Gallup has uncovered 5 common elements of Wellbeing that transcend countries & cultures — elements that differentiate a thriving life from one spent suffering. These core dimensions are “universal & interconnected elements of wellbeing, or how we think about and experience our lives. When these factors are fully realized, people thrive — and so do businesses.”
The five broad categories that are essential to most people:
* Career Wellbeing: how you occupy your time — or simply liking what you do every day
* Social Wellbeing: having strong relationships and love in your life
* Financial Wellbeing: effectively managing your economic life
* Physical Wellbeing: having good health and enough energy to get things done on a daily basis
* Community Wellbeing: the sense of engagement you have with the area where you live
- from Wellbeing: The Five Essential Elements — Gallup Press
What excites me about this research is that finally, in ways that business can finally begin to appreciate and wrap its arms around, there is acknowledgment that what is good for Individuals is actually good for Business!
Work is how individual human beings expend their precious life energy – it has far, far, far more purpose & meaning to both individuals and society as a whole than simply creating a company’s bottom line and/or stoking the engines of commerce/capitalism – the shallowest of purposes at best. The Bottom Line has always been a false king. This narrow view of the purpose of work has directly contributed to the current crisis of meaning that is devastating our society.
This more holistic view of Wellbeing supports the sea change that is already beginning to sweep through the world of work, albeit haphazardly at present. This concept of Wellbeing allows us to begin to consciously connect with a larger vision of how Work serves this much larger, more meaningful purpose that supports a healthy society. It is an Rx to healing our broken relationships with each other, and to reestablishing true meaning in Work.
