Cultivate Happiness at Work

Now apply all these personal life lessons to your work place.

You can create a positive relationship with your Coworkers by:

• Keeping a smile on your face
• Being sincere in all you do and say
• Getting to know your coworkers so you can respond to their needs
• Asking for suggestions and input
• Not being controlling.  Allow others creative freedom. 

You can create a positive relationship with your Customers by:

• Building loyal relationships
• Telling your customers you appreciate them.  Or better yet, show them.
• Getting to know your customers so you can respond to their needs
• Treating customers the way you'd like to be treated
• Making existing customers your #1 focus

  

"You can always find happiness at work on Friday." - Unknown

Make Fun Time a Daily Goal

Life is an adventure.  Why not make the adventure fun?  As you develop your attitude of gratitude, make it a daily goal to have fun.  Start by not taking yourself too seriously.  Even when life gets you down, it's still OK to smile.  Eventually you'll know that you can laugh and have fun again.  When you make fun a daily goal, you'll find the world a more fun place to be.

Are you having trouble having fun?  Consider this:

• If you're not having fun, you're probably not happy.  Consider the source and do the working of changing.
• View each day as if it were the first day of your life, or job, or relationship.  Get the spark back!
• What's the one thing you're really good at or love to do?  Find ways to do more of it.
• Find ways to integrate what you love to do into your job
• Every day, find something to laugh, or at least smile, about
• Learn to laugh at yourself
• Enjoy life's simple pleasures.  The best part is that most of them are free.
• Stay fully involved in whatever you're doing.  Enjoy the present.
• Find reasons to celebrate, and celebrate in style
• Break the routine by breaking one bad habit.  Then replace it with a good one.

"Never take life seriously. Nobody gets out alive anyway."
- Unknown

 

Pro-Act, Don't React

Are you proactive, or reactive?  Think before you answer.  Being proactive is more difficult than you might imagine.  Do you think ahead and get things done promptly, or wait until the last minute?  This can apply to work, general life maintenance (like taxes), or in a real emergency.  When we put things off, we create unnecessary stress, and often don't allow time for the unforeseen.  Then, as the deadline begins to quickly bear down us us, we forced to react.  When we react, we often don't make the wisest decisions.  

When you're faced with a real crisis, the results of poor decisions can be absolutely devastating.  Most people tend to think of crisis situations as those which affect many people.  Most crisis, however, occur on a much smaller scale - often just with you.  When you plan proactively, you have much more opportunity to determine the outcome of a situation, and you can even prevent a bad situation from turning into a crisis.  If an emergency does occur for which you have no plan, your proactive state of mind will help you manage the crisis more efficiently.

Consider these things to do before a crisis:

• Be on the lookout for things that need to be changed, improved or eliminated
• Always have a contingency plan in place for emergency situations
• Practice your contingency plan with anyone who might be affected

During a crisis:

•  #1 Rule - Remain Calm.  Take a deep breath, or a few.
• Determine how much time you have before you have to take action
• When time permits, ask others for their ideas or help
• Think of the worst-case scenario for the action you're choosing
• Help others remain calm by modeling calm behavior

“Do not wait for your ship to come in – swim out to it.” - Unknown

Stay One Step Ahead

Along with keeping the momentum going, you also need to stay one step ahead of the crowd.  You can accomplish this by always seeking ways to learn.  It can be something entirely new, or something old in a new way.  Develop your desire to become an active learner.  And at the same time, develop your desire to become an active teacher.  Learning, as well as teaching, should be a lifelong process.

Some food for thought:

• Knowledge truly is power
• View every day as an opportunity to learn something
• Set a goal to learn one new thing every day (it can be as simple as a new word)
• When you approach every day as an adventure, it makes it easier to find that one new thing to learn
• Look for opportunities to learn from everyone you encounter.  Do not discount anyone, especially children.
• Become a continual learner by taking a class, even if it's just for fun
• View every learning opportunity as a chance to improve yourself
• When things don't go your way and you're forced into a new situation, view it as a way to learn new skills
• Always question the status quo.  Find ways to make things better, even if they're already pretty good.
• Look for things that need to be changed, especially those within you
• Watch for bad habits that are forming and do something to change them
• Share your knowledge with others  
 

“Teaching is only demonstrating that it is possible. Learning is making it possible for yourself.”  - Paulo Coelho, The Pilgrimage

Keep the Momentum Going

Not only for your New Year's Resolutions, but in every aspect of your life - work, relationships, good health.  When you reach the point where your days become routine, it can become difficult to maintain focus.  Things become mundane.  You get bored.  You can keep the momentum going though by creating a plan and remaining present.  When you do this, you'll find ways to keep your job, love life and friendships alive and thriving.  Not to mention yourself!

How do you know if it's time to make a plan?  Ask yourself:

• Am I being present and honest with myself?
• How well am I communicating to others?
• How effective am I in reading and sending verbal and non-verbal messages?
• What can I do to make myself better - deeper commitment? continuing education?
• What support do I need from others - friends? therapy?  community group?  
 

"If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop the story."  - Orson Welles