A short spoken piece (YouTube talk) by Dave Kashen arguing that addiction is any compulsive behavior used to avoid present-moment experience. He claims workaholism is widespread—especially among leaders and organizations—because people compulsively check devices, ruminate, and use work to numb difficult feelings. The talk ends with a direct challenge to the audience to acknowledge and face their workaholism for sustainability.
Chapters
You. So here's the simple, unpleasant truth. Most of us are addicts. Now, when we work with companies, when we work with leaders and organizations, and when we get to this point in our work with them as organizations, they push back. Just like you did when I said most of us are addicts. You go, not me, or that's not true. Let me define addiction for us. Addiction is anything we do compulsively means we just do it and do it and do it. There's no thought, there's no freedom. We're in a compulsion. Anything we do compulsively to avoid experiencing our experience in the now moment. Now, with that definition, most of us are addicts. Most of us who are involved in leadership have an addiction to work. Workaholism is rampant. We know this because most of us actually can't turn it off. We can't shut it down. Whether it's our compulsive checking of our device, looking at our computer, ruminating on the next idea, we can't shut it down. Down. It's compulsive. And in many cases, what's really going on is we're afraid to stop and to be with the moment and to actually feel the feeling that's here. Whether that feeling is loneliness or sadness or fear or anger, whether that thing that's here right now is a broken relationship with somebody who matters to us. Rather than feel that, we just get up and go to work because that substance of work takes the pain away. That substance numbs us from what's really going on. From our perspective. One of the great addictions in our culture and in us is the addiction to work. You willing to face that one? Are you willing to take a look at your inability to turn it off and shut it down? If you don't, if I don't, if we don't, what we're up to just simply isn't sustainable for the long run. Let's stand together and face our workaholism.
