Warwick Life Strategies

In last week's blog, I wrote about the fine line between workaholism and merely being passionate about one's work. Interestingly, soon after I wrote that post, I read an article in the July 2010 edition of Alive ("Canada's Natural Health & Wellness Magazine") written by Grant Pasay entitled, "Quitting Your Way to Wellness". Pasay writes about the overload we experience in our lives. Although we make an effort to purposely quit things to achieve greater wellness (such as smoking or drinking), we rarely see work as a potentially harmful and destructive activity.

In today's increasingly competitive world, I think many of us feel that in order to be successful and keep our job, we must spend more hours actively working and continuously increasing our output. We begin to find ourselves off-kilter and out of balance. It results in burn out, illness, strained relationships, depression, anxiety, and the list goes on.

As the article's author writes, unless we experience a crisis or the situation is dire, we "usually don't quit work to enhance our wellness". Although our work environment is far less than ideal, and may even be harmful or toxic to our health, we tend to stick it out.

Of course, in our world today jobs can be tough to come by. Some people would argue that a bad job is better than no job and that concern over its impact on wellness is secondary to the reality of putting a roof over your head and food on the table. As well, we live in a society where work, work, work is the norm and the reluctance to quit is understandable. The importance and necessity of working hard has been ingrained in many of us.

As well, the benefits of 'working' (paid or unpaid) extend beyond the financial. It also allows us to connect both socially and professionally and it forms a big part of our self-identity. The reality is that our identities are often closely tied to what we do for a living. It's no wonder that quitting a job (even one that might not be healthy for us) creates some anxiety, concern and self-doubt.

This article refers to some interesting studies relating to the retired population. Contrary to popular opinion (that retirement has a negative effect on one's health), these showed that at least to a small degree for men, retirement had a positive impact on one's physical health (the results for women were less statistically significant). In another study, psychological well-being was also positively associated with retirement.

Although many people would love the option to retire, that might not be their current reality. This article suggested taking "mini-retirements" (for 2-3 months) to rest, relax, and reflect. Even this may be out of the realm of possibility...so what else? How about investigating opportunities for a more flexible work schedule (such as working 4 days instead of 5) or job sharing to reduce the total workload? Other suggestions given were to pay someone to take on one of the tasks that burden you (such as tending to the lawn or snow removal) and eliminating consumption that adds little value to your life. I love these suggestions because they cause you to truly reflect on your life and to think about what's most important to you and your family and decide what you might need to 'quit' to improve your total wellness. As the author says, "why wait for a crisis? Ask yourself today what work you could quit to improve your wellness?"