How Can I Help You in 2010?
Sunday, February 7th, 2010
We are 1/12 through 2010 and how much happier are you at work?
February marks the two year anniversary of this blog. My main reason for creating this business was to help other people who feel tired and weary of the grind.
I rarely feel stressed out, trapped and alone at this stage in my career. Instead of continuing to be pushed around I took control of my own work happiness. For the past two years I’ve researched stress, relationships (self, co-workers, and boss), and productivity.
The same conclusions keep coming back. If we want to get our desired results, we need to be happy now. The more we delay our happiness, the more depressed and disconnected we become.
Help Me
I want businesses to build a work environment that encourages career and personal growth. The only way to get the most amazing results is to allow people to shake their fears.
We all need to believe in who we are and recognize our unlimited potential. This is a process that every organization needs to help with. The more an organization can help their employees reduce their stress, build better relationships, and expand creativity, the happier they will become.
We are not here to live quiet lives of desperation. We are here to make a difference in people’s lives.
I created a questionnaire that will help me help you. 
Please fill it out and let me know what I can do to make your 2010 dreams a reality.
Work Happy Now Questionnaire:
Here is the link to the Work Happy Now Questionnaire. If you have time I will would really appreciate it. If I get over 100 people to fill out the form I will give you my Work Happiness Dance. It’s a little embarrassing because I probably dance worse than your grandmother. You know, the one with the bad leg. 
Continue Reading »
Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Calming Tea Edition
Thursday, February 4th, 2010
Where we are free to talk about the hard, the fun, and the beautiful of our work week. The best way to learn from our experiences is to step back, be honest, and reflect on pain and joy of our work week.
Using my blog to meet amazing people has been a huge perk. I’ve interviewed Steve Pavlina (Personal Development Master), Jonathan Field (Career Renegade), Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) and many others.
I’m saying this because I’m interviewing someone else that I’ve admired for a long time. She is an amazing writer and business woman. You’ll find out very soon. I can’t give it away yet. A little suspense is good for the soul.
Without all my hard work this never would have happened. None of these interactions would have happened.
We create our own luck. The harder we work, the more opportunities arise.
Let’s begin…
Continue Reading »
How to Build Better Relationships at Work
Wednesday, February 3rd, 2010
Relationships are built on trust. If I trust you to help me finish a project and you flake out on me, that trust is gone.
If you are a stand up person who sweats, bleeds, and cries by my side and also encourages me to be great than you’ve earned my trust. I’ll love you until the end of time.
This video was shot on my lunch hour because that morning I worked on a project with a group of guys I would go to business war with. They are smart, fun, and we get a lot accomplished. Yes, I’m talking about my day job. Hey, I’m doing this for you, so I can learn first hand how to make people happy at work.
We need to learn to build trust with our co-workers, bosses, and clients. That means being there and supporting them when they need it the most.
Now it’s time to watch the video and find out one more way to build better relationships at work.
Continue Reading »
Work Happiness Tip – Keep Track of Your Mood
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
Every week I like to bring you a work happiness tip that can help improve your mood, relationships, productivity, or reduce your stress. The idea is to put you back in the driver’s seat. This week’s tip: Keep track of your mood.
For a whole month I kept track of my mood and recorded it every morning, afternoon, and night. I added it as a chapter in my soon to be released book.
For a month I rated my mood three times a day to discover how I actually felt. My rating was on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being severely sad and 10 being so amazingly happy that I could barely contain my joy.
I was surprised by the results.
Continue Reading »
Interview with Social Media Expert – Nathan Hangen
Sunday, January 31st, 2010
Every now and again, I like to bring you short interviews to give you a new perspective on work happiness. During my study of work happiness I found that there are many paths to the same goal. Some people believe that loving what you do is a must, while other people believe that relationships are vital to enjoying the work that we do. Interviews are a great way to get out of our own perspective and see what other people are doing to be happy at work.
Today we have a social media extraordinaire, Nathan Hangen with us. He has recently published an ebook called Beyond Blogging that case studies 15 successful bloggers and how they were able to make their dreams a reality. He is on his way to making his blogging dreams a reality too. He has blown up in the last few weeks and I wanted to catch him before he stopped taking my calls.
