REFLECTIONS ON LIFE AND WHAT IT MEANS TO LIVE FULLY…

Glorifying busy-ness is a statement. You tell Life that you are worth something because you work a lot.

Every time I speak to someone who says: “Oh, I thrive on stress,” a little light bulb lights up in my head: watch out, a perfectionist is coming your way. Let’s speak about perfectionism, what it is, what is the glamour it boasts, and, most importantly, the price to pay for that glamour.

At a certain point in my life, I was working for a company where people seemed odd to me. This oddness could not be explained at first. But then, I saw it: the desire to please the boss, who, judging by the way she held her position, was a perfectionist/workaholic. I use these two words interchangeably because they speak about one reality: never stopping working because one is unable to live in the moment, here and now. As you might have guessed, my ex-boss made every single employee in her little company jumpy, stressed and … well, workaholics. I hope you agree with me when I say that this is not something you should be proud of.

On the contrary, being a workaholic is now considered an addiction like gambling or smoking. It also means that you are afraid to live a life outside the office, and so, you are your work. This is OK after a painful breakup or a death in the family. Work can be therapeutic and a refuge for a while… But it becomes dangerous when this is all you care about for a long time.

What happens when you don’t want to deal with the cause of your being a workaholic? Well, you start glorifying work, you tell everyone how busy you are, how outstanding your job is, and that if you stop working… it is going to be the end of the world! Then, gradually but steadily, you start enjoying the stress and the adrenalin and the rush and the deadlines until one day, suddenly, this is all you want and need in life. You know those people who have their days planned out for months ahead? Yeah…

Remember that lady who told me: “Oh, I thrive on stress”? She also told me that she can’t sleep at night, insomnia is her friend, and without pills, she wouldn’t be functioning well during the day. Perfection kills us; this is a slogan we see a lot but don’t genuinely understand. Until it does.

We don’t live to work. We work to live.