We all worry about birds-flu and pigs-flu. But who noticed that many people around us are suffering from affluenza?

Affluenza is a blend-word between affluence and influenza. It’s a ‘socially transmitted disease’ resulting from focusing too much on getting money. Once contracted, you start suffering from overworking and anxiety.

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There are two aspects related to affluenza: consumerism and workaholism.

Consumerism is easy to fix with simple things like sticking to a monthly budget and minimizing the usage of credit card. Workaholism, however, is hard to fix. Its only cure is work-life balance.

What’s work-life-balance?
Most would say it’s about having more free time. But that’s not possible for everyone.

Good news is: work-life balance does NOT mean an equal split between work and personal life. This differs according to the life-stage and career-stage (for instance: being single vs. being married; having kids or not; just starting a new job or about to retire, and so on…)

It’s not a one-size-fits-all either, because everyone has a different view on what to enjoy in life.

It’s about enjoying every day and avoiding the ‘as soon as’ trap (that’s when you say I will start enjoying life ‘as soon as’ I become the CEO; or ‘as soon as’ I move to that country; or ‘as soon as’ I retire, and so on …)

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Everyday has to have an element of enjoyment. Here are few tips to do that:

1. Figure out what really matters to you. List five things (sports, socializing, seeing news places, …)

2. Drop unnecessary activities you don’t really enjoy (watch less TV,…)

3. Protect your private time. Few are so important that they need their Blackberry connected all the time

4. Accept help (baby sitter, therapist if you find stress is getting out of control, …)

5. Plan for fun and for relaxation. They are different and much better when planned.

After all, happiness is more related to ‘what we do’ rather than ‘what we have’.

*Works cited: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affluenza