Translator: René Clerc Reviewer: Cristina Bufi-Pöcksteiner
Who, in the past year, felt like they worked too hard?
Please raise your hand.
Wow, take a look around.
That's a lot of hands.
And statistically speaking, we could have expected that.
Take a look at these numbers.
This is the percentage of the labor force in each country
that feels close to overworked.
And these numbers add up to millions of people around the globe,
who are close to burning out.
So, it's fair to say that we live in a burnout society.
And it used to be that our car was a status symbol.
Just take a look at this guy, how proud he is.
These days though, in the burnout society,
it's being busy.
Whenever someone asks us how we are doing,
we almost instinctively answer,
"Oh, so busy."
Just imagine answering,
"Well, I'm pretty relaxed, actually."
You'd look so unimportant.
(Laughter)
Right?
And because we're always so busy with creating the best résumé,
or building the best body, or getting the most likes,
or taking the most original vacations,
we work ourselves to the bone, from dawn to dusk.
And every day, we end up on the couch, exhausted,
and the next day, it starts all over again
with an overflowing inbox.
And I fell prey to this myself.
I was completely immersed in the rat race to endless self-improvement.
You could say I was practically addicted to it.
And that's because, ten years ago, I had a problem.
Whenever I had to give a toast at an intimate family dinner,
Christmas for example,
the wine would fly out of my glass,
because I was terrified, terrified of public speaking.
Whenever I had to say something to a group of people,
my hands would start to shake uncontrollably.
And OK, this was a bit awkward for the family,
but other than that it wasn't really a problem, until I got my first job.
I was 20 years old, and this job required me to give talks.
And at one of these presentations, my boss was in the back of the room,
slightly smaller than this one, and he said nothing.
But a couple of days later, he walked past my desk
and dropped something on my desk.
It was a book, I picked it up:
a self-help book on public speaking.
Very subtle.
(Laughter)
So, I read the book - he was my boss - I read it twice,
and I practiced it over and over, and over,
and slowly, but surely, my hands started to shake less.
And then I thought,
"What else can I improve about myself?"
So, I started reading self-help books on organizing, negotiating,
working more efficiently, earning money, spending money, saving money, working out,
writing checklists, doing nothing, sleeping, etc., etc.
I started improving myself just for the sake of it.
And all around me, I saw people suffering from the same fate.
Just like me, they could process emails at the speed of light,
but with a really angry face and tense shoulders.
And I was always thinking about work, and on an aspirin diet.
But as I said, I saw my colleagues and friends suffering from the same fate.
Whenever I went to a party,
I heard about someone else who had burned out.
As I said: a true epidemic.
So, I wanted to know the cause,
and I turned to self-help, again,
and I dived into the world of positive psychology.
And I learned roughly two things.
The first thing is that in the burnout society
we view life as a competition.
All the goals we are told are worth reaching,
from money to popularity,
they are always measured relative to other people.
So, we have to have more than others.
Second thing I learned:
it's a pretty bad idea to view life as a competition
because it's a competition we can't win.
No matter how successful we are,
there is always someone else who seems to be doing better.
Take a professional soccer player, for example.
He's living the life millions of kids dream about.
But, he's probably pretty jealous, because Lionel Messi exists,
and he's the best player in the world.
What about Messi?
Probably, also pretty jealous,
because Cristiano Ronaldo, his biggest rival,
wins all the awards.
What about Ronaldo?
I think he is also pretty dissatisfied,
because, well, they always say Messi has got more talent.
So, no matter how successful you are, even if you're at the top,
always someone else seems to be doing a better job.
And, if we know that cause, if we add the exhaustion of working really hard,
as most of you do,
to the empty promise of success,
you've got a recipe for burnouts left and right.
So we know this now.
What's the cure?
And the crazy thing is:
we already know the answer.
All the research I've read on happiness seems to confirm the obvious.
We know what makes us happy.
It's things like helping other people,
or spending time with the people we care about,
or getting into a state of flow -
that's when you completely lose yourself in an activity and forget about time -
or learning new skills and enjoying that,
instead of focusing on what other people might think about your achievements.
And, one more, gratitude.
Countless studies have shown
that people who value what they have, right now,
are often happier people.
So, when I read about this in all the self-help books
I started nodding wildly and I said to myself, "Yes!
I am going to change my ways. I am going to do it all differently.
There's this list, and I am just going to do them all.
And then, two weeks later, I had forgotten all about it.
So, instead of building LEGO castles with my son,
I still worried about, well, working through the evenings.
And instead of spending time with my wife,
I still checked my e-mails every two minutes.
And instead of enjoying the work itself,
I was still thinking about what other people might think about my work.
So, I knew exactly how to become happy, but I failed to live by these insights.
And, I think that's because everyone else,
the media, ads, the race to get likes,
they tell us to pursue other goals.
Goals like money,
or popularity,
or power.
And these goals are precisely the things that don't make us happy.
So, even though we know what makes us happy, we forget about it.
And then, one day, after a lot of self-help books,
I thought I figured it out.
I think we need daily rituals to remind us of what truly makes us happy.
Just like we brush our teeth, or take a shower for our physical hygiene,
we need rituals for our mental hygiene,
so these insights about happiness become as natural to us as brushing our teeth.
Here is a ritual that works for me.
Every day, I write down three things that I am grateful for, and why.
And it has become my deliberate, daily reminder
of what really matters in life.
For example, here is what I wrote last week:
"I am grateful for reading stories with my son,
because I enjoyed focusing completely on him."
And that's almost always what it's about for me,
about the times that I am fully there with the people I care about.
And this ritual has helped me to see that.
I encourage you -
Of course I have off days now and then, but it made me happier.
So, I encourage you to find your own daily ritual.
It could be practicing gratitude, like I do.
It could also be something else, like meditation.
And then, when you do, I think we need to go one step further.
Because even if you and I manage to escape the burnout society,
that still leaves millions of people suffering from the constant pressure
to perform.
Imagine you and I are colleagues, and we've managed our work load,
then we still have colleagues suffering from the threat
to become overworked.
And that's because personal burnout also has societal roots.
It's not just the person's fault.
It could also be something like an unhealthy work environment.
So, we can only effectively fight back together.
So, the question is:
do we want to live in a society that works towards a place
where most people feel overworked and worn out,
in which creativity is crushed,
and in which we no longer have the time and energy
to have great conversations with friends?
Do we?
No! Of course not!
So, let's fight back together, let's say,
"We are 'not' available in the evenings."
Because that's when we spend time with our family and friends.
Let's turn off our notifications, at dinner,
so we can focus fully on the people we're with.
And once we have figured that out for ourselves,
let's help our friends, family and colleagues to do the same.
Let's beat the burnout society, together.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)