There are people who create their work atmosphere and then there are people who let their work atmosphere create them.

“Recreate yourself in and through your environment and shape the resulting atmosphere until it is yours.”
- Alexander Becker

A good friend of mine has a father who makes friends instantly by getting people involved. When John speaks with you, he looks you in the eye. He laughs easily and doesn’t mind letting you dominate the conversation. He’ll talk about sports, politics, religion, barbeque, video games, and relationships because he knows that you want to talk about what interests you. He doesn’t force the conversation around what he knows, but allows it to move where it naturally wants to go.

All of his wonderful social attributes help him create his environment, but this isn’t the reason for his success. What makes John special is his ability to allow his natural personality to engage others. He’s not afraid of you; he wants to get to know you better. He wants to love you.

He figures out a way to love you by giving his attention to you. Everyone responds to someone that shows interest in who they are. The first time I ever met him, I knocked on his front door, he opened it then smiled and said, “Welcome!” With such enthusiasm that you couldn’t help but feel loved. “I’ve heard so much about you. Please come in.”

He didn’t have any fear. He welcomed me into his home like I was an old friend. I instantly liked him.

I thought about why he didn’t have any fear. How was he able to generate such a loving feeling from me? The answer was in him. He didn’t have any fear because he knew that I would like him. And I did. He didn’t have any fear because it didn’t matter whether I liked him or not, all that mattered to him was that he extended his friendship to me. It was up to me to accept.

As I’ve watched him operate over the past couple of years, I’ve noticed that he’s never afraid to give his opinion because he believes in it. He has reasons to back up his choices, but doesn’t fight for them. If someone doesn’t agree with him, he doesn’t care if you are on his side because he accepts your feelings and enjoys the discussion.

John is able to create his environment because he takes pleasure in the people he’s with. He never worries about what you are thinking because he can’t change that. He is who he is because he accepts himself and you accept him because it feels right.

You can create your own environment wherever you go if you use John’s techniques:

1. Give yourself to others.

(When you give your love and attention to other people they will reflect it back to you. Most people are like mirrors waiting to see how you treat them before they decide how they will treat you.)

2. Stop worrying about what other people think of you.

(When you trust yourself you’ll stop worrying about other people’s judgments.)

3. Let your personality shine out.

(If people aren’t enjoying the real you then you aren’t giving them a chance to love you.)

By applying these techniques, you can create the work atmosphere that makes you the happiest. When you are happy the people around you will feed off of your positive actions, helping to make work fun.

Related Articles:

• Renew Your Thoughts to Improve Your Work Outlook
• Use Your Imagination
• Positive Belief

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We can’t always be feeling great, smiling at every customer and co-worker as we tackle every job with robot-like efficiency. We are human and our emotions fluctuate. Right now I don’t feel like writing, but my fingers and mind keep on going, so I continue for my future, to help you, and because tomorrow I will be glad that I pushed another good article out. That’s right I’m not working happy, but I’m doing my best with what I’ve got.

Now you know the truth. I’m not always working happy. Please don’t tell your friends.

We all have bad days and sometimes we need to fake it. Seth Godin is a blogging wunderkind. Okay, I guess he isn’t that young but he’s a great blogger at any rate. He wrote an article Pretending that you care that has some great insight.

No, you can’t always hire exceptional people for these jobs. No, you can’t always invest enough time to train them sufficiently. But yes, you can make, “pretending you care,” a barely acceptable alternative.

It doesn’t take much to take the edge off an encounter.

[Boy does this sound cynical. How inauthentic! How manipulative! Isn’t it better to just hire people who actually care? Of course it is. But as far as I can tell, that’s a lot harder than it looks–because so many organizations are organized around policies, not caring, and because so many employees have been trained not to care.

So, the essence of the lesson here is this: if people start out pretending to care, next thing you know, they actually do care. They like the positive feedback and they like the way being kind makes them feel. It spreads. It sticks.]

Read the whole article here.

Sometimes we need to fake it to get to where we need to be. I know that you don’t always feel like working on that boring project, writing that last email of the day, or calling one more sales lead, but no one wants you to pack it in because you don’t feel like doing it. Your company wants you to fake it like any good professional.

What was the last thing you faked? I’m not talking about what goes on in your bedroom. I’m wondering when was the last time you faked your happiness on the job and eventually became happy.

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I’m back from Iceland and I’ve got some great feedback from everyday working Icelanders. We hear how wonderful other countries’ working environments are, but it’s not that different from America. They too have problems with…

• Communication

• Retention of Employees

• Motivating Their Staff

It’s not any easier working in Iceland than it is in America, India, or Australia.

They are paid three times as much as we are paid in America, but they also pay three times as much for their food, gas, and other necessities. It really all balances out. It’s amazing how a free market does that.

Icelanders live very similar to middle class Americans. They live in average size homes and have extra spending money for the movies, a night out, or mini lobsters, lamb, fresh fruit, and a myriad of other wonderful foods.

My uncle works for an Icelandic computer company and he has a work hiking group that he hangs out with every week. This promotes healthiness and camaraderie. I know that we have these clubs in almost every big company. So why are Icelanders working happy?

I believe the culture of their happiness comes from how they treat each other.

They tease each other and aren’t afraid to laugh at themselves. You may wonder, how does this make them happier? When you can laugh at yourself or a co-worker it eases the tension. They don’t hold on to these emotions. They let it go and just move on to the next part of their day. I know not all Icelanders are this way, but many of them are able to laugh off the stress.

I recently wrote a post called Inside Out Shirt Day. At first I wasn’t sure if I should publish it because I might look like a boob. After a minute of running it through my mind I decided to go for it because I’m not perfect and we should understand that mistakes are a part of work. We should learn from these mistakes, but also be able to laugh at them, so it doesn’t feel like the world is going to come crashing down on us.

I know most of us are capable of enjoying a good laugh at other people’s expense, so next time a co-worker makes fun of you, don’t get upset. Why not laugh with them? You’ll be harnessing your inner Viking. Just put your ego aside for that moment and let out that laugh. Just maybe you’ll feel like a working happy Icelander.

What was the last mistake that embarrassed you? Come on, you know you want to share.

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