Hi there,
Recently for me, flexible working has really shown it’s muscle.
I had a cold and so I simply cancelled every plan I had this week and worked my cotton socks off indoors rather than trudging miserably into the office. And never have I been more grateful for that choice.
Let’s be frank, life can be bloody hard enough sometimes. So, let’s at least take the opportunity to be kind to ourselves when we need to. Which brings me on nicely to another thing that I’ve been carefully doing this week: very consciously uncoupling from work.
Now, before you fear that Gwynnie’s taken over your favourite weekly newsletter, let me explain what I mean.
I’ve got a theory that, for many of us, work is our biggest addiction. The most socially acceptable yet equally dangerous addiction there is.
- We make it our higher power.
- We prioritise it at the expense of everything else.
- We use it as our identity.
- It validates us.
- We turn to it when we feel rubbish to make us feel better.
- We escape or distract ourselves within it.
- We do it to our detriment.
- And we lose relationships for the sake of it.
Quite frankly, you could swap out the word work and replace it with heroin or alcohol in the above sentences and it would have exactly the same effect.
So, I hope you can see, it’s a real problem. And I have to be honest that until not that long ago, I had no idea where PUSH ended and I began. Over the last few months I have become incredibly aware of this and have decided to change it.
That’s not to say that PUSH and our work isn’t important to me, they truly are. But so am I. The most important actually - because without me, none of this stuff exists in my world.
One of my friends, Electra, put it beautifully when she was talking about her business: "I had become work - and that wasn’t the happiest place to be in my life".
If you recognise any of this to be true for you (and let’s be honest, there are a lot of us who have a ‘a great work ethic’ aka work-addiction) then here are some things to think about:
Most importantly, why do you think you prioritise work at all costs? And, no, the answer isn't about workload - it's about you. So, for me, financial security means safety. For another friend of mine, she knows her job title makes her feel better about herself and gives her status.
Then, ask yourself:
- Who am I outside of work? Who do I want to be?
- If life were a patchwork quilt, what would all the pieces be? How big do I want each of the pieces to be?
- What do I actually want life to look like?
- What are the options?
- How do I want to feel? What does a life look like that enables that?
I would love to hear people’s thoughts on this and if you can relate.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Cate x
Hi there,
Recently for me, flexible working has really shown it’s muscle.
I had a cold and so I simply cancelled every plan I had this week and worked my cotton socks off indoors rather than trudging miserably into the office. And never have I been more grateful for that choice.
Let’s be frank, life can be bloody hard enough sometimes. So, let’s at least take the opportunity to be kind to ourselves when we need to. Which brings me on nicely to another thing that I’ve been carefully doing this week: very consciously uncoupling from work.
Now, before you fear that Gwynnie’s taken over your favourite weekly newsletter, let me explain what I mean.
I’ve got a theory that, for many of us, work is our biggest addiction. The most socially acceptable yet equally dangerous addiction there is.
- We make it our higher power.
- We prioritise it at the expense of everything else.
- We use it as our identity.
- It validates us.
- We turn to it when we feel rubbish to make us feel better.
- We escape or distract ourselves within it.
- We do it to our detriment.
- And we lose relationships for the sake of it.
Quite frankly, you could swap out the word work and replace it with heroin or alcohol in the above sentences and it would have exactly the same effect.
So, I hope you can see, it’s a real problem. And I have to be honest that until not that long ago, I had no idea where PUSH ended and I began. Over the last few months I have become incredibly aware of this and have decided to change it.
That’s not to say that PUSH and our work isn’t important to me, they truly are. But so am I. The most important actually - because without me, none of this stuff exists in my world.
One of my friends, Electra, put it beautifully when she was talking about her business: "I had become work - and that wasn’t the happiest place to be in my life".
If you recognise any of this to be true for you (and let’s be honest, there are a lot of us who have a ‘a great work ethic’ aka work-addiction) then here are some things to think about:
Most importantly, why do you think you prioritise work at all costs? And, no, the answer isn't about workload - it's about you. So, for me, financial security means safety. For another friend of mine, she knows her job title makes her feel better about herself and gives her status.
Then, ask yourself:
- Who am I outside of work? Who do I want to be?
- If life were a patchwork quilt, what would all the pieces be? How big do I want each of the pieces to be?
- What do I actually want life to look like?
- What are the options?
- How do I want to feel? What does a life look like that enables that?
I would love to hear people’s thoughts on this and if you can relate.
Look forward to hearing from you!
Cate x
