Turn Your Passion For Healthy Living Into A Job
Are you passionate about health and wellbeing? Why not turn this passion into a career? The healthcare trade is vast and full of opportunities to choose from. Here are just a few ways that you can transform a passion for healthy living into a job.
Are you passionate about health and wellbeing? Why not turn this passion into a career? The healthcare trade is vast and full of opportunities to choose from. Here are just a few ways that you can transform a passion for healthy living into a job.
Work in a hospital
On top of offering treatment to patients, doctors and nurses must act as advisors on healthy living. Many illnesses and ailments can be attributed to an unhealthy lifestyle and doctors and nurses must understand all the causes of this.
This is of course a competitive career field, which takes a lot of hard studying. You’ll generally need high school grades followed by a degree in medicine or nursing, whilst doctors will then need to go to medical school to complete their training. There are careers in medicine that require less training and qualifications such as midwifery or working as a paramedic – well-paid and equally rewarding. For a job that requires no qualifications at all, you could even work as a hospital porter. This still involves dealing with the care of patients in a hospital environment, although with less responsibility and less of an income.
On top of the physical care of patients, there are many behind the scenes jobs that involve the organisation of care in a hospital. These may require completing an MSN MBA program. Such a job could be a great for anyone passionate about care that want to get involved in the structure behind it to help people recover better and more efficiently. Hospitals also must hire staff involved in counselling, nutrition advice, physical therapy and many other non-medical roles. In essence, there are lots of ways to get employed in a hospital that don’t require training to be a doctor or a nurse.
Become a personal trainer
Perhaps you’re more invested in fitness. You may be a keen gymgoer or a bodybuilder or a runner. If so, a job in personal training could be worthwhile. Personal trainers help others to stay fit through exercise. There are lots of niches within this profession such as weight loss training, bodybuilding, strength training, marathon training, post-natal exercise and training people with conditions. Related to this profession is physical therapy, which involves nursing sports injuries and finding exercises to get people back to full mobility.
A job as a personal trainer generally requires some kind of certificate. There are various personal trainer courses that can be taken to get a qualification including college courses and short courses.
Teach a sport
If you’ve reached a certain level in a sport, it could be time to pass on your knowledge onto others. This could involve anything from becoming a martial arts instructor to becoming a football coach. Individual sports may have professional bodies in which you can get a qualification. Whilst you may be able to teach without one in some sports, such a qualification could bolster your reputation and teach you methods of instructing.
There’s also the option to become a sports teacher in school. This generally involves having some kind of university degree and sports teaching qualification. Sports teachers may instruct a wide variety of sports at an entry level. Those in colleges and universities will most likely need extra accolades.
Promote healthy dieting
If you’re dedicated to eating healthy, there are plenty of careers in which you could pass on your healthy eating advice. One of the more professional roles is to become a nutritionist. This generally involves a BSc in Nutrition and can allow you to run a nutritional dieting class or work in a hospital.
Alternatively, if you like cooking, you may be able to find a role making and promoting healthy food. This could be a catering job or you could simply blog or vlog recipes to the world. You may even be able to find a job in a school or hospital providing healthy meals.
Try holistic therapy
Another branch of healthcare to try could be holistic therapy. This involves natural form of treatment over medical ones including acupuncture, herbal medicine and massage therapy. Working in this form of therapy still requires qualifications in many cases such as completing an acupuncture course. You may then be able to work in a holistic clinic or a spa.
There are some forms of holistic therapy that intertwine with medical therapy. Chiropractic work for example involves manipulation of the muscles and bones to solve many musculoskeletal conditions. It has much medical research behind it, but is partly holistic too. Physical therapy can also be viewed this way in many cases. This involves nursing sports injuries and getting people mobile again through stretches and exercises.
Go the extra mile and become a professional athlete
Many of the jobs so far involve the health of others. However, you could focus wholly on improving your own healthy lifestyle and potentially become a professional athlete. This will likely involve honing a particular skill or hobby that you’re already mildly proficient at.
Training to a professional level can be expensive as it may involve hiring a specialist coach and using specialist training gear. Many people fund their training by getting sponsorship. You should start by competing at a local level and then if you succeed, you can think about taking it to the next level.
Not everyone is born to be a professional athlete – it’s a long and arduous route to the top. If you’re not at that expert level or feel you’re too old to compete (although there are competitions and leagues for older people), you may still be able to make money from you passion through social media and blogging. Simply by tracking their training regime and giving advice in an entertaining manner, many people have managed to make money through vlogs and blogs. This could be a great way of getting paid to do what you love.