Archive for February, 2010
Rehumanize Business – Part 1
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
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
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
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.
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How to Use the 5 Whys to Discover Your True Needs
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.
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10 Ways to Unclutter Your Mind
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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How to Use Your Skills and Passion to Create Success
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Sara Lopez
You never quite realize how much your job affects your happiness until you have had a truly terrible job, or a truly phenomenal job. Just think about it, you spend 2/3 of your awake time at a place, surrounded by certain people, working for a specific cause– this is called your career.
My name is Sara Lopez and I am the Brand Ambassador and Social Media Strategist for 8th Continent Soymilk. I quite possibly have the best job in the world, however it was not always this way.
At one point I worked for a consulting firm in San Francisco that was so unappreciative I would trudge home considering where I went wrong on my career path and how I would ever fix it. I dreaded going in to work in the morning because I knew my skills were not utilized, nor did my employer notice them.
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Hard, Fun and Beautiful – Blasting Heater Edition
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.
Ahh time. Why do I view time as such a fickle substance?
I’m in one meeting where the time globs by, slowly burning me as each second passes.
There are other days when I look up and it’s 4 pm and I feel like I’ve been gliding on a big fluffy lazy chair made out of clouds that hug my body just right.
I had the extreme of both cases this weekend.
Let me explain…
Hard
Sludge time.
Time is a very important substance to me, except when I’m being tortured by it. 
I was lost for what direction to take my business. I want to help people with their careers (motivation, productivity, self knowledge, etc), but I also want to help small businesses and managers. I felt like my articles in the leadership/business culture were getting lost in the shuffle.
I felt lost and time dripped by. I wasn’t able to take action when I felt in limbo.
That’s why I created my How can I help you in 2010 post.
I’ve come to a conclusion that I will share with all of you very soon.
Please feel free to fill out the survey if you have a chance. Click here to help me do a better job of helping you.
Fun
Writing an amazing article that resonated with my soul.
The words were pouring out of me. Time has no meaning.
I have no idea where all the words came from, but it felt like the universe opened up a portal in my brain and just poured all this goodness in. The words poured out from my fingers into my computer.
It’s a magical feeling that doesn’t happen very often, so I enjoy it tremendously when it does.
Beautiful
The heater in my office.
We had a cold bitter day and I had just come in from outside. I felt my fingers and cheeks tingle as they warmed up.
I never really took the time to just sit and feel this sensations for a minute. It was a really cool 1 minute bliss relaxation that I will write down after I’m done with this article.
I could feel the rush of blood going to these cold areas, regulating my body temperature. My body wasn’t able to do this outside. It was too busy trying to keep my core warm.
When I got back inside with the blasting heater, my extremities warmed back up. It was a beautiful reaction that I usually take for granted, but not this time.
What about you?
What has been hard, fun and beautiful in your life? I’ll see you in the comment section.
* Want to be able to Kick Butt at Work and Be Happy Too then check out my teleseminar on February 23rd to help you do amazing work that doesn’t stress you out. Click here to find out more details.
* Alexandra Levit’s blog Water Cooler Wisdom has a great article called Practice Good Karma at Work. You can probably guess how much I resonated with this piece.
If you enjoyed this post then you will probably like this one too:
- Work Happiness Tip – Tag Your Co-Worker
- How to Deal with Goals You Don’t Reach
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Welcome Forbes Readers
Welcome Forbes.com readers. You will see articles based on building a better career, but what separates me from others is my core belief.
I believe that to do work that we love, we must develop our skills at our present jobs. Too many of us jump ship only to hate our next job.
A new job isn’t going to solve our problems. More money won’t either. What does make us happier is connecting to the work that we do. We have to learn discover our strengths and passions then figure out how to mold them into a career.
It comes down to doing work that we believe in.
Once we can connect our hearts with our minds, we then can pursue the career that excites us.
Here are a few articles that will help guide your career:
- How to Write a Career List
- How to Build Better Relationships at Work
- The Ultimate Guide to Dealing with Anxiety at Work
The article Bring Joy Back To Your Job was published at Forbes.com today. Originally it was published at Megan’s blog It’s All About Joy. Thanks Megan. I promise I’ll buy you a latte next time you are in Austin.
Walk to the Bathroom Very Very Mindfully – Work Happy Tip
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: Walk to the bathroom very very mindfully.
Our minds love to follow distractions. It makes sense.
We like to be distracted. So even when we are walking to use the bathroom, we notice a co-worker’s cough, which makes us think about our own throat, and this leads to a reminder to go to the doctor for a check-up, then we are done.
We finished in the bathroom and we are back at our desk. 99% of our focus is not about enjoying where we are, but rather random thoughts.
I advocate developing your mind at work because it will help you to become happier and more productive. The reason this works is because you are focusing your energy on the part of you that matters the most. Without developing your emotional intelligence, you are flatlining your ability to feel good.
It works like this…
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