What Is Wellbeing

Understanding What Is Wellbeing: Definition, Elements And Other Important Facts
Contrary to what a lot of people actually believe, wellbeing is not only about being happy. It’s also not just about being successful or wealthy. Definitely it’s not just limited to wellness and physical health. As a matter of fact, when you focus on any of these in isolation, you could drive yourself to feelings of failure and frustration. Wellbeing is actually about the combinations of the quality of relationships, love for the daily things that you do, financial security, vibrancy of physical health, and taking pride in what you contribute to the community.
Gallup, an American research-based, global performance-management consulting company, conducted research on more than 150 countries in order to acquire information about the wellbeing of 98% of the total people all over the world. Gallup went from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe in order to ask hundreds of questions pertaining to wealth, health, job, relationships, and communities. They then compared results with regards to how people actually go on with their day and also to overall evaluate their lives. According to the initial research, people were found out to give disproportionate weight when it comes to health and income. Among the groups that were surveyed, “wealth” and “good health” were the two most usual responses. The reason for this is probably that people can measure weight, blood pressure, height, and household income but there is no standard measure for the health of relationships and the quality of careers.
In order to basically come up with a comprehensive measure of individual wellbeing, Gallup formulated an assessment filled with the best questions asked over the last five decades. This was called as the Wellbeing Finder. Gallup tested hundreds of questions all over different countries, languages, and different situations in life. As the research got completed, there were five noticeable statistical factors that emerged. These became wellbeing’s universal elements that differentiate a life spent suffering from a thriving one. These elements describe different aspects of people’s lives that people can do something about. These are the ones that turned out to be very important among the people that were studied. These elements are considered as the currency of a life that actually matters. They basically represent five categories that are important to most people all over the world.
Gallup’s Five Essential Elements of Wellbeing
1) Career Wellbeing
This focuses on how you go and occupy your time and liking what you do each and every day/
2) Social Wellbeing
This revolves around having strong relationships in your life.
3) Financial Wellbeing
This tackles how effective you manage your economic life.
4) Physical Wellbeing
This works on having enough energy to get daily tasks done and also having good health.
5) Community Wellbeing
This focuses on the sense of engagement that you have with the area that you live in.
According to the study, 66 percent of people do well in at least one of these particular areas but only 7 percent thrive in all five. Basically, if people struggle in any of the domains here, it damages people’s wellbeing and affects their daily lives. If you strengthen your wellbeing in any of the areas here, you will eventually have better days. The research showed though that unless you live life effectively in all five aspects, you are not getting the most out of it.
Even though these elements are universal across cultures, nationalities, and faith, people still take on different paths to improve their own individual wellbeing. Many people are driven because of spirituality. Faith has been an important aspect of their lives and interconnected with their daily efforts. Some people though, have a deep connection with environment protection, which makes them inspired each day. It is understandable that different things motivate people but the outcome is usually the same.
You can utilize a lot of ways to thrive and have a better Social, Career, Physical, Community, and Financial Wellbeing. These important elements are within your control. You have the ability and choice to drive and improve on them. Such examples are exercising regularly, spending more social time with friends, or spending money wisely. You must take note though that the most influential threat to your own wellbeing is yourself. People tend to let short-term decisions affect the best ones for long-term wellbeing.
You should not work against your own interests.
Physical activity will ultimately improve our health but still, a lot of people tend to skip exercising. Some tend to miss out on workouts and just let themselves off the hook for a day.
We know that consuming too much sugar and eating a lot of fried foods would lead to bad consequences for our health yet we still regularly buy a handful of candies and chips.
Allowing short-term desires to conquer over your long-term goals will ultimately cause your failed wellbeing. There are just so many options available today that can satisfy us instantly. This tends to make the proper long-term decisions harder. If you can actually find short term incentives that could interact well with your long-term goals, you can make the easier and more correct decisions.
Ranking of Countries in Terms of Wellbeing
According to a recent study, among 145 countries, Panama is the country that has the highest overall wellbeing. These are ranked based on the percent of residents who thrive in 3 of the elements of wellbeing. The other 9 top countries are Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Belize, Switzerland, Chile, Guatemala, Austria, Mexico and Denmark. As you can see, the Americas have a great strong presence on this list, having seven countries included on the top 10. On the other side of the coin, the five countries that have that lowest wellbeing levels are Togo, Tunisia, Bhutan, Cameroon and Afghanistan. As a matter of fact, Afghanistan has no resident who thrive in 3 or more elements of wellbeing. Nobody is actually thriving there in terms of social, purpose, and financial well-being.
Countries that have high levels of wellbeing usually have resilience and stability. They usually have healthcare utilization, trust in local institutions, food, shelter, security, and volunteerism.

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