What does it mean to be addicted to work?
Workaholism is merely a reaction to a need to be right, to be in control. According to Judith Sills, Ph.D. in Excess Baggage , "You are an organized person who treasures productivity. If you had a psychiatric label it would be obsessive & compulsive, and you brag about being a workaholic."
Sudden impulses affect people's decisions. They look around and want everyone else to follow the rules as they see them. As they live them. When they don't, it leads to frustration and resentment. Addictive entrepreneurs are satisfied with their decisions until they've checked with every marketing guru they subscribe to, past e-mails, tapes, CDs, DVDs, home study courses, coaches, mentors and seminars to make sure they've made the correct decision. They are not only addicted to work but in "love" with their gurus.
Addicted entrepreneurs set up rigid expectations about their future. They write a business plan, get funding, buy some equipment and advertise your plan to make $100,000 in your first year working from home. Then addictive thinking kicks in; challenging your decisions, jeopardizing your intuitive reasoning and tempting you to reconsider why you bought an online basket weaving franchise in the first place.
This back and forth thought paralysis leads to procrastination, perfectionism and impulsiveness to distract yourself with something that won't talk back to you so harshly. A distraction that will soothe your bruised ego and reassure you that just for a few minutes you can jump online and surf to your hearts content, paralyzing your plans and distancing your healthy drive to succeed for a moment of fake pleasure.
The bottom line is that to be successful in business and in life you'll need to cultivate a sense of balance in your life. Choose to do work you love, delegate the rest. Find time each day to sit quietly with yourself and enjoy the tranquility of not having to think about anything but yourself, as difficult as that might be for you to face. Be decisive by trusting your own intuition while balancing the advice you seek from professionals who can hold you accountable.
Most of all, let go of the notion that you have to be perfect.
Allan J. Katz is a former marketing consultant and entrepreneur now working toward his Masters Degree in Counseling at the University of Memphis. A workaholic by nature, Mr. Katz is the author of Addictive Entrepreneurship upon which this article is based.