Occupational wellness is all about how you make a living. It’s an important dimension because you spend so much time in your life working. Creating a work-life that is pleasing will drastically improve your overall drive, happiness, and passion. When you genuinely enjoy your career, you begin to enjoy your personal life too. It’s challenging to enjoy life outside of work when you’re constantly thinking and dreading the next time you have to clock into a job that you hate. Your occupational wellness plays one of the largest roles in your emotions and motivation.
Find a career path that is right for you can be a challenge. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in a job that barely pays the bills and has terrible hours because “at least it’s a job.” No. This isn’t okay. Occupational wellness isn’t about having a job; it’s about excelling at a job, thriving, enjoying what you do, and waking up every day excited to work and create something bigger and better. No one is placed on this Earth to just work and get by. You have to be able to identify when you are unhappy with your work-life so that you can get closer to being where you want to be; professionally and personally.
Follow Your Heart
Following your heart sounds like a simple concept but it’s also the core of “someday” and then “someday” never comes. Everyone has dreams as a kid. Some may want to be a doctor or an astronaut while others want to sing on stage or play on the court. As you grow older, these dreams may alter but there is generally still something that you desire. It’s okay to alter your path and find other passions, as long as it makes your heart smile. You always have to have something that sets your soul on fire because if you don’t you’ll lose touch with your meaning and purpose.
It sounds cliche but my mom always told me, “if you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life” and that couldn’t be more true. The money will always come when you follow your heart because you will naturally push harder to make it work. If you hate what you do, you will have little drive to push harder and be better. Following your heart may not always be the most realistic thing but there are ALWAYS ways to adjust and make it work enough to feel fulfilled. You can cut down on your work hours to pursue what you love, you can ask for a transfer in positions, and you can pick up hobbies that you are passionate about that could bring in some extra income.
Cultivate Meaningful Work
Your work needs meaning. And if it doesn’t, you need to do something that has meaning in it such as volunteer, find a side job, start a hobby, etc. Meaningful work gives you a reason to work every day. It helps you uncover the deeper purpose of waking up, getting dressed, and going to a job. You may think on the surface that you work for money but in fact, money is not a strong enough motivator for work. It may be at first but once your work becomes your norm, you will no longer be driven by financial return. Occupational wellness isn’t about making money, it’s about doing what makes you happy and help you feel good for doing what you do.
You are likely to engage more when there is a purpose behind what you do. It doesn’t have to be an extraordinary thing like saving lives every day but you need to have a reason greater than money to get out of bed each morning. When you are able to identify what your purpose is in your position and what/what you serve, you will likely feel more competent at your job. Naturally, you will begin to work harder because you will subconsciously know that you are serving a greater purpose than just working for money.
Know and Use Your Strengths
You should consistently feel challenged in your work to continue growing and moving forward. Not every job is meant for every person. Each has its own mind, interests, and strengths. It’s so helpful to know what your strengths are when deciding on a path of work. Of course, you should always choose things that are interesting to you but using your strengths to help you decide will help you excel in all that you do. Rather than focusing on improving your weaknesses, you should focus on enhancing your strengths because that’s where your natural talents will come from. Your occupational wellness will grow so much when you apply what you know into what you do.
It may sound odd to not focus on improving your weaknesses so let’s break it down a little bit. Think about something that you are really strong in. Now, think about something that has always been more of a weakness for you. Consider if you took 10 minutes each day to progress one strength and one weakness. Something that is a natural weakness will never meet the standard of your strength because that’s what is more natural for you. When you work on enhancing your strengths, you become exceptional at one or two things that will set you apart from everyone else rather than being subpar at a lot of things that are average to society.
Living Up to Your Worth
You HAVE to have boundaries in your life and in your job. You are worth so much and this includes your time, energy, and resources. Living up to your worth sounds scary now, but it’s really not. This basically just means that you need to have guidelines around your profession so that you can have a fulfilled personal life as well. Set boundaries around how much money you are willing to make, what benefits you need to be covered, what culture you want to be surrounded by, etc. If a career doesn’t meet your standards, then you shouldn’t even entertain it because you won’t be happy in the long run. It’s crucial to not undersell yourself.
Finding a balance between personal and professional is one of the best ways to indicate your worth. You work to live, not live to work. make that count. It’s so important to be able to step away from your work to enjoy what’s going on around you. If you don’t you will grow tired and begin resenting your job weather your work for yourself or someone else. This will quickly lead to burnout. You also have so much purpose in this life. You are worth a career, not just a job. Choose an occupation that has the potential to grow, keep you motivated, and drive you to be your best self is so important
