Are you a workaholic? A movie to watch.

If you are a workaholic, you spend most of your energy and time devoted to work. You work long hours. Work is the most important aspect of your life. You place an excessive value on achieving and accomplishing at a high level at the expense of your other needs being met. You constantly strive to meet very high and often perfectionistic standards. You constantly feel pressure. You rarely slow down to relax and enjoy life. There is an imbalance between work and other aspects of your life. You may also be a workaholic in the other areas of your life, striving to be the best at all that you do. You are always pushing and pushing to get ahead. You are successful in your work, however, you believe there is always more success to gain. Once you have attained a level of success, you don’t take very long to get started on reaching the next level. As a workaholic, you live in a state of anxiety and irritability. You get angry at anyone who does better than you or who blocks your ambitions. If the blocks are internal, you get angry at yourself. When you feel like you are not pushing hard enough, or not doing well enough at work you feel a sense of internal irritation.

Work makes up a big part of your sense of self and identity. You gain a sense of importance, significance, value and worth from your work. Here are a few possible reasons for why you are a workaholic. You may overly invest in work due to an underlying sense of inadequacy, therefore, success in work serves to protect this vulnerability. You may value wealth and work serves as a function to live according to this value. You see yourself as a financial provider for your family and invest heavily in work, a place of financial provision and the fulfilment of your family role.

A movie that relates to this concept of workaholism is “Click”, made in 2006. A movie starring Adam Sandler and Christopher Walken. Adam Sandler’s character plays a man who is consumed by his work. His work is demanding and it takes up a lot of his time. Because of this, other aspects of his life are impacted. There are important life lessons to take from this movie and it is likely for this movie to challenge you on what is most important in life.

After watching the movie Click, reflect on the questions below:

1. In what ways are you similar to Michael Newman? (Adam Sandler’s character).
2. Who was impacted positively by Michael’s devotion to his work?
3. Who was impacted negatively by Michael’s devotion to his work?
4. By using the remote, which aspects of Michael’s life did he choose to fast forward?
5. Morty explained to Michael that during the scenes of his life he chooses to skip he is on auto-pilot. When have you felt on auto-pilot?
6. Although Michael gained promotions at work, his family relationships were suffering. Which family relationship of yours is suffering the most because of your workaholism?
7. Michael reviewed a scene of his life when he was in his office with his father and his son. Michael was focused on his work and declined an offer by his dad to go for a “boys night out”. Reflect on times when you have chosen work over a family outing.
8. When Michael declined his father’s offer for a “boys night out”, his father is seen leaving the room crying. How did Michael feel at this point? How did you feel at this point?
9. What is the biggest lesson you have learnt from this movie?
10. Based on this movie, what is one change you can make in your life right now?