"The most successful people I know create superior results yet still maintain a balance among work, family, and recreation in their lives."
Jack Canfield, Success Coach
~~~
People who I coach are often living reactively, struggling with too much to do and drowning in chaos and overwhelm. Yet they really love their jobs and are striving to be successful.
They feel like they are swimming against a rising tide and the only way to survive is to sacrifice personal time as the distinction between work and personal time dissolves.
Dan Sullivan, in his book 'The Time Breakthrough' describes the biggest danger facing modern people today is:
"...that they are running out of time in all areas of their lives."
This danger is physical as well as psychological: sickness, developing stress-related illnesses and even dying early.
Most people I coach love their jobs and are passionate about success. Some are on call 24/7 facing demands from several time zones and meeting extremely demanding deadlines. Globalisation has put greater demand on organisations and constant developments in technology as made it easier for us to work anywhere at any time. Health professionals and academics believe that this change in the work place has produced a world-wide epidemic of 'work-a-holism.'
I would agree with them.
It's easy to become hooked if you love your job. Although you don't want to work long hours forever, you become conditioned into it. Consequently, this creates denial of your addiction to work. Personal time becomes a casualty:
Answer √ or X to the following statements:
How to break the addiction
Successful people have learnt how to swim against the tide of information overload, unprecedented and unpredictable demands and develop systems practices and processes to be able to balance work, family and personal time.
This can involve some big paradigm shifts. I would always recommend working with a coach.
A good coach will help you to:
1. Recognise your addiction patterns and habits - This is the first step. Self-awareness is very important. So you can begin to pay attention to these. How do they manifest and what impact do thy have on your success?
2. Get clear - What do you want in your life? How do you want to show up differently? You get to decide what YOU want to change and begin to make some decisions.
3. Be selective - Because there are many demands placed upon you have to define your high value activities and focus on these. These are activities that relate to the quality and quantity of your work time, personal time and resting time. Activities that help you to achieve your goals, improve your relationships that are linked to your values and success. Low value activities can be automated, delegated or deleted.
4. Set some boundaries - Schedule your activities in advance. This includes your work, personal and rest time. It's not just about having a To Do List and prioritizing. It's all about being productive. You set clear boundaries and learn to say no. Stop rescuing others learn to trust people and delegate. You can't do it all on your own.
5. Be Persistent - Changing habits and patterns can take time. Change starts with small incremental steps. You don't have to change everything at once.
Jack Canfield, Success Coach
~~~
People who I coach are often living reactively, struggling with too much to do and drowning in chaos and overwhelm. Yet they really love their jobs and are striving to be successful.
They feel like they are swimming against a rising tide and the only way to survive is to sacrifice personal time as the distinction between work and personal time dissolves.
Dan Sullivan, in his book 'The Time Breakthrough' describes the biggest danger facing modern people today is:
"...that they are running out of time in all areas of their lives."
This danger is physical as well as psychological: sickness, developing stress-related illnesses and even dying early.
Most people I coach love their jobs and are passionate about success. Some are on call 24/7 facing demands from several time zones and meeting extremely demanding deadlines. Globalisation has put greater demand on organisations and constant developments in technology as made it easier for us to work anywhere at any time. Health professionals and academics believe that this change in the work place has produced a world-wide epidemic of 'work-a-holism.'
I would agree with them.
It's easy to become hooked if you love your job. Although you don't want to work long hours forever, you become conditioned into it. Consequently, this creates denial of your addiction to work. Personal time becomes a casualty:
- Relationships suffer
- A tendency to over eat
- Prone to drinking too much
- Not enough exercise
- Not enough sleep
Answer √ or X to the following statements:
- I talk about work most of the time
- I'm more excited about my work than I do about my family and friends
- My friends and family expect me to always arrive late
- I work more than 48 hours a week
- I often underestimate how long it takes to do something and end up having to 'burn the midnight oil' to finish it at the last minute
- I believe that it's okay to work long hours if you love your job
- Work is the last thing that I usually think about before I go to sleep
- Work is the first thing that I think about when I wake up
- I'm scared that if I don't work hard then I will lose your job
- I'm scared that if I don't work hard my boss will think that I'm not effective?
- Work is the highest priority, family is second
- I sleep with my BlackBerry/iPhone and will check for emails if you wake up during the night
- I always take work on holiday with me
- I allow work to contact me while I'm on holiday
- Working long hours has had a negative effect on my relationships
- Work is always on my mind even when I'm sending time with my family or friends
- I'll change my private plans for the benefit of work
- I usually work through my lunch breaks
- I take on extra work because I'm concerned that it won't get done otherwise
- I don't get around to booking personal appointments because of work being my priority
- I use evenings and weekends as a way to 'catch up' with work emails and tasks I couldn't get done during the week
How to break the addiction
Successful people have learnt how to swim against the tide of information overload, unprecedented and unpredictable demands and develop systems practices and processes to be able to balance work, family and personal time.
This can involve some big paradigm shifts. I would always recommend working with a coach.
A good coach will help you to:
1. Recognise your addiction patterns and habits - This is the first step. Self-awareness is very important. So you can begin to pay attention to these. How do they manifest and what impact do thy have on your success?
2. Get clear - What do you want in your life? How do you want to show up differently? You get to decide what YOU want to change and begin to make some decisions.
3. Be selective - Because there are many demands placed upon you have to define your high value activities and focus on these. These are activities that relate to the quality and quantity of your work time, personal time and resting time. Activities that help you to achieve your goals, improve your relationships that are linked to your values and success. Low value activities can be automated, delegated or deleted.
4. Set some boundaries - Schedule your activities in advance. This includes your work, personal and rest time. It's not just about having a To Do List and prioritizing. It's all about being productive. You set clear boundaries and learn to say no. Stop rescuing others learn to trust people and delegate. You can't do it all on your own.
5. Be Persistent - Changing habits and patterns can take time. Change starts with small incremental steps. You don't have to change everything at once.
Elaine Bailey is an international personal coach, learning and development consultant, trainer, writer and a sought after international speaker.
Elaine has a Masters Degree in Coaching & Mentoring Practice with Oxford Brookes University and is Chartered MCIPD qualified. She has been coaching and developing people for over 15 years. She has published articles on the findings of her thesis: 'Can a line manager be an effective coach?'
She describes herself as a personal coach, helping individuals to develop positive mindsets and behaviours to stop settling and surviving and start creating and thriving in their life. She coaches busy individuals to live creatively from the inside - out.
She lives in Dorset, England.
You can find her at http://www.elainebaileyinternational.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Elaine_Bailey Elaine has a Masters Degree in Coaching & Mentoring Practice with Oxford Brookes University and is Chartered MCIPD qualified. She has been coaching and developing people for over 15 years. She has published articles on the findings of her thesis: 'Can a line manager be an effective coach?'
She describes herself as a personal coach, helping individuals to develop positive mindsets and behaviours to stop settling and surviving and start creating and thriving in their life. She coaches busy individuals to live creatively from the inside - out.
She lives in Dorset, England.
You can find her at http://www.elainebaileyinternational.com
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