How do You Know if You’ve Contacted Adultitis?
Tuesday, March 9th, 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 have 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 your own perspective and see what other people are doing to be happy at work.
There are so many amazing people in the blogging world, but one of my more recent finds is Jason of Escape Adulthood. He and Kim (his wife) have created a business out of bringing the fun back into life.
The first impression of Jason was a video that I watched of a water balloon fight between Jason and Kim. They were sitting in chairs and throwing water balloons over their garage to see who had the better aim. It was right then that I was hooked. Having fun in life is a big part of being happy, so I’m glad to bring you an interview with Jason.
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Energize Your Workday with a Spiritual Meditation
Sunday, March 7th, 2010
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Susan C.
I’m a big believer in relaxing with our work. I’m not talking about laziness. I’m talking about finding your rhythm that allows for optimum levels of performance. Knowing when you need a break and knowing when to keep working because you are in the zone. Today we talk about: Using meditation to expand mindfulness.
This mindfulness meditation has its roots in an earth-based (pagan) spiritual path and was inspired by a short morning ritual in Yasmine Galenorn’s book Embracing the Moon. Ideally, it’s great to be able to do this outside, but it works just as well indoors, in which case, looking out a window can help to initially bring our focus to the natural world. One could do this mindfulness meditation at any point in the day, but it’s a nice way to start the day.
Let’s get started
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Freedom – Rehumanize Business Part 3
Thursday, March 4th, 2010
When a business stops trying to control their employees, the employees begin to feel free at work. This freedom will allow them to feel more comfortable and happy.
Let’s say you have 50 employees who each have 100 Facebook and 100 Twitter friends. That’s 10,000 people that your employees are interacting with. They are talking about you to their friends.
What are they really saying?
Employee Outreach
You should be encouraging your employees to talk about their company, but never force them to use social media. Your employees will share the company’s story with their friends when you treat your employees like the superstars that they are.
This is where freedom comes in. If your people feel that they are free to do what is best for them and the company, they will use this freedom to make both themselves and the company happy.
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Unleash Employees’ Inner Creative Marketing Talents – Rehumanize Business Part 2
Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010
You may have read that title and thought, “What does my company’s marketing have to do with work happiness?”
A lot.
70% of business is transacted because your friend told you about a product or service. You probably own an iPod because your friends wouldn’t stop raving about their iPod. You trust your friends to recommend good stuff.
Zappos let’s their employees Twitter on the job. They trust their people to connect with the customer.
I love Zappos, not because they have every kind of shoe on the planet, but because they ship for free, have a 360 day return policy and pay for shipping back to the company if you want to return a purchase. Now that’s worth spreading.
People want to share stuff that makes them happy. It’s up to companies to encourage their people to share their story.
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Rehumanize Business – Part 1
Sunday, February 28th, 2010
Too many businesses are worried about playing it safe. They don’t want to uncover the bad stuff that is happening in their business, so they look the other way instead. Human Resources is there to protect the company. Upper management only wants to know about positive sales figures.
Who can most employees turn to?
They don’t turn to anyone; they just leave.
I want to rehumanize (I borrowed the word from Chris Brogan) business so that people feel free to speak up. The only way business is going to become faster, more enjoyable and more profitable is if you have every person in your company and even your customers become a part of your marketing department. That means they tell their friends, family and their internet buddies that your products/services are awesome.
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What I Learned from Working on My Habits
Thursday, February 25th, 2010
As I’m looking over January’s theme “Relaxing with my work”, I’m beginning to really see how hard I am on myself. I expect myself to master concepts that only great writers, CEO’s, and Zen masters fully understand.
Just because I tell myself to breathe all nice and deep and relaxed over the next week when I’m feeling stressed out doesn’t mean it will happen right away.
Maybe that should be a theme of the month. Stop being a big bully to myself.
