Defining and Cultivating Career Wellness In Your Life

2020 turned out to be the year of athleisure and blurring the lines between work and home. Many of us struggled to avoid the trap of “living at work” and found ourselves burned out, uninspired, and questioning the purpose and virtue behind our careers. 

Though the last year served some fastpitch curveballs, its throws also tore through much of the noise and meaningless chatter we had come to expect and entertain, especially in business. Quickly, we all had the time to assess and audit the lives we were living. Whether or not we found ourselves looking for new work in 2020, most of us found ourselves searching for a greater purpose in our work. 

Our culture is moving away from the soulless 9-to-5 status quo. We’re hungry to tell stories, engage authentically with consumers and each other, and feel connected to those around us, even when virtual.

To live a life of intention and experience a purpose-driven career, you must identify your core values, do some inner work in your personal life, and develop a deliberate plan to ensure your career wellness success. 

What is career wellness? 

Career wellness is work engaging work that provides personal satisfaction and aligns with your values, mission, and purpose. Career wellness can contribute to your overall satisfaction with life and inspire other happiness and inspiration. 

Thankfully, career wellness isn’t limited to whether or not you have your dream job. It can be achieved by professionals or students at any career stage and focuses on how your occupational wellness promotes your day-to-day wellness. 

For me, I’ve always felt a pull toward servant leadership, building authentic connections, and uplifting communities. One of my life’s mantras is “each one, teach one.” A core philosophy is to teach others; if I’ve learned anything from my mentors and teachers, it’s that I’ve learned everything from them. Therefore, the connection I have with my work, or the quality of my career wellness, directly correlates to my community service, relationship building, and positive impact on young women and rising leaders' lives. I believe that professional title chasing is more a symptom of measuring tangible progress toward advancement, which can be healthy when avoiding complacency in your career journey. But let’s be real. Life fulfillment doesn’t come in the form of high-profile credentials. My purpose isn’t in a title; it’s in the work I can live out.  

The benefits of prioritizing career wellness

With self-care and a “treat yourself” mentality becoming its own billion-dollar industry, it’s natural to question career wellness and the benefits it can unlock. Is it just another inflated idea for those obsessed with self-help books, or can it be a turning point in all professionals' lives? 

Career wellness supersedes the surface level aspects of self-care, producing positive benefits for a professional’s health and well-being, productivity, self-advocacy, and quality of life. Professionally, understanding your purpose and how it relates to your occupation can help you achieve goals at work. Working in the marketing and consulting space myself, I can frame my mind around a day’s work or quarterly projects, in part because I understand the joy it brings to my life and how it allows me to serve my community. Therefore, I welcome new challenges and find myself going above and beyond with teams, ultimately leading to a greater bottom line for the company and myself as a company leader.

But the benefits of career wellness are not limited to work performance. Prioritizing my occupational health means I hold myself accountable for how my work weaves into my life. At one point in my career, I was the classic example of a people pleaser. Taking on projects that didn’t bring me joy or propelled me in my career; saying yes to work commitments because I thought the hours I worked equated to my worth as an employee; allowing myself to get lost in who I was as Tasha the Employee, not Tasha the Human Being. At the end of that life phase, I was broken down and burned out past a simple repair point. I slowly began to untangle myself out of a previously unhealthy mindset and adopted career mindfulness as a way to thrive both at work and in life.

How to develop a healthier career wellness plan 

Some may question how accessible career wellness is for their life. Between time spent at one’s desk, with family, and with friends, it may be hard to imagine where the holistic balance comes into play. However, that’s the beauty of career wellness and determining how you show up for yourself and others. 

A common misconception is that a wellness plan or a “life by design” is a predetermined schedule chalk-filled with yoga sessions, bubble baths, and refusing to apologize in the name of modern feminism. But contrary to what capitalist advertising and important think-pieces may have you believe, career wellness is empowering because you define its terms and conditions for your life. 

The first step toward finding balance, passion, and purpose in your life is defining your core values. For me, I am driven by the three virtues of futurism, empowerment, and intuition. I didn’t come to this conclusion by chance, and it wasn’t entirely clear in the early years of my career. But as I continued to progress in my professional development, I saw a pattern; I was most inspired by community outreach projects, chased the challenge in bridging gaps of communications, and building relationships that were based on mutual respect and shared missions, not relationships based on a transaction of “this is what you can do for me.” If you’re struggling to define your core values, consider your answers to the following questions: 

• Think about the last time you felt truly happy during a season in life. What contributed to your joy and happiness?
• What qualities do you look for in a new employer? 
• What qualities do you look for in a friendship? 
• If you were told that you had one mission during this lifetime, what do you think that mission is? 
• What is one thing you wish you could have more of in your life? (Example, “I wish I had more time with my family,” or “I wish I had a greater impact on state legislation.”) 

Once you’re able to articulate your core values, life mission, and purpose, you can begin to see how your life, both at work and home, mirrors your description. It’s important to realize that sometimes the benefit of a job has the flexibility to explore your off-hours interests. I describe this as when your professional expertise proves an asset that is a valuable contribution to your volunteer interest.  Similarly, the fact that you may take pride in what you do for work or feel challenged positively can contribute to your overall view on career wellness.

If, after examining the relationship you have with your career, you come to realize that you feel unfulfilled, a lack of purpose, or that you’re not in a working environment that allows you to show up authentically and as you are, know there are options. Consider devising SMART goals toward better occupational wellness and have a clear vision of what it is that’s missing. Next, define and enforce healthy working boundaries. Ultimately, the objective is to define the work you do by the way you show up, as opposed to being defined by your work. You may even enlist the help of a therapist or the support of a career coach when you first begin to transition to a healthy relationship with work. Finally, try to reframe your mindset with your current role. This could look like identifying aspects you appreciate and finding a new role within the company that could be better suited for your strengths and learning style. Similarly, there's also the notion of being at a crossroads where it's time to evaluate pursuing new opportunities outside of your current place of employment. There's a personal accountability and self-empowerment in choosing to seek what's best suited for professional growth and fulfillment.

As we continue to take on what this year has in store for us, it’s important we take stock of what is and isn’t working. The last year has proven that things can look different in a matter of days and weeks, so there are options and solutions to getting “unstuck” and having a career driven by a life led with purpose and intention.