Creating a Healthy Worklife

Work can be a great source of accomplishment, connection, and reward. Whether it is paid work for a company, running your own business, or unpaid caretaking, finding the work that brings you satisfaction is incredibly valuable to your health and wellbeing.

On the flip side, stressful work can cause great harm. Short-term stress or overworking can lead to skipping meals and exercise and losing sleep. Longer-term job stress has also been linked to hypertension, obesity, and poor mental health.

For most of us, we must work. Finding a vocation that you love and enjoy on a day-to-day basis is an important task. Having a generally positive experience can help you ride through the difficulties and challenges that are also, unfortunately, a part of work life.

Finding Your Work Passion

If I could tell you the job that would make you happiest, well, I would probably stop writing this book and move in a new professional direction. There is no perfect recipe I’ve found for finding work that you are passionate about, but I do believe that the right job has a combination of the following:

• People you enjoy and trust
• An overall goal that aligns with your values
• Fair compensation
• Some control over the work you do
• Day-to-day tasks that you generally like doing (with the minority of your time spent doing tasks you don’t enjoy)
  
  

Your Best Job

Determining your best job is a personal endeavor. Your best job may be as an accountant, where your best friend’s worst nightmare could be to work as an accountant. Looking at the criteria above, you can start thinking about the type of organization and day-to-day tasks that will make a job satisfying, rewarding, and healthy.

“Remember that work and life coexist. Wellness at work follows you home and vice-versa. The same goes for when you’re not well fueled or fulfilled. Work and life aren’t opposing forces to balance; they go hand-in-hand and are intertwined as different elements of the same person: you.” ― Melissa Steginus

Your best job may mean different things for you at different points of life.

• If you are risk-averse and ambitious, your best job may be one where you can move up the ladder at a well-established company.
• If you are entrepreneurial and driven, your best job may be one where you can run your own business.
• If you are focused on gaining material wealth, your best job may be the highest paid one you can achieve, with the opportunity to earn more over time.
• If you are balancing caretaking, education, hobbies, or other activities, your best job may be one that offers flexibility.
• If you enjoy traveling or have a partner who must travel, your best job may be one that allows remote work.