“I want to be a human being, not a human doing.” Her challenge hangs in the air as we’re packing
suitcases for a week at the beach, two Type-A personalities trying to unwind
how we will balance the guilt we feel leaving behind our busy work schedules
with the glee and inspiration we know will appear when we unplug. We’ve just
spent a piece of the morning sipping coffee in a hot tub high in the mountains attempting
to solve this and other world problems.
We talk about work as an addiction, albeit an acceptable
addiction; something just as debilitating as alcohol or drugs, yet strangely
coveted because society has deemed constant running on the corporate treadmill
as the path to monetary rewards spelling happiness and success. But aren’t all
addictions the same in the end, excessive practices waxing compulsive with the
power to eventually consume us?
Think about it. The
runner pushing her legs unhealthy distances week after week in the name of
training for a marathon. The gamer in
front of his screen, fingers working the joystick level after level on a quest
for the top. Our unnatural attachment to
social media and the constant checking up on what everyone else is doing or,
more importantly, how they are responding to us. Are we living our lives or posting our
lives? These behaviors, and others like
them, when practiced in excess can intrude on our relationships, isolate us and
diminish the quality of our lives.
I’ve decided the warning flag is
time. It’s not the
activity itself that is offensive, but how long or how often you are subjecting
your body or your mind to any one task. Vices stealthily overtake us when we
continually dose more than is prescribed.
I remember vividly friends who, while many of us had to bribe our
children to read, deprived their son, a voracious reader, of books as
punishment for bad behavior. With only a
finite number of hours in the day, when we spend a disproportionate amount of
time on one activity, we leave room for little else. We humans need a rich life of social
interaction, quiet meditation, physical activity and heads-down concentration.
Spending too much time in any one place starts to interfere. And those who make
us aware of our imbalances tend to be the ones who care about us the most,
those who suffer when we are absent from other parts of life.
So maybe the answer isn’t to
completely disconnect from your work while on vacation. Sounds horrifying, I know, and it’s not
healthy to be that person who attempts to conduct business at the same pace on
vacation as at home. You may think you’re staying
on top of things, but while your travel companions silently steam, your back-up
at the office is wondering why you asked them to cover for you in the first
place. What I’m suggesting is checking in, reading messages periodically
and responding only to what’s critical, or taking a call or
two to keep what feels urgent moving.
Conversely, and infinitely more difficult, I submit we don’t
completely disconnect from vacation while at home. How can we routinely carve out time for other
elements of life during work days that have grown exceedingly protracted with
the onslaught of technology? We think we’re
expected to be available and responsive in the wee hours of the morning, during
the lunch hour and deep into the night, but are we? What would happen if we set boundaries around
our time or allowed other activities to weave in and out? Can we truly define and maintain our own
balance?
No comments:
Post a Comment