Was talking a my friend Aaron Taylor last nt – he’s the college football hall of famer who played offensive line for the Packers when Favre was QB…a winner on & off the field. I say that cause he’s just a solid human. The Super Bowl & accolades are one thing…but he truly cares abt other ppl & their wellness.
We were texting & in his never ending sarcasm, he replies to my first text “you miss me pookie?” That’s his type of joshing, but he always checks in to see how I’m doing & I return it.
I let him know abt a little bit of the burnout from the road & the back-to-backs I’ve shared here. Immediately he called to talk! Old school (amazing we call it old school but it is).
He’s a story teller, & he was telling me when he did a recovery program, their group that became friendly & their sponsors always warned each other of something: beware of getting addicted to something else, just to replace the previous addiction. In their case, the common thread was: drop the alcohol addiction, get addicted to helping others (obv a good thing, but)…stops you from working on YOU.
And so yes, he was calling me out. And yes, I’ve even shared it here & been open abt it, that’s my pattern. I love this work of helping others, & the dopamine hit of how good it feels to help others replaces my PREVIOUS addiction of over-working in sports till all hrs bc I loved the adrenaline rush of trying to fill a building & create an awesome fanbase.
One of the biggest issues in our society is: we don’t recognize certain addictions for what they are: also addictions. We malign drinking & drugs, but work, eating, helping others, getting cool tattoos…they ALL can be overused as addictions to: 1) avoid pain, & 2) avoid sitting in our “stuff” & working on ourselves.
Next slides➡️, a study from Microsoft on how beta waves (stress response) build up in our brains from back-to-back mtgs, vs the other example, when we take 5 min btwn mtgs to meditate.
Addiction can more broadly/also be defined as “activities of avoidance” – where we do things that give us that escape, bc it’s better than sitting in/working on our stuff. We’re all addicted to something.