Photo by herval

#3 in the What’s Holding You Back series — designed to help you think about why you are not moving forward in your job search, career, or life.

Someone who works really hard should be an asset to an employer, right? Why would being a workaholic hold you back?

We are meant to have more than work in our lives. Now I love my work, I love helping people move forward in their careers and I love technology. I love learning but I confess that even though I have been self-employed for over 20 years, I am pretty much a workaholic.

What does that mean in relationship to success in your career? We all need to have perspective in our lives too. When you focus on one thing too much, it closes the door to what is all around you. Though I said I love learning, I find that I am often doing most of my learning on the computer and not in the large library of books that I have.

I love reading everything, but I put reading fiction and even non-fiction on the back burner because I am busy and a myriad of other things like gardening, yardwork, fitness, and more. When you adapt a workaholic methodology, you focus so hard on the tasks or projects at hand that you tend to ignore the things that add to the value of your life.

If you work in an office setting, working long hours may seem like the only way to get ahead but it can rob you of the influences of other people and networking opportunities or just relaxation. Balance is a funny word because when you are happy doing whatever it is you do, you don’t feel like you are working. But balance means integrating other aspects besides whatever is work to you into your life.

Not taking a vacation at all, banking your vacation hours sounds like a dedicated employee but in reality, it robs you and your company of the opportunity to step back and let your brain focus on other things.

Determine what things are important to you and make sure that you do some of them every day — besides work. If you like walking, running, skiing, swimming… go do it… If you like cooking or gardening, fit it into your life.

We aren’t meant to be robots. Think about it… I promise to work on not being a workaholic too!

Teddy

Fortunately, I have Teddy, the German Shepherd, to put his paw on my leg and say, Mom, I want You to go outside with me!