ve ever felt like your body was holding you back from your dreams—I see you. I’m with you. And I’d love to hear your story.

Share below if this post spoke to you. Let’s build a community where we normalize rest, honor our limits, and rewrite what it means to be successful—together.

If you or someone you love is living with chronic pain or mental illness, please know there are people and organizations that care. Here are resources with support for both physical and mental health challenges. I am here for you as well, and will offer assistance in any way I can. You deserve support. You deserve softness. You deserve peace—even on the days you don’t feel strong.

You’re still grinding. And that matters more than anything.

-LuLu 🩷