Are You A Workaholic?

Have you ever met a workaholic?

In the 1960's Japan, a term was coined:

According to Wikipedia, Karōshi (過労死, karōshi: which quite literally means "Death From Overwork", is occupational sudden death. The major medical causes of karōshi deaths are heart attack and stroke due to stress.

Does karōshi (death from overwork) sound fun to you?

Yeah, not to me, either. Yet, I've met many people who are definitely victims of overwork, and quite possibly on their way to a karōshi.

Just yesterday, I met a manager of an aerospace company who shared with me that he oversees a division of 30 direct reports, and 300 more underneath that team. He bragged that "I decide when I can come and go. I decide where I travel." Okay, great. But, guess what? He also confided, "I took only 6 vacation days in the past three years." In my opinion, this fine gentleman is suffering from a karōshi addiction to work.

According to a Wikipedia article:

Usually, Japan's rise from the devastation of World War II to economic prominence in the post-war decades has been regarded as the trigger for what has been called a new epidemic. It was recognized that employees cannot work for twelve or more hours a day, six or seven days a week, year after year, without suffering physically as well as mentally. A recent measurement found that a Japanese worker has approximately two hours overtime a day on average. In almost all cases, the overtime is unpaid. The recent international expansion of Japanese multinationals has also led to an export of the Karōshi culture to countries such as China, Korea and Taiwan.

While this problem may be lesser-known in America, nevertheless it is not unknown in other countries, as well. In the Netherlands, workers are known to overwork. Check this out: according to WebMD's Sid Kirchheimer, people have actually developed "leisure illness," a phenomenon that occurs from getting ill while trying (albeit unsuccessfully) to relax on vacation. The problem? They're so used to overwork that they simply cannot relax. Crazy, huh?

In the United States, the average worker takes 12 vacation days a year. If you ask me, that's nowhere near enough time to balance a person's life. We need at least three weeks - probably four weeks at minimum - to re-balance our lives from our work schedules.

Yet, employers routinely dole-out only two weeks vacation. It's disgusting. Workers need to request MORE vacation and point out how much their health suffers when they don't get to take a break. It's our life - it is up to us to stand-up and speak-out!

In Europe, they seem to have a better handle on work-life-balance. Europeans average 4 to 8 weeks of vacation a year. Clearly, they have a better understanding of the important things in life: experiences with friends and family. The only way to have these quality experiences is to take VACATIONS and TAKE TIME for these important people. Not only that, but it is critical to take a break just to recharge our batteries and refresh our soul.

(Please note: I need to fix this chart - Stress is on the X axis and performance on the Y-axis, but otherwise, everything is correct here.) The point is that our productivity drops dramatically when we are fatigued.

Are you a workaholic?

Are you spending enough time with your loved ones?

Another way to ask this is: are you taking enough vacation and time for life?

If you're a workaholic, you may be heading for a stroke, heart-attack, or stroke. In any event, you're probably more stressed-out and more difficult to be around, because you're not balancing your life.

Do something about this before it is too late. If your loved ones have been expressing worry about how much you work, take a break. If you notice that you're getting more stressed-out than you used to, why not build in a few more vacations each year and take more weekends away from the Blackberry, computer, and cell phone?

Sometimes, the answer isn't to take Prozac but rather to take a vacation.

Remember: in the end, we do not take our company with us, our paychecks do not go with us, nor does the debt, nor the toys, when we pass away. In the end, the only thing that matters most is the quality time we spend with those we love the most. Most often, those people are our friends and family members.

In the military, there are obvious results from stress and fatigue. Officers frequently report that "exhausted men offer little more worth than dead men" in many cases. I've seen this first hand. When, in a strategy game simulation playing "Rome: Total War" I noticed a huge difference in performance in my troops when they were stressed. For example, in examining the difference between a "fresh" unit, a "warmed-up" unit, a "tired" unit, and "exhausted" unit, my "fresh" units far outperformed equally equipped, talented, staffed, and trained "exhausted" units. In addition, units placed in unfair position (downhill vs. an uphill force), units "surprised" by an enemy, and units in fear of a superior force (such as infantry vs. cavalry or cavalry vs. elephants) also fared poorly. When mismatched, it is obvious that troops will suffer undue stress, and that stress will cause the unit to break, flee, and become routed by the enemy.

How are we any different in our work life?

If you are a workaholic, I suggest you seek out professional assistance from a doctor, career therapist, or other professional. Also, why not seek out a "life coach" to help you rebalance your life before you die of karōshi? Ultimately, your life will be far more balanced and you ought to experience higher happiness.

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Copyright © 2008 AspireNow. All rights reserved. Want more? Subscribe to the A-Blog.

