Archive for the Career Fulfillment Category
Laugh Until It Hurts – 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 my career. How do you find new angles?
I was at SXSW interactive (blogger heaven) the past few days and my head, heart, and feet are about to explode. So many thought leaders pushing me outside my comfort zone that I am more focused than ever.
I hung out with some big time bloggers. I’m not going to drop any names because that’s not what this post is about.
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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 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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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.
9 Bold Tips to Work Place Happiness
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Tess Marshall of The Bold Life.
According Deepak Chopra, a senior scientist for the Gallop poll:
29% of employed people in the U.S. are happy, passionate and take interest in their work. They are passionate and have a sense of belonging.
56% of employed people in U.S. are disengaged and sleep walking through their workday.
15% of employed people are actively disengaged, unhappy and make others unhappy as well.
If you aren’t in the top 29% of the people happy at work the following suggestions can help if implemented:
Attitude
Expect positive outcomes. Establish a sense of reverence and appreciation for your company, co-workers and work. I worked in a prison as a psychologist for one year. Anyone whose crime was related to alcohol/drugs attended my group therapy sessions. Without respect for the prisoners, guards and probation officers I wouldn’t have been effective. They were the most important people in my world when I was with them. I had their respect because I respected them. When you give what you want to gain, you can’t lose.
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Need an Edge Up on Your Career?
You want that promotion? You need to wow your employer.
You want to land that client? You need to impress them.
That’s why I asked Frances Cole Jones for an interview. I read her book “The Wow Factor,” and I knew that a podcast would be a good resource for people who want to get an edge up on their career.
I’m going to be honest. You can skip over some of the chapters. There is one on proper hygiene that most people don’t need to read, but this is easy to do since the chapters are so short. You can pick and choose what you need.
My favorite part of the book is the last third. She has so many good ideas that will help you improve your life. You won’t be disappointed.
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Career Renegade Interview
As always, I’m trying to bring as many perspectives about work happiness to you that I possibly can. Jonathan Fields of Career Renegade is a friend who I met at SxSW and he is also a wonderful writer. I reviewed his book and took away a ton of great ideas. He’s a serial entrepreneur and that’s why I asked him for an interview. Many of you may not want to start your own business, but all of you are entrepreneurs, whether you are working for a company or yourself. It’s up to you to make your career come alive.
That’s why I love this interview. Jonathan is always bubbling with energy and concepts that we could all use to improve our working lives.
Let’s begin…
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How to Write a Career List
Have you ever tried to run through a forest on a cloudy night? It’s nothing but pitch black and painful bruising. I have a scar above my left eye to prove it. All right, you caught me. I’m making that part up.
Did you imagine yourself running straight into a tree? That’s the first thing I imagined myself doing.
We often run through our career forest without lighting our own way.
A career list will help you run through a forest lit by Yankee stadium lights. It’s so bright that you can see every bug, stick and tree. By making your actions clear through measurable goals, you have a 99.99% chance of improving your life.
Chris Guillibreau of The Art of Non-Conformity wrote a post called “How to Write a Life List.” I wondered how this idea might be applied to work happiness.
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Have Fun and Be Weird
(Can’t see the video? Then click here and try watching it at Work Happy Now)
Too many of us get caught up in what our co-workers think of us, instead of letting loose and being a little weird. Zappos has ten values in place, one of which is “Create fun and be a little weird.” Otherwise you’ll be a tight, stressed out co-worker who has trouble having fun at work.
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What do I do if I’m unhappy at Work?
Every person becomes unhappy at work at some time or another. It’s the natural emotional ebb and flow of being human. Even the best job has its problems.
You probably have certain expectations that can’t be met. These expectations must be emotionally bridged or you will constantly be grasping for unattainable happiness.
This article is not about settling for a crappy job. That’s the furthest thing from my mind. I believe we need to optimize our present happiness while planning our most rewarding future.
First you must allow yourself to feel and understand your present situation. A good scream or a good cry can cleanse the mind. It all depends on the person. When you allow yourself to feel the emotion that is blocking you from moving on, then you can accept your current situation.
After accepting this emotion, you have limitless ability to learn from this process.
The only way to understand what type of work will bring you the most happiness in the future is to understand your present self. That means dealing with your emotions and building internal tools.
Learn to watch your emotions when they occur, then create a plan that will help you explore and encourage personal growth. Some of this may be painful, but believe me it’s a good pain. It’s this pain that will help make you smarter and emotionally stronger. I don’t mean stronger as in more stoic. I define emotional strength as the ability to process emotions and bring the mind back into balance.
After studying videos, articles, myself, and my co-workers, I’ve put together a list of 8 tasks that will help you work happier.
- Find meaning.
- Become more aware of self-talk.
- Don’t take interactions personally.
- Help someone else become happy.
- Remember 3 good things.
- Utilize Smart Breaks.
- Speak up and take Action.
- Use More of Your Strengths.
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These are concepts that are easy to understand, but may be hard to implement. You’ll need to practice these to make sure they become a part of you. I’ll break them down so you can apply them to your working life.
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