Avoiding Burn-Out: A Workaholic’s Guide
Burnout, as defined by Wikipedia is described as the following:
“…a psychological term for the experience of long-term exhaustion and diminished interest.
I suggest you read the rest of the entry as its chock-full with great info on burning out. My entire life since reaching puberty has been filled with work. Not work like flipping burgers or stocking grocery store shelves but work that requires focus, organization, leadership and continued learning. Don’t worry. I did my fair share of manual labor and minimum wage food service because I genuinely enjoyed it. It doesn’t mean that I was satisfied because while doing these jobs that most of us do as young adults, I wanted more and so I did more.
I began blogging at the age of 10, launched my own tech blog at 14 where I had advertisers and funded trips to NYC, Boston and San Francisco to attend trade shows. At 18, I was hired as an asst. manager at Apple and at 19.5 years old, I was in a management role at a large IT Services company in Florida getting technical certifications for both Macs and PCs.It was when I turned 22 that I moved to San Francisco and embarked on an amazing adventure. I barely made it out of high school due to bad grades and I didn’t study any specific trade but I managed to accomplish so much and now I’m only 23 years old and I’ve never been happier with my accomplishments and progress.
Now that you have some background, I’d like to say that every single week a friend will say to me that I should slow down before I burn out. I have been told about burn out for YEARS but never has it hit me. The definition of burn out is that it’s a psychological term for exhaustion and diminished interest. Well, that’s why I’ve never experienced it.
The reason is that everything I do day in and out is something I took on. Meaning, when I wake up, my to do list is filled with things I am absolutely in love with. How could I be so lucky?
The secret is that I created my own reality instead of waiting for others to do it for me.
Success stories of celebrities, musicians, entrepreneurs and inventors usually leverage this one fact. If you wait for something to present itself, that day will never happen and you’ll constantly be working for someone else and experiencing doubts, unrest, stress & depression about your current situation. Some people are content with this situation and I say that if you rely on others then yes you should be content and happy for what you have or if you’re not, do something about it.
Despite the fact that I’m doing whatever I want to do, still there are people in my situation that again tell me that I should take a break to avoid burn out. Still, I disagree because that’s not how I work. My suggestion, work your ass off on something simple and non-critical and see how long it takes for you to burn out. When you do, then you’ll know what it takes to reach that point.
Personally, I’ve never reached that point on any one project, idea, company or plan. I’ve never reached burn out on anything. Since moving to San Francisco aside from 1 week where I took a break, I’ve been working over 80 hours a week. That one week I took a break, I limited myself to a 40 hour week and it was a nice break but what did happen was I got behind on my work, missed deadlines and ultimately had no idea what to do with myself. On this break, I went to the gym more and had a few quiet dinners with people that I used to call friends but that’s it. Oh and about that, yeah I have friends but I neglect them. More on that later.
I think burn out is completely psychological but you also have to be wired for it. I’m equipped to be a workaholic to the very extreme. I’m not sure why I excel at it but I do and it’s been great!
1. I work from 7:30AM-Midnight 7 days a week and take about 4 hours off during the day to work out, have meetings, eat and read.
2. I work a bit on holidays to keep up and frankly because I have nothing better to do.
3. I split my days up working 8-12 hours in an office space and the rest of the day from a Cafe or Hotel Lobby. The location change keeps things fresh and focused. Plus, I can people watch a bit too.
4. I only take on projects that I’m totally in love with and couldn’t imagine letting slip through the cracks. This passion for each individual project equals extended hours and commitment to finishing it.
5. I neglect friendships and have no social life. This is key to finishing things and eliminating distractions. Distractions equal lost productivity and you don’t want that.
When I was young, it was understood that being a workaholic was a bad thing but it’s a necessary thing. California has the highest unemployment rate in The US. People lose their jobs every day and many more are homeless with no other option than to work day labor to get by. As I said earlier, I graded high school with a 2.3GPA, no foreign languages and no extra curricular activities and now I’m working on amazing things that my peers in high school may never get to achieve. Back to my point, being a workaholic had a different meaning when I was younger. I really thought people who pulled these kind of hours were greedy and were only working that much to make more and more money and then have nothing to spend it on because they’re too busy working. I learned that this isn’t always the case. Being a workaholic is passion, commitment and drive toward completing a project or launching a company and it’s necessary.
