Do you live to work, or do you work to live?
There may be times when you’re really focused on your job, maybe you’ve gotten a new job or started a new career path, it may seem like all you should think about is work and that you should work as many hours as humanly possible. However, this way of thinking isn't really beneficial to you or your career. It’s more important to develop and maintain a balance between your work and home life. You do this by building and maintaining interests outside of work. This is one way of managing your stress before your stress manages you.
Why Are Interests Important?
Life if a balance of many things. It can’t be all about work, but it can’t be all play either. That’s why it's so important to have interests outside of work. It’s important because having hobbies and doing things you’re passionate about, has profound effects on your life and who you are as a person.
Having a passion or hobby helps broaden your horizons and makes you more interesting to other people (so you can make small talk about something else besides the weather 😊). Hobbies also help boost your creativity and ability to solve problems when they arise. By having interests outside of work, you become a more well-rounded individual and ultimately a better employee.
Outside Interests = Self Care Time
If you’ve been reading the Making Time blog for any amount of time, you know that I am all about self-care. Well, having interests outside of work, ensures that you get to engage in some needed self-care time. When you are working on a hobby that makes you happy, this is self-care because creativity is a form of self care.
People who don't make the time to pursue the things they enjoy often report being overworked and feeling overly stressed. These symptoms can spiral and lead to a dangerous condition known as burnout. It can often take weeks or months to improve when you have burnout.
Interests Give You A New Perspective
Pursuing your interests also does something else, which doesn't often happen while you are at work. It gives you an opportunity and the time to develop a new perspective. When you are at work all day, you are often being told what to do and are at the whim of someone else's perspective. When you pursue interests important to you, your mind is free to play and develop new, creative ideas. This new perspective can help spur positive change in both your personal and professional goals.
Now this is not to say that it’ll always be easy to maintain the balance between your work and your outside interests and sometimes it’ll be difficult to muster up the energy to pursue those outside interests, it’s important that you do so even if its only a few days a week.
So next time you are tempted to take your work home with you on the weekend, remind yourself of the importance of having time for your interests!
Let’s talk. What do you do to maintain a work life balance? Let me know in the comments section.
Office Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Cassandra Martin-Himmons is a trainer, wellness coach and consultant who believes in empowering her clients and providing the tools that they need to make positive changes in their lives to manage their stress and increase their self-care. In her spare time, she enjoys papercrafting, volunteering and travel. Connect with her on Instagram or LinkedIn
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