People want to be happy, or happier at work. They want a fulfilling career, a satisfying life filled with good experiences. They want good relationships, a job they enjoy and are proud of. A job where they can use their talents and earn good money. They want to see their dreams come true and experience life’s experiences to the full. And they want to be loved, liked and respected by all.
That’s what people want. Once people thrive and are successful at what they do, then the business or organization thrives because the people make it so. People make the organization, not the other way round. People work for other people, people work with other people and people represent the organization.
Unfortunately, happiness isn’t a prescription that you can just go to a chemist and have it filled by a happiness chemist. It’s not something that you get, it’s not something that you can possess. Happiness is something that you are!
Everybody has different ideas on what will make them happy. In 1957, there was some interesting research done in the USA where they asked a large number of people whether they were happy with what they had in life. About a third said yes. Then in 1962, when the researchers conducted the same study, again a third said ‘yes’ despite that the standard of living had increased substantially. So what does this study mean? It means that about one-third of the people know the secret of being happy.
Happiness comes from the inside. It doesn’t depend on what possessions you’ve got but what you are and what you experience. Happiness is the small things of life, those decisions that you make everyday, each one making you happier. In the everyday details of life, this is where happiness abounds.
In the material pursuits, many people think they are happy when they have that next possession, feeling or person. Then they will be happy. This is a mirage! If you are pursuing it, you’ve put it in front of you as you continue to pursue it. It will stay always tantalizingly out of reach. It’s almost impossible to pursue something that’s already inside of you! You can only be happy right now.
Many people think that happiness is a scarcity – that there’s not enough to go around. I’ve heard some parents say to their children when the children are having great fun, “Okay now, that’s enough fun for the moment, get back to your studies!” Those people may think that there’s only so much happiness to go around, and if they’re too happy, someone inevitably has to pay for it!
Yet perhaps being happy is everyone’s choice. You might want to be happily achieving your work, even though this might not be your life’s purpose. For example, I know many students choose a vacation job and do it so well that their employers are so smitten by their passion, focus and energy, they offer them full-time jobs. Now that’s happiness! The students are happily achieving now while waiting for that special something which will come to them in future.
So how happy are you? Do you have accurate self-assessment, a high degree of self-confidence and an accurate self-awareness of who and what you are? Can you make yourself happy even under dire economic times?
If you take the time to focus on what you’ve already got and be appreciative and thankful for what you have, it makes a big difference. Rather than pining for and wishfully thinking of some material happiness that you want to pursue why not simply just decide to be happy now? Yes. Right now, this very instant?
See the glass as half-full. At work, don’t moan, moan, moan. Don’t complain, whine, condemn or criticize. You certainly won’t gain happiness that way. Stop being a liability to yourself by doing this highly ungainly and negative behaviour. Stop sucking away like a vacuum cleaner all the goodness of the office environment and replacing it with a sour, negative and blaming environment. Happiness doesn’t work this way.
Simply decide to act positive. Even if you don’t feel positive, just act positive and have a huge grin on your face that says you’re happy!. Just behave like you’re happy and you will be happy. Be positive about your fellow work mates and the future. Be grateful for what you have rather than focusing on what you don’t have.
I’m not suggesting that you ignore the really bad news that’s going around you or the bad stuff that happens. When financial times are not so good and the organization has to take people off the payroll, or if a project’s gone badly wrong, then discuss it. Face up and discuss the facts in the right context.
And neither am I suggesting that you skip into the office daily on a false smile and pretend that life is perfect. But perhaps you can monitor your thinking and not spill your guts out in a whining, complaining and negative fashion.
So choose to be happy, and you will be happy. Happiness starts first from the inside. Then it works its way to the outside.
Go on. Count your blessings. Put on the biggest smile on your dial. Step out into the world and spread some happiness!
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Author: Ricky Lien