Workaholics Anonymous

I love working. Honestly, working brings me joy and an overwhelming sense of accomplishment, which are not inherently bad things to feel. It’s good to enjoy what you do, right? I always end up crossing over into the “this is not super healthy” realm when work takes over every area of my life, something that happens with alarming frequency. When I take such pride in my work that it begins to become my identity then we have a very serious problem.

Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about this, pondering the nature of my personality and my drive for accomplishment. I’ve heard many who are hard workers utter the phrase, with all sincerity, “work hard, play hard”. But, for me, it’s “work hard and then work harder”. You see, many of the things I find enjoyable are things that I do for “work”, so it can be difficult at times to separate the two.

I’m an introvert and the practice of not going to an office every day has contributed to my heightened introversion and workaholism. It sounds a little silly, but I honestly didn’t realize this would be the case. I knew that when I began working for myself I would remain obsessive about work, but I didn’t understand just how isolating this season of my life could be. Once I get into that introvert mode I have a tendency to stay in that place – it can be difficult for me to get out of, no matter how much I know I need to.

Enter healthy community.

I am so thankful for the people in my life who can pull me out of my cave when the need arises. These are the people who will randomly check in on me. More than that, when I’m having a rough time I can call them and they’re there to listen. They’re the ones who invite me over to their house or schedule dinner dates just because. Community is filled with those who will ask me the tough questions that I don’t want to answer but make me a better human being.

Are you a workaholic? If so, I understand your pain. I encourage you to reach out to your community and keep that lifeline of relationship open during those times when it’s easier to focus on processes and task lists. Ask people to hold you accountable and pull you out when you’ve gone too far down the workaholic hole. As I’ve said before, community is absolutely necessary and I wouldn’t recommend doing life without it.

If you want to dive deeper into this concept of community, check out the free guide here.