As we wrap up Mental Health Awareness Month, I call your attention to something that is prevalent in our society but not discussed very often. It’s called the Superman Syndrome.
Years ago I came across a book by Robert Kamm, titled The Superman Syndrome: Why the Information Age Threatens Your Future and What You Can Do About It.
The author noted that Americans were working an average of six weeks to three months more per year than they did just one decade prior. Additionally, more than 70% of people in offices worked weekends, and more than 70% of American parents felt they didn’t spend enough time with their kids.
Although this book was published 18 years ago, my observations tell me that these statistics still hold true today.
Kamm says that the Superman Syndrome is characterized by an inability or unwillingness to throw the OFF switch…whether on a cell phone, the computer, at work, or in our own brains.
We are the most distracted generation in the history of the human race. And distracted people make for distracted and unavailable parents–perhaps one of the biggest threats our growing generation faces in the 21st Century.
Overcoming Overwhelm
My clients often report feeling overwhelmed. They want more control and balance in their lives. I explain that the control is not something they’ll find externally. It comes from within.
Shedding the Superman cape is the first step! You must be willing to bypass the external distractions and demands on your time, look inside to you own values and priorities, and then make choices so your focus and activities are in alignment. If the demands of your current work do not allow for you to honor your values, sometimes a career move is necessary.
For example, if you value good health and quality time with your family, but you are working too many hours to take care of yourself or to be home when your family is still awake, then you’ve lost control of your life.
Kamm notes that the commitment to slow down and focus on things in life that really matter must be made at the corporate as well as the individual level.
“The Superman Syndrome is a dangerous workplace success formula that forces men and women to leap tall buildings and outrun speeding bullets — at the expense of personal lives, families, children and even business productivity. This represents a major hypocrisy implicit in nearly every boardroom in America: The belief that we should be accountable to work but not to our families.”
–Robert Kamm
How Many Hours is Full-time?
In some European countries, a 35-hour workweek has become the legal standard limit for full-time work; anything over that is considered to be overtime. In the Netherlands, a four-day workweek is now standard for full-time workers.
Working for eight hours is physically and mentally draining, so by the end of an 8-hour shift, effectiveness is significantly reduced. Eight-hour workdays were originally conceived back in 1914 when 
working conditions and technological capabilities were very different from what we have today.
Recent studies suggest that the eight-hour workday may not yield as much productivity as most employers once assumed.
Although workers who are paid hourly have strict rules about how many hours they can work, salaried workers don’t live by the same rules. They work for however long it takes to get the job done. Reportedly, 40% of adult Americans work 50 hours or more each week and 18% work more than 60 hours each week.
Click here to read some fascinating findings regarding the effects of work hours on health, happiness, and productivity.
Honoring Your Priorities
We are creatures of habit, and old patterns are hard to change, even when they no longer serve us well.
Health care professionals note that we are so addicted to our fast-paced lives that it often takes a life-threatening crisis such as a heart attack or cancer to slow us down enough to gain the work-life balance we desire.
If you struggle to live a life based on your priorities and values, here are some concrete action steps you can take, beginning TODAY!
Action Idea #1: Identify what you love to do.
- If you had a terminal illness, what would you want to do with the time you had left? Write down your response.
- What’s holding you back from doing this now? Do you choose to wait for a terminal illness to come along before you make time for what you love most?
- Get your calendar out now, and schedule time to do some of the things you wrote down.
Action Idea #2: Identify your values.
- Jot down the names of 10-20 people whom you admire. They don’t need to be living, and you may have never met them or known them personally.
- After you’ve completed your list, write down the qualities that you admire in each person you listed. For example, if you listed Mother Teresa, you might describe these qualities: compassionate, generous, unconditional love. The qualities that you admire in others are YOUR values.
- How do you honor your values regularly? What’s getting in the way of you honoring them?
- Pick at least one value that you choose to honor in the coming week. How will you honor it? If you will honor it in the form of an activity, be specific about what the activity is and schedule time on your calendar to make it happen.
Action Idea #3: Identify your priorities and passions.
- Pretend that you are attending your 100th birthday party and your closest friends and relatives have gathered to honor you. What would you want them to say about you? What would represent a life well lived with no regrets?
- What matters most to you? What are you most passionate about? Write it down.
- What one thing could you do–that if you did it regularly–would make the biggest difference in your personal life? How about for your professional life?
- Get out your calendar and begin planning to do these things regularly.
Leave the Fast Lane Behind
If you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting what you’re getting.
Making the changes necessary to leave the fast lane behind will take some time and effort. It’s not easy to change, but it is possible when you set your intention to have things different in your life than they are right now. Practices such as yoga, meditation, and working with a life coach can help you along the path to creating more peace, balance and harmony in your life.
If you’d like a fresh perspective– someone to help you design the life you want by aligning your vision, priorities, and actions—let’s schedule a no-cost, no-pressure Discovery Call today.
Additional Resources:
- Guide: Cultivating Happiness: Living Life on Your Terms
- Guide: Find Your Strengths & Choose Your Success
- Guide: Creating New Habits
- NEW Guide: Living with Purpose
- Blog: Seeds of Greatness
- Blog: Opening New Doors: Dissolving the walls of your self-imposed prison
- Blog: How to Achieve the Success You Want
- Blog: Power in Your Purpose
Dear Kathy, exellent tips…Thank you very much.
Thank you, Sheida! -Kathy