Is your job draining your energy?
How you can make it more uplifting and supportive of your health and wellness

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“What if I had to keep doing this, week after week, month after month, year after year?”

The thought made me thankful that there’s an end in sight.

And it made me think of some of my past jobs – dreading Mondays, waking up with unpleasant thoughts about the day ahead, and an unsettling sense of trading 40+ hours of my life every week just for money. 

Exhausting! 

What reminded me of all this is being about six weeks into studying for the nutrition board exam I’ll be taking in December – and the toll it’s taking.

It’s not so much the hard work that’s getting to me, but rather the context of it.

I’m basically wearing myself down trying to become a human encyclopedia of health and nutrition facts, much of which I’ll probably never use and eventually forget. 

I get it – this is the nature of board exams. But it still feels like I’m putting in a lot of exhausting hours just to check a box. Adding to the frustration, it leaves less time for other important things I still need to do, and more enjoyable things I’d like to do.  

It feels very similar to when I was trading time for a paycheck at past jobs, without much else to show for it. 

Of course, bills need to get paid. But when you’re giving up 40+ hours per week to pay them – without getting any other value – it can be a major grind. 

It’s hard to thoroughly enjoy life when you’re spending half or more of your waking hours doing something that you really don’t want to, but feel like you have to. 

And it doesn’t leave much energy for anything else.

It shouldn’t be surprising, therefore, that one of the top reasons our clients mention for struggling to maintain healthy habits is … yep, job stress!

Not only can job dissatisfaction suck the life out of you – it’s also likely to discourage you from doing the very things that can help you feel better.

By strongly influencing both your motivation and mental well-being, job satisfaction is a major component of your overall health and wellness!

You can be doing everything else right – eating well, exercising consistently and purposefully, and getting good sleep – but still feel drained if you’re pushing through work you dislike. 

But let’s not get carried away and pretend the alternative is all roses and rainbows – even the best jobs still require some extent of doing things you don’t always want to do. 

Coach Kayla and I love what we do, but there are certainly times when we’d rather be playing golf or simply relaxing.

The difference maker is that the fulfillment and satisfaction we get from the work we do far outweigh the moments that make it feel like work.

If you care enough about your quality of life to be thinking about nutrition, exercise, and other lifestyle habits (as you should), you should also be evaluating how satisfying your work is (or isn’t).

But don’t let it turn into a downward spiral of negativity – remember that the grass is always greener on the other side. There’s a good chance your current job may be more satisfying than you’re giving it credit for. You just have to get a little better at recognizing it.

The first step is knowing yourself well enough to understand what will help you feel satisfied, and what will detract from it.

What are you good at? What makes you proud? What makes time go by quickly? What makes you feel energized? And, in contrast, what sucks your energy dry?

The more clearly you understand the answers to those questions, the more potential you have to steer job satisfaction (and your health and happiness) in your favor.

Here’s a simple thought to gauge where you’re at. Would you continue doing some of your current work even if you didn’t need the money? 

Instead of responding to that with a knee-jerk reaction inspired by the negative connotation of “work,” give it some careful thought.

If, with a rational and objective frame of mind, you struggle to find anything about your work that you could see value in doing without pay, then that work is probably dragging you down. 

I do realize that some people are actively willing to sacrifice the earlier years of their life to accumulate more money for a better (or earlier) retirement.

There’s no right or wrong answer to whether or not that’s a good choice. But you can still be fully aware of the tradeoffs. As Andrew Huberman says, “do as you wish, but know what you’re doing.”

I’ve been on both sides of this fence. In the past, I’ve had high-paying jobs that sucked the life out of me. Now, I make considerably less money, but I’m doing work I love (helping you get more out of life) with someone I love (Coach Kayla, my stepdaughter), and it gives me happiness and fulfillment instead of taking it away.

And it’s not just being my own boss or running a business with Kayla that brings that happiness and fulfillment. It starts with the questions I posed earlier – aligning your skills, preferences, and ambitions with how you earn money. 

Give those questions some thought! Regardless of how good or bad you perceive your current work situation to be, having more clarity on what energizes you and what drains you can make it better!

To work that's uplifting,
Dr. Vin