Hey everyone, this week, I’m back with another post in my Dimensions of Wellness series. The final dimension of wellness that we’ll be discussing in depth is occupational wellness, also referred to as career wellbeing. Work can always be a giant pain in the ass, but in this post, I hope to explain how to navigate those challenges and find greater career satisfaction. But before we begin, let’s discuss what career wellbeing consists of.
What is Career Wellbeing?
Career wellbeing refers to the state of joy and satisfaction you find in your career, work environment, and professional development. The state of one’s occupational wellness considers their work-life balance, career development, how meaningful they find their work, how stressful their work environment is, and the support and fulfillment they find in their everyday work.
Why is Career Wellbeing Important?
This is an essential component to our overall health and wellbeing because a significant amount of our lives is spent at work. Therefore, we must find meaning, fulfillment, and joy in the work we do. We shouldn’t feel weighed down, stressed, overwhelmed, and unhappy with the place that so much of our time is devoted to.
While some of us may feel that we’re in a good place with our occupational wellness, others may feel that this area of life is lacking and should be greatly improved. So, for those of you looking to enhance this area of your life, here are 15 tips to get you started.
How Can I Improve My Career Wellbeing?
1. Evaluate your current situation:
Take a step back and reflect on what hell is going on in your life right now. Where are you, and where do you want to be? Maybe you’re satisfied with the answer, maybe you’re not. Regardless, don’t let the gap discourage you and make you more unhappy with your situation, but rather inspire you to take action. To take steps that will get you closer to where you want to be and the future you see for yourself. No situation, no matter how bad, is helpless. There are always things we can do to change our current occupational circumstances. Maybe it’s not realistic to up and quit your job if you don’t like it, but for some, maybe it is. The point is, be realistic with yourself when you reflect on your current situation. Meet yourself where you are, and if you need to, create a little outline that can help you get to where you want to be. And let that motivate you.
It’s important to take this time to reflect because it offers various benefits such as enhanced self-awareness, improved decision-making, career path clarity, personal growth, resilience, adaptability, and improved confidence.
2. Create solid work-life boundaries:
I’m in firm and unshakable opposition to the 40-hour work week. The grind and hustle bullshit that is American culture. In Denmark, they have 32-hour work weeks. That sounds better than 40 for sure. I can’t really say shit though because right now I have a 20 hour work week. And boy, do I love it. I am currently in a Master’s Program, though, which is about another 10 hours of work per week. Regardless the reason I mention all this is because having time for leisure, hobbies, simplicity, and just some fucking enjoyment in life can be hard with 40 hours of work. Therefore, finding an appropriate work-life balance that allows you to focus on your physical health, mental wellbeing, and socialization, and on top of that, good sleep, can be challenging for a lot of people. That’s why it’s important to have boundaries. When it’s time to leave, leave. Do your work and go home. What’s left will be there tomorrow. And even in the case of a “work emergency”, I’m sure the sun will still rise tomorrow if you don’t get to that. Depending on your occupation, of course. But protect your peace and set those work-life boundaries.
Benefits of having set work-life boundaries include better work-life balance, increased productivity and job satisfaction, less burnout and stress, better mental health, and improved relationships.
3. Invest in workplace relationships:
The next way we can improve our occupational wellbeing is by investing in our workplace relationships. We spend a lot of our time at work, so we must have a few solid, meaningful relationships with colleagues and coworkers. We shouldn’t feel isolated at a place where so much of our time and energy is devoted to. So, make an effort to connect with those around you at work. Benefits of investing in workplace relationships include improved morale, employee satisfaction, greater productivity and trust, improved collaboration, better communication, and greater innovation and creativity in the workplace. These are all great things for both the organization you work for as well as your own personal wellbeing.
4. Keep up with news related to your field:
If you’re working in a field that interests you, this tip is a great way to gain knowledge about the industry in which you work. If you find yourself working in a role that you aren’t very passionate about, keep up with news in the field that you wish you were working in. It never hurts to learn more or dive deeper into those topics you want to explore. Keeping up with news related to your field or career is beneficial because it increases your value within the organization you work for, enhances your professional skills, boosts confidence, allows you to discover new paths within your field, enhances critical thinking, and can even be a way to find new opportunities.
5. Learn new skills:
Learning new skill sets is another great way to increase career wellbeing because as you expand your knowledge and abilities, more opportunities will open up to you. When you learn new skills, you also become better equipped for the position you’re currently working in. This is beneficial for your career wellbeing because it increases productivity and confidence, improves adaptability, enhances job satisfaction, allows you more networking and career advancement opportunities, and furthers your personal and professional growth. Pretty awesome stuff.
6. Reflect on your talents, strengths, and skills:
Basically, know what you’re good at. Don’t be a cocky little bastard of course, but be realistic and learn to love and acknowledge what you bring to this world. Knowing what you’re good at is also helpful when deciding what career or occupational path you want to pursue. A job should match your skill set and make the most of your strengths. So learn what these are. And embrace them. Reflecting on your talents, strengths, and skills is also beneficial because it increases confidence, enhances self-awareness, improves decision-making, increases motivation, improves leadership, and facilitates personal and professional growth. So know what you do well, and let those strengths work for you.
7. Read What You’re Really Meant to Do by Robert Steven Kaplan:
A game changer. I talk about this book so much, but truthfully, it helped me a lot. For most of my undergrad I hadn’t a damn clue what I wanted to do with my life. I had ideas, of course, but nothing that made me feel exceptionally passionate, or if it did, I didn’t see it as realistic for myself. But those sort of self limiting beliefs are a load of shit. I hate wasted potential. That shit crushes your spirit.
