The great outdoors is often a retreat from everyday life – a vehicle to shed the mundanities of your 9 to 5 and recharge. However, if your profession revolves around being in nature, promoting conservation, and observing wildlife how do you still find that solace in the outdoors? It can feel like walking a tightrope when trying to enjoy nature without feeling like you’re in “work mode.”
If feeling “always-on” prevents you from remembering why you love the outdoors as recreation and not just a profession, you may need to re-evaluate how you find work-life balance.
We spoke with a clinical psychologist, Dr. Lauren O’Flaherty, who shared her advice on how to define and create balance in your life.
The 6 foundational principles
There’s no one size fits all approach. Balance is going to look different for you than for your peers. Set out to create your own list of non-negotiables to help inject some balance into your life. If you need help getting started, here are six foundational principles of balanced living to keep in mind.
1. Take Care of Yourself
Studies show that regular time spent in nature is good for your overall health. Awesome! What about when your whole career revolves around nature and the outdoors? By that logic, you should be a wellness superhero.
It isn’t just about being outside, though – likely you already do plenty of that. You’ll want to start with the fundamentals, including restful sleep, exercise, a healthy diet, sunlight, hydration and space to acknowledge your thoughts and feelings.
You don’t need to turn your entire life upside down, but you do want to start somewhere. Maybe it’s meal-prepping, so it’s easier to eat healthy throughout a busy week. Perhaps it’s going to bed 30 minutes earlier, so you have time to get to the gym in the morning. Maybe end the day with journaling 3 things that made you happy. Whatever it is, make it a point to prioritize your overall health first.
2. Protect Personal Time
If you’re a creative, a freelancer, contract worker, or otherwise self-employed it can be easy, especially when working a job you love, to let work bleed into personal time and potentially lead to burnout. This is especially true for creative types who may not do their best work during standard business hours or may have more unstructured work times and settings.
Dr. O’Flaherty suggests setting boundaries by having a hard stop at a particular time or blocking time in your calendar for breaks or personal time to use for self-care, rest or other hobbies. Disconnect from social media and the news on a regular basis. Know that you get to choose what you allow in your life – so choose things that fill you up rather than deplete your energy.
If nothing else, consider setting boundaries an investment in your work. Defined periods of rest help you recharge and increase creativity when getting back to work the next day.
3. Feed Your Relationships
Relationships with partners, family, and friends require our care and attention, according to Dr. O’Flaherty. Sometimes it can be difficult to maintain healthy and fulfilling relationships when your work regularly takes you off the grid.
Your relationships with those in your field can help fuel you creatively and make new connections in your industry. Beyond that, they’ll relate better to your successes and struggles and be there for you in ways non-industry friends can’t.
It’s also important to have friends outside of your field to help you flex different parts of your brain. Maybe your non-industry friends are more analytical, academic or mechanically inclined. Whatever their strengths, you have an opportunity to learn from them and vice versa.
Whether in your industry or not, you want to make sure your relationships are life-giving. If you don’t feel better after being around these friends, family, etc., it might be worth re-evaluating their place in your life. Take the time to stay connected with those who add value to your life. Send a text, email or make a brief call next time you think about a friend or loved one.
4. Build Things You Love into Your Schedule
As much as you love your craft, sometimes you just have to put the camera down. Close your laptop, notepad, or whatever you’re working on, and just head out into nature, completely unplugged. When the outdoors is your office, it can be hard to clock out. Having a hobby or creative outlet, especially something that’s completely removed from your day job, is important.
Pro Tip:
Book a restorative stay in nature
Seeking out deliberate relaxation is also crucial for outdoor professionals. Sometimes you just need to spend a night under the stars to decompress.
Check out Getaway’s cozy cabins. Book a restorative stay in nature where you can take a break from work, wifi, and routines, and enjoy the company of those who matter most. Getaway’s locations (or Outposts, as they call them) are all located within a couple of hours from major cities. This way, you can get away from it all without spending an entire day just driving there.
5. Be Intentional
If you freelance or have a say in which projects you take on, choose them carefully. This can be harder for new freelancers or media professionals looking to prove themselves but is still crucial. Dr O’Flaherty recommends pausing before saying yes to a new project. Say “Let me get back to you” and then evaluate your current workload, energy, and interest in the project. Only say yes if you truly want to or if it will move the needle toward a goal.
The more projects you take on that you don’t enjoy, the easier it is for wildlife media, in general, to lose its luster. If you aren’t in a place where you can be picky about which projects you take, it’s especially important to be good at appreciating the little things until you have greater control over your project choices.
6. Celebrate Your Accomplishments
This can be difficult for the more Type A people out there, but it’s an integral step. If you just finished a really cool project, celebrate! You don’t have to take a whole week off, but it’s good to denote the end of something you did well before moving on to your next thing. Dr. O’Flaherty encouraged recognizing and feeling gratitude for the opportunity and a job well done, which will improve overall well-being over time. Make sure you have a ritual that celebrates the hard work you’ve put in before you rush into your next project.
Work-Life balance is achievable…
Finding balance between professional pursuits and time to recharge is essential for overall well-being. It’s something that will take intention and effort – if you want to develop good habits, you have to find what works best for you.
You don’t have to literally stop and smell the roses (though it’s definitely an option). If you make it a habit to appreciate small things throughout the day, it’s easy to re-center yourself when life gets off track. Whether you want to keep a journal to reflect on the day’s events or develop a mindfulness practice whereby you simply notice and appreciate small moments of pleasure as they happen, doing so can increase overall positive emotion.
Don’t be afraid to experiment! Try new ways to balance your work and personal life and take stock of what worked and what didn’t. Before you know it, you’ll have a routine that enhances your well-being – which will also help you be more successful at achieving your professional goals.
