For most of us, work is just a necessity. Not a dream job, not a vocation, not a holiday, even on weekends and vacations. It’s not insignificant if “just” work doesn’t feel like punishment for a crime you didn’t commit. But what if it’s possible to feel happy at any job?
What Is Happiness?
Let’s distinguish between happiness and other positive emotions, such as joy, curiosity, or euphoria. Happiness is different in that it’s experienced more deeply because it implies purpose and meaning. You can achieve it when you play Gems Bonanza free, go on a vacation or go on a date with yourself.
To be happy at work, you don’t have to hold a high or interesting position that allows you to apply all your knowledge and skills. You don’t even have to make a lot of money. It’s enough to believe that you’re doing a good job, doing good things in pleasant company.
How to Feel Happy at Work
Talk to Your Coworkers
Share the news, joke around, ask how the weekend went or how the preparation for a presentation is going. Humans are still social creatures: easy, superficial interactions bring us joy and help us cope with stress.
By establishing warm, friendly relationships with coworkers, you’re laying the foundation for more comfortable and productive work together.
Build friendships, create a permanent support group for yourself, and seek out those who care about you. When you have friends waiting in the office, it’s much more pleasant to go to work.
Help Someone or Do a Good Deed
Recommend a good tutor for your colleague’s son, give directions to a delivery person, fix a broken printer, change the water in the cooler, water the office ficus, or bring all the department employees donuts from the cafe. Helping others makes you feel needed and – if you do it voluntarily and with personal initiative – makes you happy.
Your self-esteem grows, and you already have the courage to take on more challenging work tasks.
Thank or Give a Well-deserved Compliment
Show off the great illustrations in your presentation, express admiration for how patiently and tactfully your colleague was on the phone with a difficult customer, say thank you for the speed with which you received the requested data. You will make someone else happy, but you will feel better.
If you praise people, they will try harder. So you’re making a valuable contribution to the cause.
As a result, you will learn how to give people quality, constructive feedback – a skill that will be handy if you one day decide to apply for a promotion.
Play
Breaks at work are necessary, any employer will agree. Download short games on your smartphone that will pull you out of your routine and give you a sense of success.
For example, in the free version of Lumosity, three random games are available daily. They help develop memory, logic, concentration, strategic thinking, and each passed level will bring a sense of fun. Tetris, clue games, crossword puzzles, and a wolf that catches falling eggs will do the trick.
You are more useful to people when you are in a good mood and have all the necessary cognitive abilities to cope perfectly with work tasks.
Next you’ll get used to playing hard to get, and one day you’ll decide to make a change: take on a more challenging job, for example.
Learn a New Thing or Take a Lesson
Many people feel happy when they satisfy their curiosity or try something new. Look for courses or articles that will help you do your job better but won’t put you to sleep. You can study and get a little happier even during official work hours, as long as there are no urgent tasks.
You’ll get smarter at something or eventually be able to help someone because of what you’ve learned. As you gradually acquire useful skills and knowledge, you’ll become better and better at your job tasks, which in turn will increase your self-esteem and make you feel happier.
Reward Yourself
If the to-do list isn’t pleasing, bribe yourself: assign “little joys” after it’s completed. For example, promise yourself a cupcake at the nearest coffee shop for a finished report or a hike with a friend along the waterfront at the end of the work day. Some incentives will please you in the moment, others – while you anticipate them.
Simplify the task: prepare a jar of “vitamins of joy” in advance. Write pleasant activities or favorite delicacies. Fold these papers several times and stick them in a pretty glass jar. Take it out when you deserve it or when you “really need it.”
By striving to get encouragement, you’ll be moving toward your professional goals. Perhaps one day you will get tired of being encouraged from the outside, and start seriously looking for work that will please you. Or, on the contrary, you will get used to coping brilliantly with the tasks and already without “bribery” will begin to enjoy them.
Do a Task You Love
Even the most unloving job usually has one or two tasks that don’t annoy you so much. Write a letter, or tidy up your folders, or look up information you need on the Internet, or count money. A rush of pleasure is assured for you.
Listen to Your Favorite Music
Create a playlist that energizes you with positive emotions: make you tap your foot and shake your head to the beat, make you smile with pleasure, or immerse you in pleasant memories. “Take” such a playlist – like an endorphin pill – daily.
And then what? You’ll get used to a more positive outlook on life, learn to improve your mood, increase the “degree of happiness” in simple, affordable, and harmless ways.
Set Yourself a Challenge
Promise yourself to write a report one and a half to two times faster than usual; don’t miss a single typo; smile at clients 50 times in one day; make a record number of cold calls. When you cross the finish line, you’re sure to feel a rush of happiness.