Having a passion for your work is essential to stay motivated and meet your goals, but crossing the limit can be terrible for your mental and physical health.
The addiction to work is recent, which also affects entrepreneurs and business owners pathology. You should pay attention to their symptoms because in addition to changing your physical and emotional health, even that of your company and its employees.
Although profiles may vary, this phenomenon primarily attacks those people who have a great passion for what they do through their invention idea. That they have a sense of mission for their work, and that they find greater satisfaction in job success than in any other aspect of their life with invention. They are a bit narcissistic individuals, who like to have control and who find in their occupation a defence mechanism to escape emotional conflicts. Do you feel identified? Read on.
The symptoms of this disease are also quite clear. And in the case of an entrepreneur who has just started a business, and who has full responsibility on their backs, they are aggravated:
- The addict works no less than 10 hours a day regularly and even does so during weekends or bridge days.
- He loses interest in other activities he used to enjoy, such as eating out as a family, reading or playing sports.
- It does not talk about anything other than work.
- He becomes perfectionist, impatient and irritable.
- He has a constant feeling of anguish for not reaching his goals.
What to do?
The first step in dealing with this situation is to admit that you have a problem and not feel guilty. It’s something that many more people go through than you imagine.
The second step is to understand that the only possible change goes through you and a new attitude towards life since all the work situations for which you feel pressure will continue to be there (for example, the need to sell more, or customer complaints).
The third step is to start opening specific spaces in your schedule for all those activities that can help you achieve a better balance between your work and personal life. And that you give them as much importance as a meeting with your most important client. Some of the recommendations of the experts to transform your habits in the short term are:
Meditate at the beginning of the day
This practice will help you reduce your stress and anxiety levels, maintain attention, avoid unnecessary distractions and gain perspective when analyzing a problem. Try to incorporate this practice in group sessions, to be able to share your experience with other people.
Do at least one hour of daily exercise
Even if you have to get up earlier and lose an hour of sleep, it’s worth it. It combines yoga and fitness practices with more demanding ones, such as running, swimming or playing soccer. Moving the body improves mood, increases defences, makes us safer people in daily treatment and increases productivity.
Seek containment
This is a problem that you cannot solve alone. Talk to your partner, a close relative or your best friend, tell him how you feel and ask him to help you regain your balance. How? For example, sharing exits to the theatre or some other type of activity that you enjoy together. If you feel that it is not enough and that your problem is much more severe than you imagined, seek the professional help of a psychologist.
Force yourself to do nothing
Take an hour a day, and especially on weekends, to walk around the city, enjoy nature, fix your nails or go out to eat with someone special for you. Some activities do not count for this case, since they can end up increasing your stress level: watching TV, cleaning the house or catching up with the reading of an essential book to prepare a presentation.
Leave home and socialize
A widespread custom among workaholics is to lock themselves up at home on weekends. They end up so exhausted that all they want is to sleep and watch movies. Anticipate during the week what you will do on Saturday or Sunday, and make an effort to commit yourself to do some activity with someone, to avoid the temptation to lock yourself up.