Your job or your sanity? How to not lose both (w/ Guy Winch)

Chris Duffy· Host0:00

[upbeat music] You're listening to How to Be a Better Human. I'm your host, Chris Duffy. Today's guest is psychologist Guy Winch, and Guy was actually the very first guest we ever had on this podcast, way back on our very first episode more than six years ago. Guy is back today to talk about his new book, Mind Over Grind: How to Break Free When Work Hijacks Your Life. Now, I think we're all aware of how a terrible job can dominate our thoughts and keep us up at night. I once worked at a place where the boss threw a plastic trash can at the wall and, in the middle of a meeting, would loudly shush people who he didn't like. Like, "Shh, shh, shh. Stop talking." Now, that was not a fun job. I was very stressed, and I spent a lot of time worrying while I was working there. But what Guy points out is that our lives can get taken over by work even when the jobs are good, even when we like what we're doing and we respect the people who we're working with. In other words, figuring out how to reclaim your life from being just about work, that is something that applies to all of us. In today's episode, we are going to get a lot deeper than just saying you should have a work-life balance. Okay, great. What does that really mean? We're gonna figure out what is going on in our psyches, what we have control over, and how we can reclaim our mental space and energy. To get us started, here is a clip from Guy's TED Talk where he's explaining how obsessing over work played out in his own life.

Guy Winch· Guest1:23

I wanted to be a psychologist since I was a teenager, and I spent years pursuing that one