MAKEOVER YOUR CAREER – 4 WAYS TO BE HAPPY AT WORK!
Proper Interview Technique
Do you love your job?
Do you wake up every morning with a smile on your face, happy to leave the house and travel to your place of employment?
Sadly, for most of us the answer to this question is “NO”!
It is an age-old problem that has had people riddled for centuries – how does one be happy with the job they do, regardless of what it is?
Many of us think that our lives would be perfect if we had a “dream job” like a rockstar, a choclate taster, or fighter pilot. Or better yet, if we didn’t have to work at all!
But in reality, the world as we know it turns because people work – everyone has their place in society, from statesmen to street sweepers, from hotel porters to Hollywood starlets. Imagine if everyone suddenly became a rockstar – there would be nobody left to ensure all of our infrastructure was working properly, or that there was food in the supermarkets for us to buy.
Every job is important to a working society. Where do you fit in?
You might think that you can never grow to like your job because it is not your dream position – but I think that you CAN find happiness at work just by following a few simple points.
Discover your purpose
What is the purpose of your job? You might go into work every day and do your job, but in the back of your mind think that it’s really for nothing. This is sure to leave you feeling down about work! As I mentioned, EVERY job has a purpose and fits into the grand scheme of society – you just need to find your place.
Take a moment to imagine that your job didn’t exist – that is, that no one in the world was taking care of what you take care of every day. I’m sure you’ll be able to find that things would go wrong or be thrown off-balance if you weren’t doing your job.
Knowing that what you do is important is the first step to finding happiness at work.
Achieve work/life balance
Do you work ALL THE TIME?
It is a very modern problem, and people who struggle with this problem are often called “workaholics”. You are probably not literally addicted to your job, but you may be working long hours for extra money, or to get more done, or simply because you think there is no one else to cover for you.
These may be legitimate reasons, but if you want to be happy at work you need to take a look at how much of your life it takes up. If you work a standard 40 hour week, this is about a quarter of your life that you will spend working. The more you increase your work hours the more you will throw off the balance – after all, these extra hours have to come from somewhere, be it your sleeping time, your family time, or your recreation time – something is suffering.
To be happy at work you need to make sure that there is a balance between what you do for work and what you do for leisure.
Further your education 3
LEARNING is a key factor to contentment.
You don’t necessarily have to go back to school to further your education. You might take a short night course, or do a correspondance course, or simply learn by yourself by reading and talking with others.
The more you learn, the more confident you will be and you will probably find that more doors will open for you at work. For example if you are going for a promotion, imagine how much better a new tertiary qualification relevant to the position will look on your resume!
Taking the initiative to educate yourself can propel your career forward – and make you happier in the process!
Be social - without playing politics 4
Everyone likes to work in a fun, warm environment.
If you want to be happy at work, you need to contribute to making your workplace more fun. Try to be more social with your colleagues – if you work somewhere that does not have a well-defined culture, you should try to create one. Organise cake for staff birthdays, decorations for the holidays, even a funny hat day! Do what you can to make work fun by taking control of your environment and turning it into what YOU want it to be.
Just be careful not to go too far with your socialising. Being friendly with your colleagues is great – but getting involved in workplace “politics” or getting in too deep with your workmates can be detrimental to your work happiness.
Keep it fun, but keep it impersonal.
Being happy at work is simply a state of mind. You need to make the most of what you have and where you are. You will probably find that by changing your ATTITUDE you will change your environment.
If, however, you find that NOTHING you change is making a difference – it is probably time to move on.