Karl: On a scale of 1- 10 (10 being very important) how important is work happiness to you? Why did you pick that number?
Nathan Hangen: Work happiness is a 10…absolutely. When Gary V said that he changed direction because he was only something like 99% happy, that really resonated with me, because I’m always trying to find the path that leads to 100% happiness.
At the same time though, I don’t want to get caught in a pattern of never being happy, so I try to remember that it’s a journey, not a destination.
Continue Reading »
Love the Pain – Cartoon
Saturday, January 30th, 2010
Lately I’ve been thinking of the pain that I’ve been through at all my jobs. From co-workers to bosses to tedious tasks. Each experience has helped create me.
There are some days where I miss standing for 8 hours a day checking people’s items out at K-mart. It was a job that wasn’t suited to me at all, but I miss the relationship building that I practiced.
Continue Reading »
Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Don’t Want to Go Inside Edition
Thursday, January 28th, 2010
Where we are free to talk about the hard, the fun, and the beautiful of our work week.
This week was a lot of fun because I’ve been building on my strengths. I’ve been doing the soft sell on my teleseminar How to Kick Butt at Work and Be Happy Too. It’s hard to find the balance between encouraging people to buy a good product and begging.
I want 10,000 people to sign up for this amazing teleseminar, but I know that won’t happen. It’s all about baby steps.
Each day is exciting, especially when someone new signs up. I know my marketing is working.
I do have to work on letting my upset feelings go on the days when nobody signs up
Let’s begin…
Continue Reading »
Work Happiness Tip – Buy a Plant
Tuesday, January 26th, 2010
I was having a rough day at work. I couldn’t seem to get any words strung together to teach you about work happiness.
How could I teach you when I wasn’t feeling it?
I couldn’t give up that easily!
Then I realized what I did when I first sat down. I got a cup of water, was about to sip it, then I looked over at my bamboo plant. It needed water more than I did.
I leaned over and slowly poured the water into the small pot.
The world felt right again. I’m not going to blow smoke up your butt and tell you that I went on to write three blog posts, book a keynote, and sell a Work Happy Now package to a company. This would feel great, but it would also undermine everything I stand for. Working happy is not just about feeling great. Working happy is also about finding ways to stay emotionally balanced so we don’t fall into a depression and wreck any chance of achieving good results over the next few weeks.
Continue Reading »
Why France Telecom Suicides Never Should Have Happened
Sunday, January 24th, 2010
You may have heard about the 24 employees at France Telecom who committed suicide because work was too stressful. I’ve been thinking a lot about this problem.
Many employees are afraid to speak up for fear of being fired or looked down upon by their peers.
France Telecom is going through a restructuring in order to stand out competitive communication industry. They are trying to trim the fat and fix the problems. This isn’t easy in France where demand for employee rights is very strong.
I was thinking about the times in the past when I was depressed and worn down by work. That’s why I quit that old job.
I really think people should quit instead of putting their lives at risk.
Continue Reading »
Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Wrist Guard Edition
Thursday, January 21st, 2010
* Quick note: I’ve decided not to do a video this week. I want to create more value with my videos and that means figuring out how to make the videos more dynamic and interesting.
Where we are free to talk about the hard, the fun, and the beautiful of our work week.
My desk is a mess. I’ve been putting off my organization until tomorrow too many times. I’m not proud of this, but there always seems to be something else better to do.
My systems are breaking down.
Instead of doing what I know is right I’ve been choosing the easier route. This route is easy in the present moment, but harder in the long term.
I have to be more diligent about putting away that piece of paper instead of just throwing it on my desk. The hard part is figuring out how to stay motivated to do the little things.
You probably struggle with this too in some area of your life. Maybe you have trouble with exercising on a regular basis or getting up on time to get to work. Whatever your struggle with, it all comes down to connecting with what is right.
I’m creating next week’s theme from this week’s challenges. I want to simplify how I handle the information in my life, so that it’s easier to make the right choice. When I have a piece of paper in my hand, instead of just placing it on my desk, I will connect with the pain that lies ahead (what happens if I don’t do the simple task of organizing now), so it motivates me to be more organized.
You should also think about how you can adjust to a daily challenge in your life. How can you find a way to connect with what is right instead of choosing the easy way out?
Alright let’s begin…
Continue Reading »