Bold claim.
But over the years of running Career Counseling Connecticut, we have received enough feedback from clients as well as parents of clients and spouses of clients that we know the claim to be true.
Areas of life can be sliced and diced into hundreds of categories. For the sake of simplicity, I’ll create three:
- Personal: spiritual/mental/physical well being and all that you do in relation to each. This includes prayer-meditation, non-work related media consumption, exercise, diet, hobbies etc.
- Relational – family, friends, community
- Practical – primarily work but also financial (which is usually connected to work)
All three areas are important and we all have our value systems to adjust which is most important. But in our waking hours, most of us are engaged in work so much that it actually takes up the most life. Not many people can spend 8 plus hours a day on either personal or relational aspects of their lives. But Monday-Friday, at least, most people spend more time related to their work-career than any other area.
Yet, many unhappy in their careers trudge along in states of either semi-boredom or anxiety. They usually reach out to a career counselor only during or post-crisis.
When we – effective career counselors – get it right, as in helping to guide our career coaching clients to happier work then we make the bulk of each day happier.
That’s a dramatic change.