Overwork
Our modern day violence.
This is the modern day violence: overwork.
Thomas Merton observed this more than 50 years ago.
There is a pervasive form of modern violence to which the idealist…most easily succumbs: activism and over-work. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence.
When we tire ourselves daily, we have nothing more to give to the ones we come home to. What’s left for our families are crumbs.
Merton added:
To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.
The frenzy of the activist neutralises his (or her) work… It destroys the fruitfulness of his (or her)…work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.
The self-help movement offers a panacea: self-care.
The endless silver bullets shot toward self-care offer endless ways to feel different without hitting the mark.
We want the fiery of productivity to continue without burning the house down; we end up burning out and burning in.
We want more apples from the apple tree; we end up degrading the commons of the soil.
Achievement Society
The cause of overwork is driven by the compulsion to achieve. This nonstop drive to succeed ‘overheats’ the ego.1 South Korean-born German philosopher Byung-Chul Han says this occurs due to “too much of the Same.”
Han states that the harm from Sameness is caused by the excess of positivity seen in our achievement society. In contrast to a disciplinary society, which has a braking feature of “maybe not.” An achievement society is filled with “unlimited can.”
Han elaborates
Disciplinary society is still governed by No. Its negativity produces madman and criminals. In contrast, achievement society creates depressives and losers.
…The achievement-subject gives itself over tocompulsive freedom—that is, to the free constraint of maximising achievement.
Excess work and performance escalate into auto-exploitation… the exploiter is simultaneously the exploited. Perpetrator and victim can no longer be distinguished.
Underneath the hood lies the mechanisms of fear:
I’m not doing enough.
I’m not good enough.
I’m not enough.
I’m not worthy.
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The Achievement Trap
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The urge to prove your worth through achievement—propelled by fear—has a short-term benefit. It kicks you in the butt to ‘get-things-done.’
Overwork is paradoxically more likely to play out when you are doing work for others. We can then justify this to our psyche. It’s for a cause.
If fear continues to govern, it will dictate.
Modern violence continues in this achievement society.
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Daryl Chow Ph.D. is the author of The First Kiss, co-author of Better Results, and The Write to Recovery, Creating Impact, The Field Guide to Better Results, and the latest book, Crossing Between Worlds.
If you are a helping professional, you might like my other Substack, Frontiers of Psychotherapist Development (FPD).
In Chinese tradition, when someone is coming down with a common illness, we say that you are likely too “heaty.” One look at your tongue, my father-in-law, who is a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) physician, would be able to access your overall health and its imbalances, or if you are “heaty.”