Finding More Happiness At Work

The vast majority of us spend about a third of our time at work. If you’re happy with what you’re doing that’s fantastic. Unfortunately, most people are either indifferent to what they’re doing or downright unhappy. Feeling indifferent or unhappy are not ways to spend a third of your time!

 

Not to despair, there are a few things each of us can do in our current situation to infuse some happiness into our days.

 

Notice your mindset

So much of our lives comes down to what we think about it. Do you wake up and immediately start dreading your day? Do you start counting down the hours until you can leave the second you sit down at your chair?

 

How you feel about your job and your days will determine your experience of them. Instead negative thoughts about your days, approach them with an open mind. Create the intention to find/see the good things every day has to offer. When you focus on the positives the negatives have less to hold on to.

 

Take on more challenges

Are you simply bored at work? Is it the same old thing day after day? If that’s the case, see if you can take on more. Ask for more training. Volunteer to take on more responsibilities. Learn new things. Get yourself out of your usual routines.

 

Get a breath of fresh air

You’ve working for several hours and lunch time rolls around. You’re nearly done with what you’re working on so you decide to work through lunch at your desk.

 

It’s lunch time! Getting up and going somewhere seems like more trouble than it’s worth, so you just head into the break room and eat your lunch there.

 

Hour after hour in the same space day after day is an invitation for ennui. Take every opportunity you can to get out. Take a walk during your lunch hour or break. Go for a short drive. Give yourself something fresh to look at every day.

 

Smile more

It’s been proven, a simple, genuine smile on your face can improve your mood and your day.  Smiling will also help lower your blood pressure, improve your immune function and all round make you seem like a more likeable person.

 

Quit

If there’s absolutely nothing you can do to improve how you feel at work then maybe it’s time to move on. If it is time to quit, check out this advice from Medium.

“There is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way.” Thich Nhat Hanh

How often have you said, I will be happy when I achieve such and such a goal? Or, Once this is over I’ll be happy. According to those sorts of statements one achieves a state of happiness through something.

 

Unhappiness factors around the goal

The problem is, the dedicated quest for happiness through accomplishment is so stressful and consuming that it sucks the current happiness we could be feeling if we weren’t so focused out of our awareness.

 

Yes, achievements feel great. They prove your abilities and increase your self-worth, but do they actually make you happier? You will most probably feel happy immediately after you achieve that goal. But how long will it last?

 

Everyone has a general set point for happiness. Meaning for the most part, no matter what fabulous new job you get or beautiful new house you move into, after a while you will re-set to your natural happiness level.

 

The mouse wheel of happiness

Trying to achieve happiness through doing or acquiring things is a race that will never finish. It’s as perpetual as a mouse on a wheel. The slight bump in happiness fades and we’re on to the next thing to get it back – feeling less happy in the process of achieving.

 

Be the happiness

No matter what you achieve, your new job, your new house, you are still essentially the same person. That’s why we always return to our set point for happiness. Your set point of happiness is always underneath whatever else you’re doing. That means we can choose to acknowledge it and be happy while we go about achieving our goals. While we are living in our current location.

 

Happiness is a question of noticing the details. The warmth of sunshine on your skin. The colour of the sky. The music playing in your vicinity. Happiness isn’t the goal. Happiness way.

 

We’ve talked a lot about the happiness set point today. Although everyone does return to their general happiness level there is a way to re-adjust that set point and it’s through helping other people. Help other people feel better and you end up feeling happiness yourself. Like the saying goes, The more you give, the more you get.

What You Don’t Say At The Interview

In general an interview will probably last somewhere from thirty to forty minutes, but the person you’re sitting with will have made their first impression of you within the first seven seconds. First impressions are lasting impressions and go a long way in determining whether or not you will be seriously considered for the position.

 

It’s not just what you say, but how you say it

During those crucial, initial seconds you will be judged less on what you say than how you say it. The tone of your voice, your grammar, how confident you seem and what you are wearing all go towards that initial impression.

