Exploring Occupational Wellness

The fifth post in the Exploring Wellness series is all about exploring Occupational Wellness. In the previous post about Social Wellness, we learned that our connection to those around us was a major factor to our overall health and well-being.

Interestingly enough, it’s actually Spiritual Wellness that has the most overlap with Occupational Wellness because they both explore a person’s need to find their life’s purpose.

Your Life’s Purpose

Discovering your life’s purpose, sounds pretty intense, but it doesn’t have to be so scary. You work toward fulfilling this dimension when you seek a career that

• Fits your unique talents and personality, and
• Holds value and meaning

Follow Your Talents

We all have different strengths and abilities. This is why comparing yourself to other people is so unproductive, especially in the professional arena. What might be a perfect fit for one person could be a nightmare for someone else. When it looks like someone has it all together, it may just be that they have found the right fit.

Flow

When a person’s unique gifts or talents are realized in the work they do, they experience flow.

Flow is a term coined by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi which describes the state of being “in the zone”. This happens when we find an activity that allows us to become so engrossed in what we are doing that we lose time.

Athletes, musicians, and artists are most often associated with this psychological state, but you can find this state of being at work or at home. Any time your unique personality and skill-set are evenly matched with a particular task you can experience this state.

In fact, the study of Positive Psychology encourages us to seek out these activities to increase our happiness.

This should be a huge motivator for finding work that suits you. Can you imagine working a job that actually brings you happiness?

Follow The Signs

I love this video by Dr. Wayne Dyer. He’s promoting a course he developed about manifesting your soul’s purpose, but listening to him talk about his journey and how your spirituality can directly affect your career path is really interesting.

Whether you believe in signs, Divine intervention, intuition, or your conscience, the point is that if you pay attention, there will be clues as to the path you should take.

By the way, a deep desire to do something, is a clue in itself.

Finding the Right Fit

For some people, knowing what they are meant to do is crystal clear, but for others it’s a giant question mark.

Spend some time self-reflecting. Let go of the resistance and consider all of the options out there, even if they seem impossible. You can ask yourself questions like:

• If I were a character in a novel, what would my occupation be?
• What would I do for work if money/time/education wasn’t an issue?
• What type of work would leave me the most fulfilled at the end of the day?

Yes, maybe some of these questions are a bit fanciful. But before dismissing, ask yourself these questions:

• What would it actually take for me to make this happen?
• How can I rearrange my life to make this work?
• What changes, big or small, could I make to move toward this goal?

This is about the time when we let fear take over. When our dreams seem achievable, something in us resists. We start to lose confidence and “reality” takes over.

Limiting Beliefs

Throughout our lives we develop certain beliefs about ourselves and our situations that make us believe that we can or can’t do something.

These perceptions can limit what we think is possible, hence the term “limiting beliefs”. Identifying these beliefs and working to overcome them can lead to endless possibilities.

The video below offers great advice at conquering limiting beliefs and is definitely worth a view.

If chasing down your dream job is still too big of a leap, consider finding something in a similar field or that puts you in a position to start working toward your dream job.

The goal is satisfaction, not perfection.

Meaningful Work

Another way to experience Occupational Wellness is to actively seek meaning in your work. This could be found in the work you get paid for or it could be in the form of volunteering.

Finding Value in What You Are Doing Now

Perhaps the occupation you are destined for does not afford you a life of luxury or get you excited for work, but it does pay the bills.

Instead of feeling disgruntled or waiting for something better to come along, look for the value in what you are doing right now.

We all have a purpose to serve and a role to play. It does not matter what type of work you do, the important thing is that you find value in it.

This could be providing a product or service, or it could mean providing for your family, which is meaningful all by itself.

Afterall, this is the major reason people work — to get paid. We need food and shelter and we need to feel safe and loved. But we do not need the latest iphone or fanciest car, so keep that in mind when pursuing occupational bliss.

In fact, we often confuse our financial needs with our financial wants, but that’s a topic for another day.

Achieving Occupational Wellness does not mean you have the perfect job, it means you understand that work/duty/purpose is important.

Cultivating this dimension is about exploring your talents and applying them in meaningful ways that contribute to society.

That is finding your life’s purpose.

Resources

• https://positivepsychology.com/mihaly-csikszentmihalyi-father-of-flow/
• https://eddinscounseling.com/change-limiting-beliefs-with-4-key-strategies/

See more of the Exploring Wellness series as we take a closer look at each of the seven dimensions of wellness; Physical Wellness, Emotional Wellness, Intellectual Wellness, Spiritual Wellness, Social Wellness, Occupational Wellness, and Environmental Wellness.

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