But read this book if you’re feeling a little lost in the world. A little unsure of your next move or what your purpose is. This book gives helpful exercises, activities, and journaling prompts as well as a shit ton of wisdom for anyone struggling with their career or occupational wellness. I encourage everyone to give it a read. It helped me during a period of my life when I felt lost and clueless, and my hope is that it can do the same for each of you.
8. Further your education:
Be like me. And submerge yourself in student loan debt. So much debt that you’re not even scared of it anymore. Once the numbers get so high, it’s just that—numbers. If there’s a career you’re passionate about pursuing, weigh your options and the benefits of going through more school. If you think this is necessary for your career growth, go for it. Be willing to learn more. And spend more. And even if you don’t wanna do the whole masters or doctorate bullshit, you can always get some certificates or take a few online classes to just enhance your knowledge on a certain subject area. Nothing wrong with that.
Benefits of pursuing higher education include increased earning potential, access to new job opportunities, improved job security, expanded professional network, increased job satisfaction, and greater employability. So yeah, pretty cool.
9. Manage your time well:
Pretty much don’t fuck around and spend your time bullshitting at work. Do what needs to be done, and when you’ve completed everything, take a break, or whatever else. Don’t procrastinate. Make a to-do list if that helps. Write down important due dates for assignments and tasks. In plain and simple terms, just be on top of things. Time management skills are important for career wellbeing because they improve productivity, reduce stress, lead to on-time delivery and quality work, make for better decision making, improve focus, reduce procrastination, and increase confidence. Time management skills—gotta love ‘em.
10. Take breaks
This is super important. Not counterproductive. You can’t go and go and go. When you keep pushing without rest, there’s a breaking point. Allow your mind to rest. This is essential for creativity, productivity, and progress. In all areas of life. Taking breaks increases productivity because it allows the mind to rest and recover, allowing you to be sharper and more concentrated when returning to your tasks at work. Other benefits of taking breaks include reduced stress and burnout, improved mental and physical health, and increased job satisfaction. So take a break, you deserve it.
11. Define professional goals for yourself:
It’s hard to achieve career goals and feel fulfilled with your life’s work when you don’t even know what you want or where you wanna go. Define the career goals you’re looking to achieve. Write it down if it helps. Defining professional goals for yourself is beneficial because it enhances motivation and focus, improves professional development, allows for better career planning and decision making, and increases job satisfaction, accountability, and progress tracking. So sit down, think about what you want in a career, how you hope to contribute to and improve this world, and lastly write it down. Make a little game plan or something. Should be fun.
12. Seek feedback:
There’s always more to learn. There’s always something we can improve on. Seeking feedback from our colleagues and peers is a great way to learn ways you can improve and develop your professional skills. It’s important to seek feedback from others because we can sometimes be a little biased when it comes to our skill sets, strengths, and weaknesses. Going to others for their thoughts and advice opens our perspective and allows us to improve in ways we may not have thought possible. Benefits of seeking feedback include improved performance, increased self-awareness, enhanced learning, stronger relationships, boosted confidence and self-esteem, and greater accountability and responsibility in the workplace. So seek feedback and also be willing to give it to others if they ask for it too.
13. Embrace the positive aspects of your work:
Depending on your current situation, this may be easier said than done. Regardless, though, there has to be at least some positives to your current job or career situation. Maybe the only positive is that it makes you money, but hey—that’s still something to be thankful for. Hopefully, though, most of us can find more positive aspects within our workplace. When we know what those are, we can then start to embrace them and feel more gratitude for our accomplishments and the work that we do. Focus on the positive so it’s easier to come to work every day, so you’re more motivated, and can find more purpose and meaning in your work. Focusing on and embracing these positive aspects of work offers many benefits, such as reduced stress, increased productivity, increased confidence, better coping skills, improved wellbeing, boosted creativity, and improved morale. So remember to focus on the positive. And if you find this exceptionally difficult, maybe it’s time to reevaluate your current situation.
14. Network:
Honestly, the thought of networking makes me want to vomit. However, this practice is important for building connections and relationships that could further your career and aid in professional development. Building connections with those in your industry or field can help you expand your knowledge, help you stay informed, allow you to grow in your career, offer job opportunities, increase your visibility and access to resources, and support your professional development. Ways you can network professionally include attending industry events and conferences, joining professional organizations and associations, seeking out mentors and advisors, being proactive in building professional relationships, and engaging in online communities and forums. As scary as it sounds, networking can help create a supportive community, allow you to learn more from others, and enhance your career prospects.
15. Collaborate with others:
Sometimes I don’t work well with others. Oops. I’m so type A, hard-headed, and stubborn, it can be a problem sometimes. Working on that. Anyway, collaboration in the workplace offers many benefits to our career wellbeing. Collaboration allows for increased productivity, enhanced innovation, improved problem-solving, boosted engagement and morale, improved time management, faster solutions, diverse perspectives, and increased job satisfaction. It’s best to open yourself to the perspective of others. We don’t exist in a silo and shutting ourselves off to the ideas of others is close minded and robs us of the potential and opportunity to learn more and develop our careers and minds further. So collaborate. Seek advice, work on shit together. Keep an open mind.
Closing
Alright, lovely ladies. Thanks so much for reading. I hope this was helpful in some way. I had fun writing this piece of content, as always. If you found this helpful, you may also want to check out my posts on physical, emotional, spiritual, intellectual, and social wellbeing. They’re great.
So I guess we part ways now. But don’t worry. I’ll be back next week. Don’t miss me too much.