Anna Roussos asks: Career vs Wellness, can we have both?

You probably know by now that wellness is something that I am super passionate about. And obviously I am also passionate about people’s careers (hello, that is my job!!). In my work, I am constantly faced with people coming to me and asking questions around whether it is feasible to have both a good career, as well as physical health / wellness.

In short, my answer is yes!

I believe we are all better people, at home and at work, when we are enjoying a balanced life in both parts of our lives. To me, there aren’t many things worse than feeling discouraged and unmotivated at work, as this can result in impacting other areas of your life as well.

What I like to ask of my candidates is for them to think about what their core values are. And why are these important to consider when evaluating your career? Your core values are those principles that you find desirable, important or even essential. An alignment between your career and your core values produces satisfaction, a sense of happiness and fulfilment. A misalignment in these can result in one aspect of your life affecting the other. Your values give you a sense of purpose. If you are working in an environment that does not match your values, you might feel a sense of discomfort or lack of connection between career and wellness.

A lot of people I have this conversation with will say that wellness / wellbeing is one of their core values, or if not, it is something that they would like to incorporate more into their life.

In terms of work core values, these can include those that are tangible or intangible. Intangible aspects about your career are those things that motivate you and help you to feel fulfilled. Here at Anna Roussos Recruitment + Advisory, one of our core values is “giving” and it is this intangible act of giving back to society and contributing to the community that fills up our tank as a team and motivates us to do great work.

Tangible rewards are those that are derived from your career and your work environment – this could include salary, team culture and working conditions / environment.

Then we have lifestyle values, which includes those things that you do for your career where your work produces a certain type of lifestyle. The type of lifestyle you desire can help complete the picture of what you value. This may include living simply and comfortably, exercising daily or even travelling. 

If you can find balance in all these aspects of your life, then you should feel pretty content and happy in where you are at. If not, I encourage you to assess those areas where you may be lacking – is it work-related or personal life-related? Identify it and write down ways you might be able to improve it.

And, from a business owner’s perspective – staff retention improves when you encourage your people to appropriately balance home and work life. You gain an increasingly good reputation as being good employers, along with finding it easier to attract good staff to start with. An approach that is best for the company, as well as its people.

I wish I could say that I knew from a young age what I valued in life and what I wanted to do with my career. It took many years and multiple jobs for me to understand myself, my values and the importance of keeping those elements in alignment with the work I did. Nothing is going to spell out for you or tell you which road to take, but by placing a focus on aligning your career goals with your wellness goals, I can assure you it will result in a spike in happiness!

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