Your well-being should be your priority, and working too much might hamper your happiness.
Our consumerist society often leads us to reverse our priorities in ways that can seriously affect our quality of life and our physical, mental, and emotional health. Ultimately, our happiness.
With an increasing rhythm of life, inflation, and bills piling up, we are more and more concerned about working, earning a salary to support ourselves and our families, and because of that, many of the fundamentals of life are left out.
We spend a lot of hours each day dedicated to our job, or our business, reducing lunchtime, time to rest, and connecting with family and friends. Sometimes we don’t even think how much it can affect us, ours and others’ lives.
Of course, many people cannot afford to work less because they are responsible for their household.
However, even in these cases, there must be a work-life balance, as our lives are much more than a stressful daily life. Our happiness shall be our priority.
As Todd said in one of his posts (Quitting A Job Is Scary, Not Quitting May Be Worse), Time is Life.
When we spend too much time struggling for our job and doing nothing for ourselves, like practising a sport, going out for a walk, taking some time to rest, we gradually become exhausted, and as a result our health, both mental and physical, suffers.
More and more people at the end of their working day are so drained out that they cannot enjoy life and do some activities for their well-being.
If you feel that you are in this situation, think about these two things:
- No salary is worth your health, no benefits at the end of the month outweighs the unwellness you may feel every day.
- If you cannot change your job, and you have no alternatives for the moment, find something positive to balance your life. Also 5 minutes of meditation a day may help. Otherwise, if everything in your daily life looks stressful and exhausting, you may become a candidate for burn-out. And then things might get more serious.
Your work is an important part of your life, but it’s not your life. There is much more than that: family, friends, health, in one word happiness. Don’t allow your work to take up all the space in your life and hamper your chance to be happy.
Nothing compensates for an exhausted mind and an unhappy heart.
Always remember to take care of yourself, because only then can you live a happier life.
You can find more on happiness on my blog crisbiecoach.
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Work-Life balance is crucial, and is hard for some people to achieve. This is a good reminder of that.
I have found in my own past that when I worked and exercised too much (because I didn’t have any coping skills for life’s stresses, my physical health suffered greatly. When my physical health went downhill, so did my mental health because I was filtering out the positives and focusing on the negatives.
It’s all ied together. By stepping back from the pressures to overperform and overdo at work, we help ourselves more than we realize!
Indeed, we shall do our best without overdoing. Thank you for commenting!
Well said. It is so important to look after ourselves and to have a good work life balance – that will be different for every person, but its important to identify what’s the right balance for you.
“No salary is worth your health” – this is so spot on
Thank you Brenda!
This statement really stood out to me, Cristiana. “Nothing compensates for an exhausted mind and an unhappy heart.” Also, how you acknowledged some may not be in a position to change jobs, etc., but followed up by offering an actionable suggestion. That is, to balance the stressful bits out with positives, such as meditation. Love that!
That line jumped out at me too! And all of this made me think I should put my laptop down and go to bed. Thank you, Cristiana, for another very thought-provoking and perspective-giving post!!
Well done Wynne, going to bed is always a good choice 👍
Thank for your comments, happy that you liked it!
Cristiana you must be some sort of mind reader! I’m recovering from the flu (which I contracted at the worst possible time as far as work/music goes) and reflecting on how I’ve been feeling for the last several months- the fatigue, increasing anxiety, sloppy sleep and eating habits… all leading to the conclusion that I’ve been way out of balance and have been working too much. No wonder I got sick!
Your article comes as a reminder at the perfect time. Thank you and thanks also for the reference to my Quitting A Job post.
Sorry that you fell I’ll in a bad period for your work, but I have to say that usually it happens like that because your body wants to draw your attention on itself, it’s like it is saying – as you don’t stop, I will make you stop. Your article was the inspiration for mine, Todd! I adopted the motto Time is Life. Thank you!
Thanks Cristiana! Yes- I could see this thing coming- I heard the body’s messages but ignored them 😕always a bad idea
Nice piece. I’m always in favor of slowing down, doing less. (By the way, laziness is way underrated.) A related topic. I wrote and published this so long ago, I almost forgot about it. I always try to remember this (see link) when I think I hate my job:
https://wiseandshinezine.com/2019/02/05/if-you-think-you-hate-your-job-read-this/
The work day should take just enough out of you for you to be able to appreciate your off time. Thanks!
Well said, thank you for commenting!
This is 100% true and necessary. I found myself in pure misery a year from now. Overloaded by work and responsibilities with little no time for self and things that brings me joy! I rebuke that now!
I’ve set values now and everything in my life must now align with them.
Well done Jasmine, thank you for sharing your experience!