I wanted to publish this review of my theme two weeks ago, but I felt like I was still processing my information. Now that I’m ready, let’s begin the review…
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Heart or Fear – Cartoon
Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010
I’m a big believer in creativity at work. We need to expand outside our comfort zones to reach the good stuff. That’s why I draw. It forces me to find new angles on work happiness. How do you find new angles?
There are thousands of choices that we make in a day, consciously and unconsciously, but they usually boil down to two emotions.
Heart
and
Fear
We usually choose the safe. At least I do, but I do have my good days when the fear doesn’t seem so strong and I go with my heart.
In those magical moments, I know that I have potential to do great work. When the courage wears off, I cling to the joy that my courage overwhelmed my fear.
I’ve been working on leading with my heart. It’s not easy, but so worth it when I do.
* It’s Spread-the-Love Day, when I encourage you to spread the word about Work Happy Now. You might:
- Forward the link to someone you think would be interested
- Link to a post on Twitter (follow me @workhappynow)
- Sign up for my FREE 10 Week E-Course and join over 450 people who have already improved their happiness at work. You will also receive a bi-monthly newsletter that gives you great tips and ideas on how to improve your career.
- Put a link to the blog in your Facebook status update
Thanks! I really appreciate any help. Word of mouth is the BEST.
* Michael of Do More Great Work created a video post of his office space. It’s called My Great Work office. My favorite part is his productivity system. I need one of those.
If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:
- I Can Solve Your Problems – Cartoon
- A Steve Pavlina Interview on How to Build Your Career
The One Thing More Important Than Your Career
Sunday, February 21st, 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 have 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 your own perspective and see what other people are doing to be happy at work.
On this blog I try to push myself outside of my comfort zone to a place where I’m a little afraid. I have to admit that I was a little afraid of interviewing Penelope Trunk. Not because her blog is űber popular or because she was the CEO of Brazeen Careerist a popular career networking site.
I was afraid because of how honest she is. She wouldn’t be afraid to call me out.
She wasn’t afraid to tell me that career happiness really is a crock of shit. Her words. She actually said it a few times. She explains how we overcomplicate life in the audio interview that I posted below. You’ll just have to listen to the audio to find out why she believes so strongly in her ideals.
How to Use the 5 Whys to Discover Your True Needs
Thursday, February 18th, 2010
There are many great business processes that the rest of the world doesn’t know about. One of my favorites is Toyota’s “5 Whys.”
The idea is to ask yourself “why” 5 times in order to get to the root of the problem.
For example, a couple of years ago I didn’t want to go to a meeting.
I was having trouble figuring out why, so I used the “5 Whys” method.
1. Why don’t I want to go to this meeting? – Because it’s going to be worthless.
2. Why: Because everyone always talks about the same problems.
3. Why: Because I want to lead the meeting to be more productive, but I’m scared.
4. Why: Because I don’t want to get laughed at.
5. Why: Because my speaking confidence isn’t as strong as it should be.
10 Ways to Unclutter Your Mind
Tuesday, February 16th, 2010
The clutter in our minds can prevent us from feeling good. We can’t focus. We feel like we are just spinning our wheels.
I know that when the clutter covers my brain like a fog, I feel like just giving in and surfing YouTube. After countless times of just giving in, I decided to create a plan.
So how does a person unclutter their mind?
I have some tools you can use on a daily basis that will help you obtain clearer thinking. The more you use these tools, the easier it will be to maintain a clear mind.
1. Eliminate noise
I know I have a hard time focusing when there is a lot of noise around me. You probably are easily distracted by noise too. So, try using noise canceling headphones or ear plugs to eliminate the noises that can pull you away from your work.
2. Find a way to laugh
A laugh releases endorphins. These endorphins are like dead cell sweepers. They increase the blood flow and push away the clutter. Try going to a secluded spot, thinking about a recently funny moment and chuckling to yourself. Once you get that laughter going, you’ll notice the lighter feeling. This may feel strange at first, but I promise it helps.
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