Change Your Norm (Workaholics)
- April C
- May 9, 2025
- 4 min read
The Reality
People want productivity. People want that drive. People want to hustle. However, that doesn’t mean you should constantly be working every single second of your life. Unfortunately, it’s a privilege to take breaks. If we take a break, we lose an opportunity. Once we stop working, someone will be a step ahead while we’re a step behind. We are all in that mindset of constantly needing to work because we feel that is our identity.
Whether we are students, employees, or CEOS, we all try to strive for a work-life balance. Although it’s the ideal, it’s not the reality. We all want success…
Wait…
What really is success?
Let’s take a step back. Is working every second really what we want? Is that really the ideal life? What exactly is success, and how can we achieve it?
Success
Imagine yourself in your ideal future. What do you see? What do you hear? What do you taste?
Now… How do you feel?
If you want to be rich… Why? Is it to make you happy, or is it to make you comfortable?
We all work for that “ideal” life to feel comfortable in the future. Whether that’s early retirement, becoming rich, or being at the top level.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Everyone has a different ideal life. Everyone has a different view of success, but we all do the same thing. We all work to the bone. No matter how we view success, we all need a work-life balance.
Unfortunately, it’s a privilege to have that balance because we need all the opportunities we can get to live. However, we need to understand that constantly working by ourselves… Leads to burnout.
Burnout
What is burnout?
It’s a psychological feeling of exhaustion that can happen from various reasons that become constant patterns. All that stress piles up, leading to a feeling of emptiness. It’s almost like we don’t care anymore. How exactly can you tell that you are experiencing burnout? Well, the common symptoms include:
Feeling exhausted
Lack of enthusiasm and feelings of negativity towards your work
Losing the ability to do your work
A lot of symptoms of stress are also included, but if you really want to understand what it feels like, stay tuned for another article that will speak more in-depth about burnout.
Right now, we will be getting deeper into the reality of workaholics.
The Issue
What is a workaholic?
A workaholic spends A LOT of time working, more than needed and more than they should.
Traits can include:
Constantly thinking about work
Making themselves constantly available for work-related tasks
Constantly check work-related emails and messages during their breaks
Feels guilty or anxious when they are not working
Having difficulty saying no to additional work tasks
Feels hesitant to take breaks or vacations
All of this leads to burnout, which was mentioned earlier above. Burnout then actually makes people take a step back from their goals. It makes them perform less than expected in their future tasks, and their exhaustion gives lacklustre results.
If you truly want to be comfortable, understand that to reach that goal, you need to have the right mindset.
Now, that’s easier said than done. A lot of people are constantly working, or may even be workaholics, which drives that competition. However, it’s not going to do anything for us. What we need to do is…
Care less.
We shouldn’t be so driven by expectations. Instead of waiting for comfort in the future, why not have that comfort now? How can we do that?
The New Beginning
The first step is acknowledging your relationship with work. Perhaps it’s going great for you, and you’ve been having a comfortable time. Or maybe there needs to be an adjustment. You need to make that call.
Next, look into prioritizing your goals. Not everything is urgent. You need to use critical thinking skills (it takes practice to develop) to understand what needs to be done first.
Look at this chart and organize your tasks:
Create a system that works for you. Productivity isn’t working constantly. It’s working on the right things at the right times.
Please check out A Workaholic's Guide to Reclaiming Your Life to learn more details on ways to balance your relationship with work.
Next, understand that it’s okay to rest and get support. Maybe you need to open those emotions you’ve been suppressing in a bottle to someone. Maybe you just need a long sleep. Perhaps you need to do some self-care. There are many ways to take a rest; all you need to do is rest your mind.
You are not alone and you don’t have to tire yourself out for your goals. You just need to figure out a system that works best for you. This article is about burnout, but perhaps in the future, there will be psychological tricks that will be revealed in future articles. Stay tuned and remember, Locker SYS is here for you!
References
A workaholic’s guide to reclaiming your life. (2024, September 10). Harvard Business Review.
Contributor, W. E. (n.d.). Burnout: Symptoms and signs. WebMD. Retrieved 19 April 2025, from
Workaholic: Symptoms, diagnosis, and when to get help. (2023, July 26).
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