A new study conducted in Great Britain lays out how our 24/7 lifestyle is stressing us out and making us sick. The good news is we are now beginning to admit to the effect stress has on us. In our white man culture, we grew up bragging about how hard and long we worked as we denied stress’ effect on us.
Possibly, with the inclusion of women in the workplace or maybe the concern of baby boomers growing old, we are beginning to see open discussions about the true consequence of our life style have on us.
Here in the US we work 200 more hours per year now than we did in 1970 – that is five full weeks of extra work per year! Our annual vacations are nothing compared to other industrialized countries. In fact, other countries have required vacations, for example German requires 18 days per year, the UK 20, Japan 25 and France 30. Here in the US the average man works in the range of 50 hours per week with no required vacation days.
Joe Robinson has made a career out of getting us to take time off. He does a good job of compiling all the stats that our brain needs to justify taking time off. He proves that a good vacation improves our productivity.
Short of a vacation, what can you do?
- Get honest – where is your passion? Are you having fun, are you challenged in a good way with work? You know the difference between getting by and looking forward to work.
- Make a difference – what about your life is a contribution? When we give, we renew ourselves. 43things can prime your pump.
- Give to your body – when is the last time you had a massage? A massage is a like a mini-vacation. Not only does it relax us, getting a massage tells us that we are loved, by ourselves. Us guys can take a lesson from our women friends and stretch our ability to receive and get a massage.
- Personal renewal time – when was the last time you did nothing? I mean not a thing. When we taught our Mindfulness Stress Reduction courses, we told the students in the pre-interview it did not matter how well they did the home work; it was just that they did it. We required that for the eight weeks that every day the student listens to one of the 45 minute tapes. Most said they could not find the time before the course began. By the end of the course one, of the greatest benefits reported was the 45 minutes everyday they had alone doing nothing.
We all let our lives style evolve to a place where they are running us. Reversing burnout begins with making some small behavior changes. Our mind tells us we do not have the time or maybe the money. Do not listen to those voices; give yourself one of the above gifts each week for a month. You can be the rat that gets off his or her treadmill.
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