Your SOUL Self

Your SOUL Self

Who are we to say we can't? When the truth is always there, waiting for us to just acknowledge that WE CAN.

Our soul always believes in us. Our soul knows we can do what we want and live our dreams.

Our soul is part of the infinite conscious energy that flows through all things. How can that possibly steer us any way but where we ought to be?

(Image) Scott Andrews w/Black Market Trio at Carried Away Art Gallery (2007) w/Justin Perkins on Conga, Forrestt Williams, Bass

The soul is there, always shining, always interested in our highest good (because that simply IS what it IS). The soul only requires us to BE who we are, without worrying about WHAT is in store or WHY things happen. Just BE. When we live according to our soul, we're really living life as God and nature intended.

It is only WE who get can in our own way, when it comes to that stuff. Only we could let our ego get a hold of things. Only we could let pain from abuse beat us down. Only we can let that critical mind or negative self-talk talk us out of our dreams. And, yes, only we can decide when to push all of that junk out of the way and embrace our true self. It's our journey, after all.

I remember I let my own "shadow" self mess with me in my 20's when I played my sax, hours a day, just so I could play live in small groups in front of people. I went and sat in with my favorite jazz combo, the A.J. Johnson West Coast Jazz All-stars at one of the best jazz clubs in San Francisco, Jazz At Pearl's. If you haven't done it, sitting in may be the hardest thing in the world to do in many jazz clubs. You don't know what songs they're going to play and you're not the "home turf" band. But, I remember when I played "Seven Steps To Heaven" that I tore it up and thrilled the crowd and fellow musicians with my sax riffs. They loved me! People were saying things like "Where are you from, man!?" I felt like Charlie Parker, himself. I was on cloud nine. But the next night, I went back for more. This time was different. The amazing piano player, Mark Levine, returned fresh from a stint in New York playing with Pharoah Sanders (a legend on the saxophone). He called out a song that is half Latin-half jazz, called "Speak Low". You either know Speak Low, or you don't.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize that truth until too late. I thought I'd played it before but KNEW I didn't know the chords. Rather than just sit down or cut out, I tried to fake it. And, I bombed horribly. Every single note was a lizard. It was so ugly. I realized the bind I was in, live, in this ultra-cool jazz club, with world-renowned musicians, and flopping miserably. My face, body, upper lip, arm-pits - heck, I think even my scalp and my toes - broke out in flop-sweat! I let that experience stop me from playing with ANYONE for THREE YEARS. I was that embarrassed. I just felt like I wasn't "good enough" to cut it. How foolish could I have been?

They still LIKED me. I could still have gone back in there any time and played with anyone else. I just didn't.

Can you imagine a sax player as talented as me letting years go by without playing live, something I truly love and enjoy, over something as silly as flopping on one very difficult song (if you don't know it) on one night that probably nobody else remembers? Well, I did it. And, I'll never do that again. I was born to play, and play live.

Since that time, in my own band, any time anyone wants to create a song, live on the fly in front of everyone, I EMBRACE it. I go for it. And, amazingly, some of our BEST music comes out in those moments. I recall a night at the club called Blue, when my guitar player's wife, Katie, came up to me when we were jamming on this funky song, and she asked me, "Hey, what's the name of this song!?" I responded back, "What do you want it to be called?" She said, "Oh, did you write it this week in practice?" I laughed and said, "No, we're writing it now!" :) That's how good the band I lead can be sometimes (Body). It was a crowning moment of that night, to have something coming in the moment, music from our soul, pouring through our bodies, through our instruments and relaying to the dancers and listeners in the room so that they were so inspired as to want to know the song and remember that moment. Isn't that what music can be about, when we trust in our ability to hear and play, when it's great like that?

Now, I sit in with anyone, and if I don't know the song, I either say that, or I just don't play it at all. But, more likely, I learn it live on the fly. We get better in time. I control my situations more, but I also don't freak when I don't know something. Now, I embrace playing songs and changes I've never heard before. It causes you to listen with bigger ears. If I hit too many wrong notes, rather than flop-out, I cease playing for a minute or two, and just listen. Because when your heart and ears are open and when your mind isn't blocking you, you can play anything! It's a whole new experience. It becomes a SOUL experience.

It is a SOUL experience because that's when we are truly aligned with who we really are supposed to be: our spiritual self. We can be this self in ANY situation, at ANY time. Because the soul does not have those boundaries or limitations like time, place, or thing. It just IS.

That's our highest self. That's our highest good. That's our best person we can be.

Are you aligned with your highest self? Are you living SOUL experiences?

It requires you to stop the chatter... listen to the stuff inside you... get into nature and BREATHE!

