What’s that expression, “Doctor, heal thyself”? You ever walk outside of a hospital and see the medical staff standing in clusters surreptitiously smoking cigarettes, and think to yourself, “Are you kidding me?” Of any humans on the planet, these people should see the deleterious health effects of smoking, and yet, here they are, publicly demonstrating their contempt for the known consequences of this behavior.
While I smugly think, “I would never engage in a behavior that I knew for a fact was unhealthy,” I’ve come uncomfortably close to the metaphorical meaning of this phrase recently at work.
The desire to work hard and do a great job for my employees and clients runs very strong in me. While I was raising my daughters, that drive was tempered by the need and wish to spend time with them as well as work. This forced me, in a way, to limit my working hours to a somewhat sane number.
Once they were in college, and now, living their own “launched” and independent lives, all bets were off. I could work as many hours as I wanted! Yippee!
Who remembers the line from The Shining…”All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeOevu4zC5o
Well, I fell into the trap of working 9, 10, 11, 12 or more hours per day. I only made time for exercising, eating and sleeping. Talk about dull.
My dreams became all work-related, there was no respite.
I love my job, I love the people I work with, I love helping my clients.
Do I really need to work those hours? Jeez, I hope not.
I always considered myself an ace time manager, and still feel that I am. My problem seems to be that I like “doing” too much! As I try to say “no” to activities at work that aren’t a great use of my time, I still fall victim to the line of thinking that holds “it’s quicker just to do it myself than explain to someone else how to do it.”
Well, I’m going to try to make a better effort at curtailing that bad and unhealthy behavior. Just like the smoking nurses, I know what I’m doing is not good for me. Now that I’ve “outed” myself, I hope those handful of you who read my blogs will call me on it (nicely and sweetly, please, with loads of compassion and understanding) and positively encourage me to do better at doing less.
