We all know someone who cannot put their phone down. Ever. At dinner parties, at concerts, on vacations, the phone is always on and they cannot help but look at and answer the super-important emails.

And even though it’s hard to recognize, and even harder to admit – aren’t we often that person?

It makes sense – the super-turbo speed of our days, the jam-packed schedules and the non-stop digital stimulation has made most so many of us addicted to our work.

What’s worse, since we don’t really have time to stop and think, we aren’t often aware of or acknowledge our behavior, we continue to rush our way around the crazy treadmill of life and thus jeopardize our productivity and creativity and increase stress and frustration.

We recognize what this does to others, we don’t always recognize it in ourselves. This is not good for us, our work, our families, or for our society. And it’s expensive: one well cited study showed that job stress costs the US economy $300 billion dollars a year!!!

In this economy, we are our biggest assets – our futures and peace of mind rely on our ability to reinvent ourselves, to create, to execute with laser sharp focus. And true creation and insight comes from having “white space” in our lives to recharge, to idly let our brains make random connections and to be grounded enough to fly high mentally. So keeping balance is a key skill.

Culture Consultant and Millennial Engagement Expert MaryBeth Hyland has a great set of questions she uses to help clients understand their relationship with work that she has kindly allowed me to share with you.

As MaryBeth says, “One thing should be clear in life: We’re not meant to just pay our bills and die”. What are you meant to be doing?

So let’s just lift our heads up from the tedium for just one second and start to understand how we relate to work. Only then can we start to do anything about it. As always, I am always interested in your thoughts and comments.

Best,