According to Wikipedia, Workaholic is defined as:
Colloquially, a workaholic, is a person who is addicted to work (the correct medico-legal term is “ergomania”).
The phrase does not always imply that the person actually enjoys their work, but rather simply feels compelled to do it. There is no generally accepted medical definition of such a condition, although some forms of stress, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder can be work-related.
That’s also a great Wiki entry that you should read all of as well. So, it would appear that workaholic doesn’t actually describe me at all. I choose to work and love my work and enjoy it. I’m working toward something that’s bigger. However, lately I’ve learned more about my condition and why I choose to live this way.
However, this from this Wikipedia page captures the essence of what I’m putting myself through:
- A compulsion to prove oneself
- Working harder
- Neglecting one’s own needs
- Displacement of conflicts (the person does not realize the root cause of the distress)
- Revision of values (friends or hobbies are completely dismissed)
- Denial of emerging problems (cynicism and aggression become apparent)
- Withdrawal (reducing social contacts to a minimum, becoming walled off; alcohol or other substance abuse may occur)
- Behavioral changes become obvious to others
- Inner emptiness
- Depression
- Burnout syndrome
Now, I’m not suffering from all of these but a few of these resonate with me and those, I’ve marked in BOLD. I’m not suffering from depression or inner emptiness but I do admit to those other things. I believe this is only temporary and that this short term sacrifice will lead to long term happiness. Notice that I didn’t say “success” or “wealth” because that’s not what I’m doing this for. Happiness to me is helping people, making my family and friends proud and doing something that actually makes a different to the world on a short term and long term basis.
I’m avoiding burn out simply because of two reasons. One is that I’ve never experienced it before even when I was working for others. The second reason is simply because I’m in love with everything that I have going on right now. Every action and step is a closer moment to completion and I’m enjoying this journey. Now a post on Burn out and Workaholics isn’t something you’d think is cheery but it should be.
The key is to identify the early signs of it and take a break. It’s not too late for me, of course but the issue I’m having is what do I do when I’m not working? Clearing my head, finding a hobby and leaving the work place. It’s difficult when our phones and computers are always on us and always buzzing. I think that’s to blame as well. Of course, we bought the phones & computers so that’s our self-created reality.
My point in all of this is, yes I’m suffering from being a workaholic but it’s not suffering…yet. Right now, it’s focus and drive toward creating and shipping a few incredible products and there is a time when I’ll no longer be working such long hours but right now I’m trying to accomplish so much and I’m still very young. I was told a few months ago by a friend, “you’re the most responsible 30 year old i know.” and that stuck with me. I’m a 23 year old kid who didn’t go to college and I’m starting my own company, finishing this book and managing marketing plans for startups all while coping with a move across country and being away from my huge and loving family. It’s been tough but my extra hours and relentless hard work will pay off and I’m going to help change the world.
I have big dreams and all of my peers are 5-10 years older than me with college degrees. I understand that and try my best to pretend to be an adult but through it all, people know I’m younger so I have to work twice as hard to prove I can do it even if half the time I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I pretend until I get it right and it hasn’t failed me yet. I never take on something that I won’t succeed at and I never make false promises. Pretend may sound bad if you’re a client of mine so perhaps that was the wrong choice of word. Pretend meaning I don’t have all of the answers but I’ll work 3 times as hard as the other guy you were going to hire who THOUGHT he knew the answer just so I can get it right and impress the hell out of you. That’s drive and that’s what keeps me going.
Being a workaholic was a bad thing and now I realize it’s a necessary evil. Changing the world in a big way isn’t possible on 40 hours a week. you know this if you have a kid or two kids because by raising those children, you’re changing the world and that’s on top of your full time job. One day, I’ll replace these long hours with children and maybe a hobby or two but for now my only responsibility is to kick ass in the workforce and improve this world we live in. I’m happy with where I am and it’s only going to get better.