 

Confidence can be put on like a jacket

Remember you don’t have to feel confident to seem confident. Head up, shoulders back a genuine smile, maintained eye contact all indicate confidence. One other thing. Your hands. Pay attention to what your hands are doing. Fidgeting fingers are a dead giveaway for a lack of confidence. Touching your hair or your face makes you seem unprofessional and unsure. If you can’t keep your hands still, make a point of holding them together. One other thing about hands before we leave the topic. Your handshake. Make sure it’s not too firm or to weak, but like Goldilocks says, just right.

 

Dress like you mean business

In regards to clothes, dress for success. Not too fashionable or trendy. Even if you know the company is casual, dress like you mean business.

 

Don’t forget your posture

You made it past the introductions with a smile and a firm handshake. Now don’t let your good impression go to the dark side by slouching into your seat. And for the love of a great interview, do not cross your arms.

 

Sit up straight an attentive and wow them with all your sensational, hirable qualities!

 

See Where That Change In Direction Takes You

There’s an old saying, Man plans and God laughs. Meaning that try as we may to make perfect plans, as often as not things will go off in completely different directions. Rarely are we pleased with the unforeseen change in plans. At first.

 

New perspectives

The funny thing is, very often that change in direction takes you somewhere unexpected. It makes you consider things from a different viewpoint. Sometimes it causes you to reassess your original plan. Sometimes you have to adjust the original plan to accommodate new circumstances. Other times the original plan has to be abandoned altogether.

 

Interestingly, whatever steps into the spot emptied by the original plan is often a way better alternative. That’s why those old crafty sayings creators came up with, When a door closes, a window opens.

 

Trust the change of plans

How many times have you heard about someone whose life is dramatically changed because of some annoying circumstance that breaks their plans. For example, Jane is trying to get out of the house in time to catch the bus for her interview. But something gets in the way – the dog escapes out the door and it takes ten minutes to get her pet back. Jane sets out ten minutes late and misses the bus. Then that bus is in an accident. Like an invisible hand reached out of the abyss of time to save Jane.

 

That’s pretty dramatic, but let’s go back to the same example. Jane misses the bus. This time there is no accident, but Jane does miss her job interview. And misses out on the job she was a shoe in for. However, a couple of weeks later a much better opportunity shows up and Jane secures that job — one she would never have gotten if she’d made that bus two weeks earlier.

 

It’s tempting to rail against the whims of time and circumstance that ruin our plans, but the best course of action is usually to sit back and wait. Wait and see what comes in place of the original plan. It may not be where you wanted to go, but it will usually take you where you need to be!

 

Five Steps To A Better Memory

How is your memory? Do you have easy recall? Can you easily reference things from your past or popular culture or do you find yourself relying more and more on external devices? As I get older I definitely notice more memory stalls and sometimes full out dead ends. Instead of resigning myself to a petulant, temperamental memory I decided to see if there were ways to improve it.

 

Meditation for memory

There are so many benefits to meditating it’s surprising it’s not something we are taught throughout our years in school. Meditation helps with sleep, with creating balanced lives, with controlling stress and anxiety and it also helps with memory. Meditation not only helps us with short term memory – like remembering people’s names, it also helps us strengthen our long term recall. By turning off all the noisy business in the head meditation creates an open space for grey matter can increase – a home for long term information to settle in.

 

Cut back on the sugar

Everyone knows there are all kinds of health reasons to cut back on sugar so we’re not going to go into a drawn-out discussion about all of them. What you may not know is, research shows that a heavy sugar diet can also induce memory problems and neuroinflmation

 

Enjoy that coffee

Researchers at Johns Hopkins found that caffeine can help enhance memories up to twenty four hours after ingesting it. So after you learn something new get yourself a cup of coffee to solidify what you’ve learned.

 

Get moving

Exercise isn’t just good for the body, it’s also a brain booster. The article Ten Minutes of Exercise a Day Improves Memory from the Guardian states, “Scientists at the University of California studying brain activity found connectivity between parts of the brain responsible for memory formation and storage increased after a brief interval of light exercise – such as ten minutes of slow walking, yoga or tai chi.”

