On Friday I wrote about the crusty, sweaty-shirted chain-smoking folk who embodied brilliance in the 1970s and 1980s. And how this now looks ridiculous to most of us. Not only because today it’s verboten to drink and smoke in the office (à la Mad Men), but because these people were so damn unhealthy. And the actors who portrayed them were baggy-eyed, grey-skinned workaholics too. The message, success = destroying your health.
Yes, we’ve all laughed at all the anachronisms in Mad Men. Although these characters live hard, they all have that healthy 2009 sheen, as if “I’m playing an alcoholic on T.V., but in real life, I practice yoga four times a week.” Because today we aren’t very interested in watching burned out sick-looking people on television. It’s not sexy.
We’ve gone from the 1990s marathon-running overworking overachiever to a new success paradigm, one that says: “If you’re not taking care of yourself in smart ways, you’re not going to be as happy, inspired and productive as you could be.”
Many of today’s productivity bloggers write about this regularly. In and around other success tips, they underscore the necessity of:
- Not being a party animal.
- Getting enough sleep.
- Waking up without coffee.
- Staying fit.
- Eliminating stress.
How boring (just kidding!). After all, a recent study also noted that people who indulge in legal and illegal drugs are smarter. Take what you will from that.
In all seriousness, we’re moving into a clean living revolution. Maybe it’s the nature of the work we do these days — wired into a laptop 10 hours a day — that says “make sure you spend a couple of those non-wired hours every day making yourself healthy”. Because the opposite is not pretty.