• Are you happy at work? Have you taken time off because you feel stressed, disengeged, undervalued or depressed? And, does it impact on your hours outside work? If so, you’re not alone.
  • Did you know; One third of our whole lives is spent at work! It would therefore be nice to do work we enjoy.
  • I’ve felt stuck with my situation at work before, and felt that I didn’t have control to change it. But what if we could control more of our happiness at work?
  • In this Ted talk video, Shawn Achor (2011) tells us 75% of our success comes from
  • • how optimistic we are,
  • • whether we are supported by others and
  • • how we view stress. Read about 4 keys to happiness at work.
  • 1. Meaning and purpose at work.
  • When work is meaningful, we are motivated from within, and this adds to our performance and persistence. Meaning can come from autonomy and feeling that we are called to do our jobs, or that we get purpose in life from our job. We may find meaning in:
  • -helping our colleagues or helping our patients or customers.
  • -keeping our bodies fit and healthy by doing an active job.
  • -making useful or beautiful things.
  • Or a number of other things. People get meaning in different ways.
  • Simply thinking of a different job title can help us to gain satisfaction and meaning from our work. To change the way I think about my work, my job title is now 'Motivator'. I'm pleasantly surpised to report to you that this actually boosts my wellbeing and my perception of work!
  • 2. How we view stress.
  • If we view stress as a challenge and not a threat, it goes a long way to add to our success in life. That thrilling feeling of going through something challenging, but knowing we can do it, is called eustress. Science has shown this to be one of our basic needs. 3. Choice at work (Job Crafting)
  • Autonomy is having choice over tasks we do at work. Evidence shows when we have autonomy at work we increase eustress, positive emotions, satisfaction and meaning in our lives. We even get physical health benefits when we have autonomy.
  • One way of doing this is job crafting; proactively adjusting work tasks, work relationships and, as mentioned, our perceptions of our job. This can bring great benefits such as increasing our engagement, positive emotions, meaning and performance.
  • To do this I made 3 lists;
  • 1. What I like about my job and would like to do more of.
  • 2. What I don’t like and would like to do less of or change.
  • 3. What I’d like to do in my job that I haven’t done yet.
  • I'm doing the next step over time, but just starting has given me a boost. I'm gradually attacking items on the second two lists, by adding, tweaking and subtracting. Realistically, my list 2 won't completely disappear, but just cutting it back or adding more positives will help me to change the balance of positive to negative tasks.
  • Whilst I don't have complete autonomy at work, by focussing on what I can control, I'm now taking action to improve my wellbeing. 4. Being engaged in what we do.
  • Science shows us when we are engaged in the moment, we have more positive feelings at work and improved physical health; better immune systems, hearts and digestive systems.
  • So what's one way we can feel more engaged at work?
  • By using our signature strengths at work. Neimic found that if we
  • use four of our strongest character strengths at work, we’ll have more positive experiences. Character strengths are ways we think, behave, feel and believe that make us feel true to ourselves and give us energy. We also encounter calling when we use them.

  • So, here are 5 steps to follow.
  • 1. Find your top four character strengths by taking the free quiz http://www.viacharacter.org/
  • 2. Try to understand your strongest seven strengths. I find writing this down or printing it out can help me to stay focussed.
  • 3. Reflect on how you use your top four strengths at work.
  • 4. If you find you already use these, well done! You can still try to grow in awareness of when you use them at work every day.
  • 5. If you use less than four strengths, add one more strength at a time. You can ask yourself and others at work, “When have I used this strength at work and how can I use it in a new way?"
  • Give this a try. Here’s to more happiness at your work and the positive ripple effects you’ll feel in your life.

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