 

Ensure you get enough sleep

Like so many other things on this list a good night’s sleep has more benefits than we can count so we’re going to focus only on memory. Sleep is the time when memories consolidate in your brain. That’s the time when short term memories move into their long-term homes.

 

In my quest to a better memory I got a lesson in overall healthy living. I’ll have to remember that!

Everything begins somewhere

Magnifying glass of over-thought

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to getting anything done is thinking about it. Actually, thinking about doing a thing isn’t the problem.  Problems arise when we start overthinking. When we over-think a thing, it’s like shining a huge magnifying glass on it. The project or event or conversation becomes disproportionally large. Imperfections you wouldn’t otherwise notice take on monumental significance.

 

For example, let’s say you want to ask your boss for a raise. You have been with the company for over a year and you believe you’re doing a good job, but you’ve never asked anyone for a raise before. You actually feel lucky to even have a job. The more you think about it, the more you think maybe it’s best to leave well enough alone. You’re managing after all. Your boss isn’t exactly the most approachable person. If she wanted to give you a raise, she would have just given you the raise you think. Plus, you did come in late twice in the last month. It would be better to delay this whole raise question for another month when you feel readier.

 

In fact, you won’t feel readier in another month. If anything, you’ll feel even less prepared to get in there and ask for that raise because you’ve over-thought yourself into thinking you don’t really want or need that raise at all.

 

Action breaks stagnation

The best way to get past the wall of thought is to DO something. There are a few things you should do before asking for a raise. One of them is to research dos and don’ts of asking for a raise. Prepare, by determining your worth and writing out your future goals.

 

Whether you want to ask for a raise, write the next New York Times best seller or become a self-made person like Richard Branson, you have to get out of your head and into your life.

 

Start somewhere

If you’re that writer but you don’t have a story for the character that’s been living in your head, start by writing about the character. Join a writing group. Read books from your favourite authors. Create a dedicated time for writing every day and write something – anything. Make a start on the project. Action will lead to more action and soon your project will gain a momentum of its own.

When An Interview Goes Wrong

Just about all of us have had some good interviews and some not so good ones. If you were to dissect what went wrong at the not so good ones you’d find there was not enough of certain things. We’ve compiled a list of them here.

 

Not enough confidence

Not everyone is born brimming with confidence, but every single one of us can certainly convey confidence. Sit up straight, maintain eye contact, don’t fidget, smile and don’t speak a mile a minute. You will appear confident.

 

Not enough research

If you haven’t done adequate research on the company you are applying for, how can you expect to speak intelligently about the organization or the position? Before stepping into an interview ensure you’ve Googled the company. Check them out on social media. Have a few a few facts about them that you can weave into the discussion.

 

Not enough preparation

There are certain questions that come up in just about every interview. If you think you can just wing them you are mistaken. Take the time to acquaint yourself with common interview questions then come up with thoughtful, intelligent answers

 

Not enough listening

Sometimes people get so caught up in what they want to say and how they’re going to answer the questions they expect, they don’t actually hear what the interviewer is saying. Pay close attention to the person in front of you. Ensure you are answering the question they are asking. Get into their headspace and follow their lead in terms of tone and speech pattern. If they are slow speakers, then slow down your speech. If they seem like they’re interested in elaborate, descriptive answers then provide those. If they’re more straightforward and to the point then follow suit.

 

Not enough enthusiasm

You might by nature be on the quiet side, but it is imperative that you convey your enthusiasm for the job and the company you’re interviewing with. That enthusiasm will come through in your tone of voice and your words. And at the end of the interview when you specifically ask for the job. As obvious as your interest may seem, given that you are sitting there interviewing for the job, it’s important of actually ask for the job. Something along the lines of, “It was a great pleasure meeting you. Given our discussion, I believe I can be a great asset to the company. I look forward to hearing back from you.”