Young and Employed » center of my life http://youngandemployed.com Perspectives on business from young marketing and public relations professionals Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:56:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 The Connection Between Happiness and Your Job http://youngandemployed.com/2009/06/25/the-connection-between-happiness-and-your-job/ http://youngandemployed.com/2009/06/25/the-connection-between-happiness-and-your-job/#comments Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:27:55 +0000 Francisco http://youngandemployed.com/?p=41 Throughout my career I’ve always struggled with work life balance. I allow my job to become a part of who I am. A somewhat recent event in my life made me realize this might not be a healthy way to live. Like so many others, I was laid off earlier this year (don’t feel bad I found a job pretty quickly). The entire experience made me reevaluate what is important to me, because when you don’t have a job it really makes you think about who you are and what you want out of life. Plus your job can’ t be what fulfills you because you don’t have one.

I’ve had four jobs since graduating from college four years ago and I think part of my problem is I want too much out of my jobs. I want them to make me happy. I’m happy in my home life, but I want every aspect of my life to be perfect. What can I say I’m the oldest child in my family – we tend to be perfectionists who want it all. Then I came across the Brazen Careerist blog by Penelope Trunk.  This post made me realize that I shouldn’t be looking at my job to complete my life. As long as the work is challenging and keeps me busy, as long as I work for a company that isn’t cruel to its employees or the world, and as long as I know what is expected of me in my job I should be happy. And you know what happened – I realized I can be happy in almost any job.  I’m not making six figures, but hey – I’m only in my mid-20s, so few people my age even make what I make.

It’s time I stop looking to my career to make my life complete. I’m still going to be career driven and work hard at my job, but that does not mean I will put my job at the center of my life. Now that I don’t let my job dictate my overall happiness I find that my happiness from my real life (my life outside of work) actually impacts my happiness when I am at work.  My life outside work is pretty great, and very fulfilling . I won’t get too mushy but I have to say that I think I have as close to a perfect marriage as you can get, I have a great family and group of friends, and I play the trumpet still – which really does bring me joy.

So, yeah, I might still have a rough day at work that makes me want to come home and mope on the couch. But from now on, the second I leave the office I am gone. I learned one very important thing from being laid off. I owe my company 40 hours of hard work every week, I don’t owe them my happiness outside of work and I will not let my job decide if I am generally happy or not. Only I have that kind of control over my life – and I encourage everyone else to be the same way.

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