What is it about our addiction to getting one more thing done, doing it all ourselves and being exhausted in the process?

I have a friend who has a holiday business and for about five weeks, she hardly gets any sleep.  In fact, she literally sleeps in her clothes at times if she’s too tired to go through the bed prep ritual, sometimes rationalizing it gives her an edge to start her next activities earlier.

Over half of the country are coffee consumers, most of us increase our consumption as we age.  The U.S. ranks fourth in the world to sugar consumption, 8,614,460 tons of refined sugar to be exact. We use stimulants to give us the physical edge to do more in less time, even though sometimes the edginess produced from overuse of these can disrupt our productivity.

I’ve had clients who refuse to choose what work they’ll begin next, because they want to do all of it now.  I often use the analogy with them about their multiple career interests (or their many goals)  being like horses running around a track.  I tell them to imagine there is only one gate at the end to get them all through. Similarly, goals have to line up to get through the gate and they have to be strategically paced to be fruitful and rewarding.  It doesn’t mean that they won’t get to do all they want to, just not all at one time.

Sometimes clients tell me they have equal passion for their goals.  Then I tell them it’s simply a matter of choosing which one will go first.

But often it’s the thrill of the near miss that keeps “addicts” coming back for more.  They will push themselves to do it all or that one last thing, simply because it makes them feel heroic.  If in pushing yourself and just by the hair of your chinny-chin-chin you accomplish the task, the unconscious rationale is how great you are and doesn’t it make you more accomplished than just having done things as a matter of course?!  Of course not. 

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