The British Heart Foundation state that it is costing the UK £9 billion a year to address the issues arising from coronary heart disease.  It is alarming that the average age has dramatically reduced from 75 to under 65 in recent years.  Much has been said about diet, smoking and levels of regular exercise as the main culprits.

I have a parallel theory that is not based on any medical or empirical evidence.  I propose that stress caused by addiction to competence is killing us.  Yes, in your 20s, you might be resilient to stress, but perhaps you have slightly less responsibilities, such as managerial duties.  In your 30s, you are becoming far more competent and probably confident in your career.  As a result, it is likely you will take on more and more tasks and responsibilities as time goes on.

Maybe we are addicted to competence.  Maybe it is so difficult to say no to people that we end up piling ourselves high in an effort to prove our importance, demonstrate our exceptional abilities and become totally indispensable.  But, I ask, what is the cost?  The cost is our health.  There are many relatively young people experiencing chest pains and difficulty breathing and I have to ask, is it because of our inability to manage our workload and put our hands up and say no, I can’t do that.  After all, we might upset someone.

It seems to me that we, as a society, reward workaholism.  Yes, we may pay lip service to the idea of a work life balance but, on the ground, how many organisations really get excited about you going home at 5.30pm?  How many think an hour sitting in the sun (when it appears) at lunchtime is a wonderful and valuable thing to be getting on with each day?  And then, even if the company you work for do support that, at some level – be honest – how many of you actually feel you can sit in full view of your colleagues for an hour in the sunshine tanning yourself and catching up on a good novel without a twinge of guilt?

Now, I am sure this varies from company to company.  A company I worked at in the past involved 8am – 7pm with a 15 minute eating break.  Time off in lieu did not exist and extra hours were expected whenever a significant project landed on your desk without question.  None of this was official of course but the culture promoted this routine and it stuck.  I’m sure that the culture of the company plays a significant role in how people develop routines.  But I propose that those of us under 65 and perhaps out of our 20s (not discounting the ever lessening ‘at risk’ age of heart disease victims), should learn to say no regardless of the job we find ourselves in.

We work with entrepreneurs at the Sussex Innovation Centre.  The predominant age is mid 30s.  The predominant working week eats up most evenings and weekends for them.  Marriages are under pressure.  Health creaks at the seams.  Surely the dream to become your own boss is not worth this kind of pressure?  I am shouting on behalf of all of us competence addicts (yes, I am a victim too) – “Your health is the most important thing!”   If things don’t get done, they don’t get done.  If you don’t hit every target you are given, this does not mean that next month, you double your hours out of guilt.  If projects are fantastic and valuable but there is no resource to deliver them, then stop.  Ask yourself, what can I manage?  What is the best use of my time?  What are the number one priorities? 

Identify the non critical projects.  Be brutal.  And then, citizens of Earth, I challenge you to let them go.  Yes, abandon them.

I suspect the world won’t end.  I suspect that, instead, our stress levels will decrease, our productivity will increase and we will find we are actually doing a few things extremely well rather than hundreds of things in an unhappy, stressed, average way.  I’d love to know how you get on and if anyone out there has experience with this, please share your comments as these are important lessons for us all.

Melanie Farmer – SInC Innovation Support Manager