Don’t live to work, work to live

There is a widespread myth according to which working harder every day helps build a better professional future. It is a myth because, although having long working hours can eventually contribute to improving income, over time the only thing it helps is that you develop professional fatigue and perform less in your work.

Working hard is seen by many as the path to success. They are partly right, there are few possibilities of truly succeeding if it is not through continued effort. What they get wrong is the fact that hard work is not necessarily overwork. In fact, It is proven that overwork leads to poorer results.

The most serious thing is that many discover these great truths when it is too late. When they have already become ill from stress or any other mental pathology. This discovery also occurs when people realize that due to their level of demand they have lost moments that they will no longer get back. and those who rationally would never have given up.

They face a divorce due to emotional distance from their partners, or they realize that their children are already grown and have never shared an afternoon of playing with them. They wake up one day and when they open their eyes, a deep sorrow invades them, a pain that, on the other hand, money or social recognition hardly consoles.

The effects of overworking

Almost everyone believes that they should work as hard as they can when they are young, in order to ensure a comfortable retirement. However, they soon realize that After eight hours a day dedicated to an activity, the mind begins to wander and disperse. It takes a lot of work to concentrate on what you are doing and, sometimes, to also have a restful sleep.

Over time, these symptoms transform into general discouragement.. You feel sad all the time, with anguish for trying to fully fulfill all your obligations and with a feeling of guilt for not making everything perfect.

That’s when you become irritable. You dislike everything, or almost everything. Then you justify your bad mood by telling yourself that you are a serious person, that your goals are set very high and that you cannot go through life smiling in the face of everything. “That’s what idealistic losers are for,” you add.

You feel that there will be time for your personal life. The opportunity is here and now and you can’t miss it. Sure you have to make some sacrifices, but your goals are worth it. Without realizing it, you are becoming a cog in a production gear and you are exchanging your health and happiness for money. A money that you plan to take advantage of when you no longer have the youth left to do so.

Don’t live just to work

According to a study by Bannai and Tamakoshi Overwork is the basis of almost all sleep problems and coronary heart disease.. It has also been discovered that those who work more often become alcohol consumers more easily, develop type 2 diabetes more frequently and are at greater risk of suffering from syndrome. burnout .

No matter which way you look at it, overwork does not bring anything good. Except, perhaps, for some extra money at the end of the month that, in any case, is not enough to pay for what you are doing to your physical and emotional health.

The only way out of this prison circle is the most obvious: work less.. The limit of eight hours a day, five days a week, is fine, although there are jobs that require shorter hours. If the physical, mental or emotional exhaustion is very high, it is worth considering 6 hours as the indicated limit.

Of course, we know that this is not easy and that two major barriers may appear on the path to change. One, many bosses are not going to want you to work less. And two, you must persuade yourself that working less is not a sign of weakness, but of intelligence.

Faced with the first, you can get around it by organizing your work in such a way that you complete your day dedicating the indicated number of hours to difficult tasks and leaving the rest for simple activities. As for the second, it depends solely on you.

Three keys to avoid overworking

To prevent work from becoming an endless activity that consumes the best moments of your life and ruins your health, here are three ideas you can apply. You have them below:

It is better to save more and work less. Most of the time, the more you earn, the more you spend. That’s why money never reaches you. If you decide, instead, to encourage the habit of continued and consistent savings, you may be surprised by the results. Maybe you should learn to postpone spending and plan your finances better.Listen to your body. No disease appears suddenly, but rather it develops little by little and sends multiple warnings before appearing. Don’t be insensitive to what your body tells you. Recognize the signs of fatigue and pay attention to them.Recognize and accept your limits. Maturity begins when you are able to recognize the limits of reality, starting with your own limits. Maybe you want to succeed more than anyone else, but you can’t do it at the expense of your health and well-being. In fact, if you dedicate yourself with pleasure to what you do, if you put a “this far” into your workday, you have a greater chance of achieving excellence in what you do. The money, even if it takes a little longer, will probably come later.

Remember to work to live, not live to work. The system pressures you to produce like a machine and disguises it as personal fulfillment and success, but at the end of the day you can’t help but hear the pleas from your back. Listen to them and take them seriously.

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