Overcoming Work Addiction: Step 1 – Become Aware
Updated: Jan 25, 2021
I’m addicted to working.
I have other additions, but none has grappled me more than being addicted to going to work, being at the office, and wanting to do more in my business.
I struggle with this because I know God wants us all to work, but I had to come to terms with the fact that it was killing my relationship with my wife and friends.
We entrepreneurs all have addictions. Most of us are addicted to coffee or some kind of stimulant to keep us full throttle.
We want to be on full throttle because we have a lot of things we feel we need to accomplish and not enough time in the day. My list of to do’s is so long I could lock myself in a North Carolina log cabin for one year with no phone calls and I still wouldn’t be done.
We often joke about these things, but it can become very serious. It did for me.
In my studies of work addiction, I’ve found that it affects our spirit, mind and body!
Spiritual – An entrepreneur ultimately replaces God as the center of their life with something or someone else.
Mind – Repeated patterns of choosing work over relationships makes the work addiction stronger and disrupts your thinking.
Body — Consequences from our poor decisions cause stress and anxiety. SPECT and MRI scans show how this disrupts and rewires our brain circuitry.
Think about a car.
Our brain is like all the parts of the car…Tires, engine, etc.
Our mind is like the car’s computer, and tells the car’s parts how to function so we move forward.
Our spirit connects us to God in the same way the driver of the car chooses weather or not to drive the car correctly and according to the plan and design of that car.
If we can’t operate the car correctly, we crash. Sometimes a fender bender, sometimes a total loss.
How can we overcome the addiction?
How can we operate our cars like a professional NASCAR drivers?
The Bible says
Jesus said, “The first in importance is, ‘Listen, Israel: The Lord your God is one; so love the Lord God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy.’ And here is the second: ‘Love others as well as you love yourself.’ There is no other commandment that ranks with these.” Mark 12:29-31 MSG
God is like the designer and manufacturer of the super car. The car works best when the parts are working properly and our car’s computer system is updated.
The same thing goes for your business. Can you imagine if you tried to have your accountant run your marketing? LOL! It wouldn’t work! Why? Because accountants operate a certain way.
Our entrepreneurial life works best when the mind, body, and spirit are all working within God’s plan and design for our business.
The Bible says
May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it! 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24 MSG
Regularly choosing work over God is a defect in mind and body and is sin. It becomes an addiction when it becomes a regular pattern.
Godpreneur Rule #62: Godpreneurs Work Smarter, Not Harder, By Putting God First.