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Happiness Starts At The Workplace

Written by: Dr. Fathi El-Nadi

Article Overview: Is there a way we can convince ourselves that we are happy? How about the pressures of personal, family, and work pressures? Which of these contribute the biggest pressures on us? The problem here seems to be that the time we spend at work is in average twice the time we spend with our families and friends, and that the pressures we suffer from in the workplace continues to take hold of us even after we leave the workplace. Thus, our personal life is both affected and controlled by our work life.

Happiness Starts At The Workplace

Therefore, the starting point towards redirecting our emotions towards being more constructive and positive is: “how to enjoy our jobs?” and hopefully if we were able to make this happen, a lifelong happiness can be attained. We need to persuade ourselves that we are happy. We need – if I may - brainwash ourselves into the belief that we are happy, talk ourselves into it. Mission impossible? No. It is difficult but possible? It is worth trying. An adventure in ‘self-deceit’ that is worth doing.Work is a great value in itself. It is crucial In accomplishing self-actualization. In that sense the recognition we get at work recharges our batteries and sharpens our appetite for more achievements and more rewards. But, what happens if we do not get the recognition we deserve? Demotivation builds up and work becomes some kind of punishment, and the workplace turns gradually into a torture chamber. Intrinsic motivation is can compensate the lack of motivation we suffer at the workplace as a result of the managers negligence to reinforce good work. Here is my prescription to you to make up for the lack of simple ‘thank you’ jests at the workplace: If you have to work, you might as well enjoy it. Why be unhappy for 40 hours per week at the least? Out of experience, here are ten ways to enjoy your work:
1. Decide to enjoy it! Make up your mind to feel good at work. You will be surprised how much better you will like your work if you just make a deliberate decision to enjoy it. This of course requires that you only take the jobs you are good at. Even when you change jobs, it should be in the context of career development and in response to what you like to do, not accepting what is available. If you wake up in the morning feeling bad about going to work, then probably you are dong something you do not like, and you better find the job you want to feel happy.

2. Maintain good and friendly relationships with your employer and with your co-workers. Getting along with and liking the people you work with will make any job more enjoyable. Emotional intelligence helps us accept the other. Greatly diverse workplaces became the norm of the new century. Consider it an adventure not a threat. It could be a rich learning process of added value to you.
3. From a materialistic point of view, remember that your work provides most of your necessities and luxuries. Just think, unless you inherited a bundle, you owe all you have to work. In that light, the whole job looks pretty good, doesn't it? You do not have to feel romantic about your job, What you need to convince yourself. Liking rather than loving is all that you need to feel happy at work. Of course if you are able to ‘love’ you job then you should be grateful for a heavenly gift that many other do not have.
4. From a social point of view, keep in mind the service you are providing people through your work. The job you do helps other people. Now that is a good feeling! Your job is essential to the welfare of the customers of your organization, and of added value to the GDP of your country. Your contribution is required and indispensable to the progress and development of your country and its people.
5. Attitude-wise challenge yourself at work. Set and pursue attainable goals. Always try to do a better job. Stretch yourself and your abilities! Grow! That attitude can make even a dull job exciting! It enhances your sills and competencies to pursue escalating goals in life and feeling good of yourself.
6. Concentrate on the good things about your job. Write out a list of 10 or more things you like about your job. You might include on your list things like the pay, the fringe benefits, the heat and air conditioning, the vacation time, etc. Read the list every time you feel bad about any aspect in the workplace. It is a package deal, and accepted one if the good things about it outweighs the bad ones. You may also compare your status with people you know in other organizations in the same business as yours. If you feel good about exchanging business cards, then you are OK.

7. Do more than you are paid to do. If you do just enough to barely maintain your membership in the organization, you will be bored soon, but if you really get after it, you will feel good about yourself. Besides that, your boss will soon notice, and before too long you will be rewarded. Persistence will get you there, even if you experience some stumbling blocks.
8. Adopt the "This is my company" attitude. You may not actually own the company, but wherever you work, it is your company! And when you begin to feel like it's your company, you will discover a new sense of pride and fulfillment in your work! ‘Positive Thinking’ is the name of the game. You will soon find that you get over problems in a creative innovative way, and problems remain in their context without being overblown or inflated.

9- Seek joining successful teams doing special projects or tasks. They are usually spotlighted and get full support of the senior management. They also become more legible to promotion than those who do not demonstrate their competencies and skills, and stay away from being seen by the decision makers in the organization. By belonging to a winning team, you can maintain your high flyer status while gaining organizational recognition.

10- Quit if you feel that you can no more tolerate the organizational pressure and politics especially the relationship with your immediate supervisor who is supposed to lend you the required support to succeed. It is not worth it to expose yourself to a daily test of tolerance. The impact on your psyche and health is accumulative and damaging.

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  Pursuit of Happiness
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Related Forum Posts
Re: The secret to happiness - Happiness comes from within. We choose whether we want to be happy or not. Circumstances can influence our feelings, but in the end, it's up to us how we deal with our circumstances, positively or negatively. I admire anyone who can stay strong and be happy through adversity. There will always be challenges that we face, but I believe that if we face them with our heads held high, the odds of overcoming them are much greater. This reminds me of the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness." Happiness spelled wrong for a reason. One of Will Smith's greatest movies. I encourage you all to watch it as it's very inspiring.
Re: The secret to happiness - Happiness is working on the job you love. I forgot who said this, "give a man the job he loves doing and he will ever work again in his life"
Re: The secret to happiness - [quote="barrysarner":2awy1urv]I agree and happiness is different for every individual.[/quote:2awy1urv] Happiness is something that comes from within each person it not something that we can find externally. Something from outside such as an exciting event or a new car can make us happy, but this is a fleeting emotion. True happiness is within each person if we choose to it over misery. MichelleJ
What is one of your favorite sales and marketing book? - One of my favorite sales and marketing book is called Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh. It tells a story of how a guy quit a high paying corporate job after graduating from Harvard in order to pursue a business dream, while working with a group of friends. They eventually built a business that is now worth over a billion dollars called Zappos.com. The entire books concept was on how to market a successful business. I enjoyed reading the book and learned a lot from it. What is one of your favorite marketing books?
Workplace Warrior: Insights and advice for winning on the co - Workplace Warrior: Insights and advice for winning on the corporate battlefield Kay Hammer 2000 From the inside jacket: Successful people don't get to the top without struggles. But few are willing to expose the failures and setbacks that have lined their paths through the battle zones of business. Kay Hammer is that rare breed. With startling candor and penetrating intelligence, this "very modern, very American heroine (Forbes) gives a frank and full recounting of her mid-career reinvention, from a linguistics professor alone to the President, CEO, and co-founder of Evolutionary Technologies International... Hammer's new life began with an epiphany - that nothing substantive in her life would change unless she made it happen. There would be no Prince Charming. From that moment on, she began a long, ardous journey to carve for herself in the youthful, male-dominated software industry-a journey which she likens to serving the apprenticeship of a medieval warrior... Her strategies are geared for battles on all fronts: not only for disarming foes, gaining allies, and winning battles in the boardroom, but also for confronting the internal enemies of self-doubt, fear of failure, and unresolved anger.


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