What is your Life Satisfaction Score?

What is your Life Satisfaction Score?

It has been one of those weeks when things seem to converge in a way that is difficult to explain. But I’ll try to explain any way…

It started off with a WhatsApp status update shared by a friend showing a Twitter post by some guy saying:

“My best career advice: At every job you should either learn or earn. Either is fine. Both is best. But if it’s neither, quit.”

My initial reaction was JaOkay that’s cute, but it stuck with me throughout the day. I even went back to take a screenshot of it as I thought about it more. Since Employee Experience is our jam, that’s the type of thing that grabs our attention.

The second piece of the puzzle came together when reading a document on workplace wellbeing by Gallup where they talk about your Net Thriving Score – essentially a personal scorecard rating the components of life that need to be in place and functioning well for you to experience “the good life” (more on this shortly).

Finally, a friend posted a short piece on LinkedIn in which she referred to your personal Net Better Off score (something seemingly developed by Accenture, but very similar to the Gallup idea). Here too the idea is you need to look at different aspects of your life and work in more detail to determine whether these components are putting you in a position to be “better off” than you previously were. And then when you find gaps, to do something very specific to change the trajectory. Like the learn or earn idea – if it isn’t happening, find something else to do.

So what are these components that need to be in place and thriving for you to experience “the good life” according to these models?

Glad you asked:

1. Physical, emotional and mental well-being: This is an obvious place to start since you live in a body. You need to be in good enough shape to be able to deal with the daily stressors that life will throw at you. Resilience and thriving, while often thought of as mental abilities only, have their origin in physical wellness. Use yourself as an example: how willing and able do you feel when you don’t sleep enough or get the flu for the third time this winter? Physical and mental wellness are so intrinsically linked that they need to be thought of as one and the same thing in our estimation.
2. Financial well-being: Another obvious one – possibly the one aspect commonly thought to have the biggest impact on our ability to live the good life. Well, that’s only partially true. In a study that has been replicated many times in the Western world, it was found that life satisfaction only increases with income up to around an annual household income of $90 000 per year. Granted that is a buttload of money when converted to Rands, but the more telling insight was that living within your means is what leads to a sense of financial wellbeing. The aim is not to be filthy rich, but rather to have enough to take care of the basic expenses and bills. Anything above that point makes no difference whatsoever.
3. Social well-being: Do you have meaningful friendships or family relationships in your life? Do you have at least one circle of acquaintances where you feel like you belong? This is equally important at work since it is the context in which we spend most of our waking adult lives. Do you have a very good friend at work? Are you part of a team where people trust one another, enjoy each other’s company and get excited to see each other? Can you be yourself around the people you work with? These are all essential questions you could hopefully answer yes to if your aim is to have a good life.
4. Community well-being: Do you like where you live? Is your environment welcoming, safe and a good place to spend your time? Do you know and/or like your neighbours and are you integrated into your community to the extent that you feel you belong? This also applies to your work environment: do you feel emotionally safe, does it provide a future and is it a community that you can contribute to and enjoy being a part of?
5. Career well-being: And last but most certainly not least, we get to work. Do you like what you do every day? Are you using your strengths at work and are you continuously developing your skill set? Is your current role equipping you to take on more challenging and rewarding roles in the future and are you acquiring marketable competencies in the process? Are you building a professional network of people that would be excited to work with you in the future? Are the people that work with or for you thriving in their careers, are they doing great work and making significant contributions to your environment?

If you were to rate yourself out of 10 on each of these components, how would you score? There might be more to life satisfaction than just these five components, but these likely provide a good idea of where to start if you feel that your life could be better. With the exception of the second point (since we are not financial advisers), we can help you and your business move the needle on each of these aspects. So if you feel that now is the best time to get moving, get in touch.

I found this to be a good reminder of what I need to be paying attention to in my life. We hope you also find something useful. If you did, please share it with someone who could also benefit from it.

If you feel you need to change things up and need a little perspective or guidance on where to start get in touch. You can reach us at info@purposeworks.co.za.

At PurposeWorks we are all about Making You and Your Work Rock. Our focus is on Organisational Health and Design, Employee Centered Culture, Leadership Development and Performance Coaching. For more information on how we can help you create a work environment that rocks, develop a great team, become an inspiring leader or unlock your personal excellence talk to us at info@purposeworks.co.za.