Purchasing Dr. Bryan Robinson's new book, #Chill: Turn Off Your Job and Turn On Your Life, was a bit of a subversive act for me. I didn't intend to use it the way he had intended!
While I am not lazy and can spend an enormous amount of time and energy on work, I have never been a workaholic. I've always been more focused on my personal life. When people tell me they work 60-hour weeks -- month after month, year after year -- I am in awe. Even though many of them don't like their jobs, they do often get the results they want: money, status, power, security. I wanted to find out what drives workaholics, hoping to learn some of their secrets.
Dr. Robinson writes from his own experience of having been a work addict from early childhood through much of his adult life to the point of nearly ruining his health and his most significant relationships. He has taken the insights gained from his time with Workaholics Anonymous, his therapy clients, and his spiritual practices and condensed them into a useful book for anyone struggling with an imbalanced work and personal life.
Each month of #Chill is divided into twenty or so easy exercises or contemplations designed to help the reader relax, let go, and open themselves to a more balanced life. It would be best used as workbook. His suggestions are down-to-earth, simple and effective mindfulness techniques to gently change the choices you make each day. Change your choices and you change your life.
The biggest surprise for me in reading this book is that I discovered I already share many of the not-so-positive qualities of a workaholic -- perfectionism, a tendency to all-or-nothing thinking, the need for approval. The list goes on. I suspect most of us share some of these qualities.
While I didn't find any behaviors in a workaholic worthy of emulation, I did discover in this book tools to help me counteract the negative, life-limiting behaviors I already share with them.
I recommend this book to anyone struggling to find balance in their lives.