Career counselling and work life balance assisting individuals in career exploration , decision making and managing work life balance to promote overall well-being and satisfaction.
Career is that job or profession for which people are trained and do for a longer duration.
Career counselling helps and provides people with personal guidance and support to make informed decisions about their career paths. The selection of a career is important according to people’s needs. No, it is not only needs there are other things that are equally important to consider while selecting a career, like interests, personality patterns, skills, abilities, values and cost to help people identify potential career paths that are in accordance with their aspirations and goals which will further lead to harmony in lives and relationships as well. Career counselling is important for adolescents as well so that instead of jumping to conclusions impulsively or take decisions impulsively which would be harmful for their future even they can take select career paths properly. Also career counselling can help them to face challenges in their ways and identify their strengths and weaknesses. Identification of strength and weakness is beneficial for career selection.
There are five steps of career counselling that typically include assessment, exploration, goal-setting, action planning, and implementation.
- In the first stage career counsellors assess or measure or rather work with their clients to identify their areas of interest, skills, personality traits and values.
- In the second stage counsellors motivate and encourage their clients to explore different career options and learn about the related job facilities as well.
- In the third stage clients work with their career counsellors to establish clear goals to achieve them with proper planning.
- In the final stage clients execute their plans while receiving support and guidance from the career counsellors.
What is work life balance?
Healthy work-life balance means sustaining a peaceful relationship between personal life and professional life which includes prioritizing self care and well being along with management of time and money for both professional and personal lives. Some indicators of work life balance are setting boundaries between work life and personal life, management of time and money, stress management and flexibility in schedule which lets people to adapt and accomodate according to their needs and unforeseen circumstances.
Why is work-life balance important?
No play and only work makes Jack a dull boy.
This is true . Being workaholic is not good for physical health and mental health as well. Breaks are important too to sustain the selected career. Holidays and outings are important to get relief from boredom. It is not wastage of time and money. Self care is important and a necessity. Self care is not selfishness. Workaholics are at a greater risk of suffering from burnout , fatigue,stress-related health issues and other mental health issues as well. Poor work-life balance can also reduce productivity.
How to improve work life balance?
- Planning ahead to combine work activities with leisure activities, social life and fitness plans are helpful.
- It is better to set time for different tasks so that people do not have any problems to execute them. Also prior planning is helpful too.
- End work at a certain time – People should set a time to complete their work or end their work . Also they should reinforce it by powering down work related devices.
- It is also beneficial to keep the outside world or professional world outside house .
- Enlist technology to help people unplug – people can try to keep one device to work and once their work is over can disconnect it completely . Work free device is also helpful.
- Go out for lunch, or enjoy lunch with co-workers – change in pace is actually refreshing for people even when they are working from home. They are aware of their food style then.
- Practice mindfulness – mindfulness helps in emotional regulations, interpersonal skills, increase distress tolerance as well and acceptance. While practicing mindfulness techniques like meditation or breath awareness they increase awareness of people with emotional and physical sensations.
- Find something you love outside of work to engage in – Along with daily activities execution of pleasurable activities is equally beneficial and important to deal with stress and maintaining work life balance. It reduces boredom and increases sense of mastery too which boosts their confidence .
- Reconsider work that makes people yearn for balance – When work of people do not match with their personality traits, areas of interests, values, skills , energy and enthusiasm people should look forward to change their ways to work. Also when they might not get job satisfaction they should rethink about their purpose of work.
- Work with a coach or therapist – it is always beneficial to keep in touch with a therapist for problem solving specially when people are overwhelmed, stuck or totally clueless, have experienced burnout, anger outbursts and do not understand where to start or finish from. Values of therapists are of immense pleasure and beneficial for the clients
Thus career and work life balance is of utmost importance. It’s okay to seek help for mental issues. Please do reach out instead of suffering.
