It’s pretty clear that money is what makes the world go round. If you’ve got money, you can afford to treat yourself and others around you. But you usually have to plan and fight to get enough money to afford these luxuries. You start when you’re young, looking for the best credit cards for building credit, opening a savings account, learning new job skills, finding ways to cut back your spending. But at the end of the day, your job is the majority of your income so it’s important to work hard to get where you want to be. But people can often become overworked and become stressed over their job.
This morning I was in line at the post office. I stood there talking to the lady at the counter like I do every week when I send out Self Love Beauty Beautiful Me Collection items. We chatted like we always do and I asked her how she has been. She shared with me that she has worked the last 20 days and finally had two days off, one in which she slept a full day and missed most of Christmas with her family. She still seemed exhausted to me. As we chatted the man next to us, shouted with pride that he had worked the last 23 days and that the lady was lucky to have two days off. (In my head I kept thinking, why do we always say with pride how much we work??)
As he stood in the background boasting about how much he has worked, her and I continued to chatted. She shared that she had made more money this year than ever before (great right?!?) but she told her manager she would take back all the money for more days off and more sleep. Her health was going down the tube.
I kept thinking, there has to be another way. How are we driving people to exhaustion? How are we allowing ourselves to risk our health for more money?
When did the paycheck outweigh our health?
More times than not we are hearing about people with mental illness, anxiety, stress and the list goes on. And in many of these cases these issues are related back to overworking ourselves.
This past year, I am the first to say I was like the lady at the post office and probably still am a little. I worked to exhaustion, worked past hours and missed important parts of life, etc. And why? What was the purpose? Did some of those hours actually matter or did I just waste time working when I could of handled my health and happiness more?
Health is a form of self-love and self-respect to your body. Sometimes we don’t even realize how good our body is designed to feel because we choose to overwork it. Our brains and our bodies deserve breaks! Maybe some of us should consider taking a break from work to focus on ourselves. Of course, we need money to survive, but there are easier ways to make money that don’t risk our health. People can always consider trading to try and make more money for themselves. A lot of people already do this, so why not read about it? Perhaps these trading basics (or Trading Grundlagen as they say in Germany) would be helpful for people to read. That’s one way to make money without putting too much stress on our minds.
Everyone has a choice. (You are right sometimes that is easier said than done) BUT for the most part you get to choose what matters more. So starting tomorrow what do you plan to change? How much has your health been at risk due to overworking?
And back to the man that boasted about his hours of work….When did how many hours you worked over someone else make you more successful or better?
This bothers me. In society we are taught more times than not that the amount of hours we put in counts for our level of success. Which is not true! I cannot say I have never talked about the hours I put in or the something along those lines to raise in my head my level of success but if I wanted to be honest, anyone that puts their family, friends and health first I have always envied.
“The greatest wealth is health”
So let’s change it together!
Think about it and step back. Do you put work over your health? Do you work yourself to exhaustion? What value has that brought you? Have the days blended together because you have over killed it?
This is a moment of reflection; of realizing what is important. Sometimes the hours you are putting in do not measure up to what you are losing.
I challenge each of you to take a moment to make a change. I also will be taking on the challenge too and will follow up with a blog posting to share where I am.
