A Need to Succeed?

I've been told, more than once, that I am a workaholic. I have friends and family who share their concern that one day I'll drop dead of a heart attack or that my head will explode. When I confide in my best friend that I worked 15 hours non stop on Tuesday, she says to me "Why do you do stuff like that?"  My response is "because I love it", "because I have work to do", "because I run a business", "Why don't you?"

I'll admit there have been streams and rivers of days that have gone by in a blur as I endeavor to put out all the fires on my "todo" list.  But why do I do it? This propensity for my work isn't just what I do...it's who I am. Now I'll say this, and I can already hear the outrage...but I find the term "workaholic" to be just plain stupid. In fact, I find the whole notion of "workaholic" to be stupid. It's not a disease. It's not a negative thing to work hard and enjoy your work. I don't think it's a bad thing to get up every morning and want to be better, go further, or accomplish more than I did yesterday.

Yes yes...damn it. Even in my "off hours" I read art magazines, design books, blogs, exhibition catalogs. I go to museums and galleries while on vacation. I mean...come on...how wonderful is it to love what you do for living?

I met recently a man who has been able to afford himself a rather affluent lifestyle. He travels frequently, works occasionally and has been smart enough (and perhaps lucky enough) to enable his money to work for him so that he can fly off to Barcelona for a beer. Now I wonder...wouldn't I too love to live that type of life style. One where I could take off and enjoy a month sun bathing on some shore of the Caribbean. Well yes probably so...but I maintain that even being able to enjoy such a lifestyle...there would still be something that I'd be passionate about. Some thing that would drive me, compel me and excite me enough to fill my day with it. And, I bet this gentleman doesn't squander his days either and I am also willing to bet that this gentleman has a pretty full agenda...doing what he loves.

Again I'm going to refer to Eric Karjaluoto at ideasonideas, where he writes recently about balance. It seems to me that if we work too hard, it's bad.  If we don't work hard enough, it's also bad. I agree with Eric that sometimes balance is just counter productive. It's measure is mediocrity. A great saying my son brought home one day "If you're not living on the edge you're taking up too much space."

I suppose that our lives are determined by the choices we make. I choose to work hard and see what comes of it. Frankly to ask me to stop would cause me greater distress than an exploding head. For now I'll accomplish what I can...and who really knows if I'll ever be satisfied with just that. ~Reach higher.