How To Know If You Are Literally Working Yourself To Death
The Dr. Phil Podcast
Dr. Phil McGraw
4.3 • 13.5K Ratings
🗓️ 18 March 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
You’re not just working hard… you might be working yourself to death.If your job is your identity, that’s a red flag.
In this episode of *The Real Story*, Dr. Phil breaks down how high performers get trapped chasing self-worth through work — and why it’s costing you your health, relationships, and peace of mind.
• Burnout, anxiety, poor sleep
• Addiction to productivity and “getting things done”
• Higher risk of heart attack and stroke
This isn’t success. It’s a trap.
👉 If you feel guilty when you’re not working… you need to listen to this.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If you're 40 years old, you've lived 14,600 days. |
| 0:05.0 | How many of those are wallpaper and how many of those pop out? |
| 0:11.0 | Before you know it, your life is just kind of passing you by. |
| 0:15.0 | So I'm really wanting you to take care of yourself. |
| 0:18.0 | I'm going to ask you, what's your philosophy of life? |
| 0:21.4 | The Real Story is brought to you by Preserve Gold. Catch the Real Story every day on your |
| 0:26.9 | favorite podcast platform and watch a double episode every night on Envoy TV. Stay right here |
| 0:34.1 | for an incredible free offer from Preserve Gold. |
| 0:38.3 | Welcome to The Real Story, and I want to tell you that today, not to bury a headline, |
| 0:46.3 | the real story is about you. |
| 0:51.3 | And we always want to be the star, right? |
| 0:55.5 | You want to be the focus, so I'm going to ask you some questions about you. |
| 1:01.0 | It all centers on whether or not you are being the star in your own life. |
| 1:06.4 | We've talked about this a little bit in the past, if you follow me, |
| 1:09.8 | but I'm going to talk to you about it from a different standpoint today. You're going to have to think about this a little bit in the past, if you follow me, but I'm going to talk to you about it |
| 1:11.2 | from a different standpoint today. You're going to have to think about this some, and you may not |
| 1:15.6 | be able to answer the questions I have right while I'm asking them. You're probably going to have |
| 1:20.4 | to think about them and talk about them, but I'm going to ask you two primary questions right off |
| 1:25.4 | the bat. Number one, do you have a philosophy of life? Think about it |
| 1:30.7 | for a minute. And like I say, you might be able to articulate it right now, but I'm going to ask you |
| 1:35.4 | to sometime before the too distant future. Do you have a philosophy of life? Everybody, whether you |
| 1:42.7 | know it or not, has an approach to life, |
... |
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