Professionized

"I don't know why but I have been facing this strange problem for the last 3-4 months. Ever since I moved into this validation project, trust me, my life has changed drastically. I have suddenly got into a mode of evaluating everything around me to right or wrong -- it is not just limited to my food, my clothes but even my relationship with the ones closest to me. I even dream validation. Please help me. I want to get out of this validation mode." This is what one of my teammates told me during his appraisal discussion.
Believe it or not, for a moment, I did not know what to reply and help him out of this. I think I tried to justify his situation and advised him something.
This incident shook me a bit. Not because my team member is undergoing this trauma, but I have observed this situation to be too common these days.
Why is it that someone in the banking industry always want to talk something about investment or your money? Why is it that a teacher always wants to talk about the career of any child he sees around? Why is it that a doctor always wants to identify some problem with the person he is interacting with? Why is that any man cannot leave his profession away from his normal life? Why?
We all see this happening all around. We may ourselves be a victim of this. But then have we ever given a thought to this?
I remember probing my friend Venks too often in Boston about his professional life. Not that he was not dedicated to his job or was not serious about it, but he was never obsessed by it. Almost half of his time in office used to go playing ping pong and defeating his colleagues from China and Russia. I know he always had that special feeling whenever he defeated them. And when I used to ask him, " Dude, do u ever work?". I always got a simple and short response, "I do." We often had a chat on difference in being dedicated or committed to your profession and being obsessed with your profession. The latter seems to be a serious disease.
Your profession is just a small part of your highly complex life and trust me it is not worth to overshadow life because of this. Profession is there to be just one of the various means to provide you stability in this world -- one of the various means -- then why so much fuss about it.
I don't know who to blame. Is it the competition out there, or is it sheer immaturity or ignorance? But I do know that the repercussion of this action in ones life of being so obsessed with the professional life is not going to do any good to anyone. Learn to draw a line. I know its easy said than done. But you have to do it. This world goes on without any mercy. The earlier you understand, the better for you. It is important for each one of us to revisit our life and ask ourselves, "Have I been professionized?" And if unfortunately you hear in affirmative, things should change.