Archive for January, 2010
Interview with Social Media Expert – Nathan Hangen
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.
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Love the Pain – Cartoon
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.
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Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Don’t Want to Go Inside Edition
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…
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Work Happiness Tip – Buy a Plant
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.
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Why France Telecom Suicides Never Should Have Happened
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.
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Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Wrist Guard Edition
* 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…
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Work Happy Tip – Go Hug a Tree
You don’t literally need to hug a tree, but…I mean if you really want to, go right ahead.
I just want you to get in tune with your senses. When was the last time you smelled a flower?
Been a while?
When you step outside of your comfort zone and do something like hug a tree, you’ll be surprised by the reactions you feel.
I literally went and hugged a tree. I pressed my cheek to the tree, wrapped my arms around it and squeezed. I felt this warm feeling come over me, like somehow the tree understood my appreciation for all the good that it does filtering the air for us.
I know this idea will feel weird, maybe a little too uncomfortable, so it’s time to use your imagination. Take two minutes to imagine yourself hugging a tree.
Feel the bark on your skin.
The smell of the bark.
What feelings rise up?
The strength of the tree.
The strengths within you.
I guarantee your stress will lower and you’ll feel more appreciation for the next tree you touch.
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4 Techniques to Help You Deal With a Difficult Boss
Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Adrienne Carlson.
If life could be split into two general parts, work would take up one compartment and personal life the other. While we tend to put our personal relationships on a higher rung, work too is significant in the larger scheme of things because it puts food on our table and provides us with the money we need to lead a comfortable life.
So when your work life is not satisfactory, your personal life suffers too, because as much as we may try to keep the two like parallel lines that never meet, the fact is that they are like train tracks that tend to cross over and merge once in a while. So if you have the misfortune of working with a boss who is difficult, your work tensions may spill over into and ruin your personal life, which is why you must know how to deal with superiors who make your work life a heavy cross to bear.
A few ways to deal with a difficult boss are to:
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Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Creative Pen Edition
(Can’t see the video? Then try watching it at Work Happy Now – Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Creative Pen Edition)
Where we are free to talk about the hard, the fun, and the beautiful of our work week.
Ahhhh, my cold has subsided and I can function again. What a relief to be healthy again. It’s funny how quickly we adapt to situations and forget the beauty in being healthy.
I can exercise again. I miss it so much. All my stress builds up without some good cardio, strength training, and stretching (AKA Yoga).
When we don’t have something that we once had (and enjoyed), it’s so easy to see the beauty that we don’t hold any longer. We need to remind ourselves of what life was like when we were feeling bad. Help us put our working lives into perspective every now and again.
Alright. It’s time.
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Work Happiness Tip – Tag Your Co-Worker
I posted on Twitter about the importance of rewarding your co-workers. I love Twitter, by the way. The ability to connect with fun, smart and quirky people is brilliant.
A friend on Twitter told me that she likes to create tags for her co-workers.
I asked her what she meant and she explained that she likes to give out random acts of kindness to the people she works with. She draws beautiful pictures on pricing tags. She sent me these photos so I could share them with you.
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