Are You a Workaholic?

Are You a Workaholic?

Being a workaholic is defined as working so much that it gets in the way of your relationships and life satisfaction. Work may have felt like a wonderful place to be at first, but now it’s getting in the way of your life and killing your relationships, and you’re doing it by choice and not to survive financially.

• You Never Feel Finished – If you feel like you can work 24/7 and never take a break but still never catch up, and you keep doing it day after day, neglecting yourself and your family and your entire life for work, it’s no longer healthy.
• You Have No Time for Anything but Work – If you don’t have anything in your calendar but work and never do anything but work, this is dangerous. If you can’t spend quality time with yourself, your friends, and your family, plus do other needed activities like housework, reading a book or something like that, work has taken over your life in a very unhealthy way.
• You Believe in The Hustle – Do you often joke about being part of the so-called hustle and making bank to the exclusion of the rest of your life. Think about why you work? You work to earn money for your life. Your work should never become your entire life because that will not make you happy.
• You Feel Anxious If You’re Not Working – Do you sometimes try to take time off for your friends or family or due to illness, but you can’t relax because your anxiety due to not working gets the best of you? So, when you’re not working, you just think about work the entire time and even sneak to work so as not to make your family or friends mad?
• You Make Enough Money, but You’re Still Not Happy – You don’t need to work so much to survive or even thrive financially. You’re just hoarding money and not spending and using it healthily so that you can someday work less and do more fun things is a big sign you’re a workaholic.
• You’re Never Disconnected from Work – You refuse to stop checking in electronically with your work no matter what you’re supposed to be doing instead. If you feel like you must be connected 24/7, it’s very unhealthy.
• You Lack Quality Sleep Due to Work – If you work so much you are unable to get quality sleep each night, it’s a definite sign that you may be a workaholic, especially if you’re doing it for no reason and don’t even need the additional money you might earn from doing it.

For many people, work is a place that they feel understood and worthwhile compared to how they feel in their relationships. Therefore, the workaholic often puts work above everything else because initially, work is where they feel great. If work no longer feels good and you don’t have time for the rest of your life, you may be a workaholic. Addressing the issues surrounding your need to work all the time is the best way to deal with it and get your life back in balance.