Another really good resource on this subject is my friend, Michelle Casto (http://www.brightlightcoach.com/). Michelle writes, speaks, and coaches about embracing your soul and digging into the space beyond the clutter, beneath the chatter mind, into the space that enables you to reach what Stevie Wonder calls "Higher Ground" and be your best self.

I truly encourage you to embrace that part of yourself and live according to what you hear from THAT self: your SOUL self. See, that's what I love about jazz music. True jazz musicians always encourage each other to jump back in and play. Just play what you feel, play what you hear, and play it in the moment!

For coaching on this matter, contact Scott Andrews at 805-459-6939 or email me directly.

*****
Comment:
Scott, So glad to see this article on leading our lives from our soul's guidance rather than our ego's needs. You forgot to mention that we will be discussing this topic, Wed. Feb 6, on the Talk Shoe Aspire Now show:

http://www.talkshoe.com/tc/37992
6 pm PST/9pm EST.

All who yearn for true fulfillment and success from the inside out should call in and talk with us!

Brightly,
Dr. Michelle
The Soul Coach
http://www.brightlightcoach.coom/
******
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Copyright © 2008 AspireNow. All rights reserved. Want more? Subscribe to the A-Blog.

Live In The Moment

In a chat with my brother yesterday, we were discussing the value of living in the moment.

It is so easy to get caught up worrying about tomorrow, the future, with concerns that face us in life: the mortgage, relationship success/failure, career challenges, health issues, our children's safety, and more. How many of these do you worry about? How about FINANCES? That's the biggie for most people.

The problem for many people is their desire for instant gratification when shopping. So, they buy things they don't really need. Then they get into credit card debt. That spirals to include other debts when things like the car transmission go out. Then unexpected events occur. Health problems crop up. The career goes sideways, and debt problems build.

Is this you?

I've been there. The key is to spot how we cope with stress, and find better ways to cope with it. This is what AA is all about. It isn't about helping you quit drinking alcohol. Of course you want to do that or you'd never go to a meeting. What AA really does is help you cope with YOU. Your thoughts, your reality, your stresses you carry around when you are SOBER. Let's face it, booze is probably the #1 drug of choice to "deaden" our senses so that we can deal with the voices in our head. I have a good friend who told me that's why he drinks. I told him he needs to quit drinking so he can listen to the voices and decide if they're full of bull or not. If the voices are wrong, find new friends! Ha!

Other people get into financial trouble because their method of coping with reality is to go shopping whenever they face stress. Then they buy things they don't need. My solution to that problem is to find a different method of coping, something more natural, like going for a bicycle ride or a walk in a nature environment. I've been doing that and it works quite well for me. One other way to cope with spending too much when out shopping is to ask the following four questions: (1) Do I need it? (2) Do I LOVE it? (3) Can I afford it right now? and (4) Do I really want to own it? (Are the caring costs higher than I want to spend?) When I ask myself these questions, I can almost always walk away from anything in front of me. These questions also take me to the resolution of the challenge: it's about being present with right now.

Well, the challenge as I see it is to BE HERE NOW. That's partly what AspireNow is all about. It is about living your aspirations in the now. If you don't realize what I mean, consider how you set your daily "to-do" list. Do you write it all out on a long paper? Is it on your computer? Do you have more than 3 - 5 items on the list each day? Do they carry over, week to week to week? If that is the case, you are not serious about your to-do list. Not only that, you're not focused on what you need to do now.

One of my mentors is the former Notre Dame coach, Lou Holtz. I remember an inspiring film I saw about Lou while I worked at DecisionOne. He was telling his players on his football team that what matters most is to WIN. And to WIN, you must do What's Important Now. What a brilliant saying! I've been using it ever since (thanks, Lou!) You see, Lou understood that you don't win football games in the Fall and Winter if you don't workout and condition your body for success in the Spring and Summer. When a player is working out during the Spring they are implementing WIN - what's important now - in their attitude towards success in their endeavor.

The last point I want to make about Being Here Now is to point out that worry is often just that: most of what people worry about never comes to pass. That's right, most of your worries are for NOTHING. Considering that, why worry at all? A question I like to ask myself is, "Will it matter a year from now?" whenever I am upset or worried about anything. About 98% of the time, the answer is no. I then can choose to focus on the 2% and deal with that. It's a lot easy dealing with two things than 98 things, don't you agree?

A simple life is an easier life. Don't over-complicate your life with unnecessary worry. Keep it simple. Keep it focused on What Is Important Now. The rest can take care of itself.
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Copyright © 2008 AspireNow. All rights reserved. Want more? Subscribe to the A-Blog.