Overworked and Overwhelmed? Three Ways to Take Charge of Your Life

If you are obsessing, worrying and feeling overworked, you may feel stuck on the hamster wheel and not know how to change. You long for fun and relaxation but you can’t see any change in sight. If you relate to the song, “I can’t get no satisfaction,” it’s time to make a couple of needed changes.

1. Stop working so much
2. Take a technology break
3. Block out time for fun

Stop working so much
We get addicted to adrenalin and being busy. Bryan Robnison, an expert on workaholism, says “Work is this decade’s cocaine, the problem without a name.” Workaholism is an addiction that is socially acceptable. When you think about it, you probably get some internal reward for over working. People admire your work ethic. Yet, working too hard without recovery is not good for your health. The body craves rest and recovery every 60 to 90 minutes. A good sign that you are overworking is irritability, hypertension, impatience and a loss of the zest for life.
You get caught in a trap that is difficult to get out of. It's like the alcoholic that wants another drink, but then feels bad because of drinking.

Take a technology break
Most of us are addicted to technology. The advancements in technology have expanded our choices, but we haven’t learned how to say “no.” With every expansion in choice comes another requirement: to balance the choices with responsibility. Most people I know have not yet learned how to manage their addiction to being constantly plugged in. There’s facebook, twitter, texting, e-mail, faxes, pagers, cell phones. This over-stimulation is creating many problems in our world, including the inability to be present, multi-tasking which leads to inferior performance, and even dangerous life threatening activities such as texting while driving. To see if you are addicted, try to take a full day off without plugging in. Keep the computer off. No texting, and do not answer your cell for just one day. If you feel anxious and nervous, it’s because you are addicted. See, you do have extra time, but you don’t know what to do with it.
Now that you know you have a problem set some boundaries around the times you will use technology. Become the master of technology not a slave to the choices.

Block out time for fun
When you are consumed by your work, you suddenly lose contact with everything else that is meaningful in your life. That is why I recommend actually blocking out time for fun. Make your rejuvenation just as important as work. Your health depends on it. Some ideas include making time for dinner, getting together with friends, playing a board game on the weekend or getting a massage, and keep your blackberry or your iphone turned off! Get present to the experience in the moment. Enjoy the conversation without the distractions and noise. Look into the other persons eyes. Pretend you are that person for just a moment. Connect on a human level.

So often our unhappiness is that we have lost the joy of being around others. The biggest paradox is that we are all becoming very disconnected even though technology has expanded our options and methods of ways to communicate.

Our brains are wired for relationships but the busier we get the less time we have for what is really important. If you want to start feeling like yourself again, you must take charge of your life instead of drowning in a sea of opportunities.