- January 21, 2021
- martijn@websiet.nl
- 0
We spend a third of our lives in a work situation. How do you make sure that you go to work happy every day instead of looking up to it? Read this blog about how you can create happiness at work and be truly happy at work.
Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.
Luke Schouten
What is happiness?
We can define happiness simply as: ‘presence of positive feelings and absence of negative feelings. Experiencing satisfaction.’ Everyone can recognise this, regardless of work. The base is that you are enjoying yourself and finding your life enjoyable. This also applies to happiness at work!
Healthy people live longer
Enjoying life has to do with feeling comfortable in our own skin, feeling enough connection with others, being rested, feeling healthy and not being under too much stress. Research shows that healthy people live longer and happier lives. We also find our lives more enjoyable if what we do also is challenging, so we don’t get bored with our activities and ourselves.
Get to know yourself
How about this for you? Perhaps you already feel quite happy separately from your work. And indeed … you take this happiness with you to work. You cannot have a better starting point. But is this enough? Unfortunately, no. In others, happiness sometimes seems to arise naturally. But appearances can be misleading. (Work) happiness does not happen by itself. If you know what stresses you out or what situations bother you, and you know how to deal with them, this will help you to create happiness at work.
The following four points are important for creating happiness at work:
Happiness
Of course you have to enjoy your work in order to keep it up for eight hours a day. Ask yourself which aspects you enjoy and which you don’t at all. Did you choose this job or study for a different reason than that you found it fascinating? Was the good salary or status important, but deep down you don’t like it? Be honest with yourself. Consider first what really makes you happy.
Challenge
Your work should challenge you. It should not be to difficult and not too easy. There is a term for this: flow. Is the challenge too high for your skills? Then you feel too much stress to perform well. Is the challenge too small? Then you get bored. If it’s just right, then you get into a flow and feel happy.
Connection
At work, it’s nice if you feel connection with your colleagues. Then you automatically look forward to seeing them again and enjoy going to work. For this you must find them somewhat fine people. This connection applies to the business level as well as the personal level. For example, if you click on the business level, but not on the personal level with the people in the workplace, you can probably spend the whole day just talking about business. That’s ultimately unsustainable.
Perspective
Finally, it is incredibly important to have perspective because it gives you hope. Perspective is different for everyone. It can come in many different forms: prospects of promotion, salary increases, training or increasing your responsibility. What do YOU need? What makes you want to work well and hard for your boss? Make this negotiable.
Don’t be blinded by how much you are going to earn
During your application, you can already explore whether this work will make you happy. Is it challenging? Do you have a click with some people? Do they offer you perspective professionally? Do you earn enough? About the last one: of course you want salary for work, but research shows that a good salary cannot compensate for a lack of fun, connection, challenge and perspective. So don’t stare blindly at how much you will earn, but look at all those other factors. That’s what will make you truly happy and will create happiness at work!
Are you unhappy with your current job and looking for something new?
Then read about the do’s and don’ts on social media when you’re applying for a new job. It is good to know what you can and cannot do during your application process.