A few months ago I was walking into my company’s building and an unsettling feeling hit my stomach. I didn’t realize that I was feeling this way until right before I walked inside. How long was this feeling in me? Had I been ignoring it since last night or maybe all week?

For most of us, anxiety plays a daily role in our lives. We worry about project deadlines, co-worker relationships and what our boss thinks of us.

It’s natural, but very unsettling.

Most of you are probably thinking that I’m going to give you tips on how to relax and relieve stress.

Nope.

I’m not going to regurgitate some facts about taking breaks and drinking less coffee. All of you know the basics. You probably struggle with these techniques because your feelings have more control than your rational mind, which isn’t a bad thing. But you do need to create a balance between rational thinking and your feelings.

No one can argue with feelings.

Feelings are there to help us make smart decisions. If we’re not careful, these feelings can snowball and take over. We feel like we can’t release them, and all we can do is suffer through them.

Whaaaat? Heck no. We all struggle, but constant struggle over the same thing is torture and also bad for your health.

What to do?

You can harness the energy created by these anxious feelings and use it to focus on the positive possibilities, rather than focusing on fear. You really can use this anxiety to build the career that makes you happy.

I’ll give you a step by step plan that worked for me. I harnessed a lot of my anxiety, making me happier and more productive.

1. Deal with Your Anxiety Bubbles

My anxiety usually comes from my inability to align my own needs with the goals that someone else gave me. It’s a lot easier to match up your own goals with your needs, but not so easy when someone else sets the goals – especially if you don’t agree with them.

Let’s say your boss wants you to start a new project or maybe s/he even wants to promote you. Even if you may not have asked for this “honor,” you may not be in a position to deny your boss. So you are thrust into these new duties without even wanting them.

Every time you think about these changes, anxiety bubbles up. Who should you complain to first? Yourself.

You need to find a way to communicate with your anxiety so it doesn’t take over.

I make a list of ideas that help me open up to my anxiety and why it’s there:

• Take a break to just sit and breathe.
• Let yourself feel anxiety then think of the image that is causing you to feel this way and imagine yourself breathing it out like a big balloon. Watch it float away.
• Hold your anxiety in your arms like a big baby and coddle it until it falls asleep.
• Draw your anxiety on toilet paper and flush it down the toilet.
• Pretend your anxiety is an old friend and really listen to his/her needs.

A little self understanding can go a long way to ease those fears. You need to accept your feelings; wanting to change them will only entrench the feelings even more. Talk to yourself. Allow these feelings to be there. Try to see them as a chance to learn more about yourself and your choices.

2. Get Creative

It’s time to stop the cyclical thinking and get a little Crrrrrazy with your ideas. The goal is to find a way to align these changes in your life with your personal needs.

You need to pull yourself away from your roller coaster of an emotional state. Look at the facts and brainstorm creative ideas that will help you find a better perspective.

Try coming up with as many practical ideas on how to deal with your anxiety as you can in fifteen minutes. (Putting a time frame on it can help you focus).

Letting your creative side loose will allow you to find a new solution that can help you release your stress.

3. Test Out some of Your Practical Ideas

Now you have a list of ideas. Start testing them.

My list of “practical perspectives” on a new project assignment went something like this:

• It’s a chance to improve my skills.
• I get to work with Brian (cool dude).
• I can add this to my resume.
• Drawing out a mindmap will help me get my thoughts in order.
• This is an opportunity to interact with more co-workers.
• I can ask for a raise when I’m done.
• I’ll get a good chance to make people laugh.
• This will inspire great ideas for Work Happy Now.
• During this project I will watch my emotional states and how they fluctuate.
• This will help me improve my patience – every project requires developing new techniques to stay patient.
• This project will give me the opportunity to laugh more.
• I’m going to meditate before bed every night while working on this new project. (Just focusing on relieving my stress)

I was trying to align my personal needs with this new project. Of course I resisted at first. After all, I was comfortable doing my regular routine. These new goals gave me emotional anchors.

4. Practice Every Single Day

As I began to self talk myself through my various goals, I noticed three of them that I thought would work well.

• This will inspire great ideas for Work Happy Now.
• It’s a chance to improve my skills.
• I’m going to meditate before bed every night while working on this new project. (Just focusing on relieving my stress)

Every time I got down on the project, myself, or my co-workers, I began to list ways in which the project was helping me.

It was helping me with Work Happy Now by giving me plenty of ideas for articles. I wrote an article about the value of patience and a post about seeing things as they are and not as I want them to be.

As for improving my skills…

I learned to be a little more organized. I was becoming lazy and I had stopped using my calendar to keep track of meetings and deadlines. I didn’t have that option anymore. Ever since that project I’ve been proactively staying on top of my work.

As for meditating before bed…

I practiced Transcendental Meditation before bed. I focused on my breath and staying in the present moment. When my thoughts drifted I just brought them back to my breath. I noticed I was more calm and relaxed before bed. When I awoke my anxiety was significantly reduced and I didn’t feel as nervous walking into my work.

Wrap-Up

When we encourage ourselves to use new skills to adapt to a situation, we can create long-lasting habits. It will become easy to stick with these new habits once we discover how much they help ease our anxiety.

Whenever you sign up for my RSS or email feed you get access to my exclusive book “How to Work Happy the Google Way” a personal and leadership guide to being happy at work.

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Alex the Chief Happiness Officer is one of my inspirations for creating Work Happy Now. He has written a book that I absolutly love. You should check out, Happy hour is from 9 to 5.

If you liked this post then try these out too:

• Feeling Comfortable in Your Skin
• What do I do if I’m unhappy at Work?
• Stress Relief Techniques for Your Commute

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

(email subscribers: click here to go to Work Happy Now to view the video)

As you can probably see I was exhausted when I shot this video. I really wanted to put out a quality video filled with excitement. I just didn’t have it in me. I showed it to my wife and she suggested that I reshoot it. I agreed until I slept on it.

We all have exhausting days and we can’t reshoot our work day, so I decided to publish the video. I was easily frustrated, but I still had fun shooting it. I actually growled at myself because I kept forgetting to look directly into the camera. I laughed at myself. That’s what working happy is all about: seeing the joy even when we are having a tough time.

Superstar Christian Bale was recently recorded berating a person on set. He lost his cool for like 10 minutes. I felt so bad for the guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. I would link to it, but I don’t want to waste your time. He could have just laughed it off, but he couldn’t find that little spot within himself to be able to laugh. He went straight for anger.

You will be tired, grumpy and exhausted in the near future, but instead of giving in to those upsetting feelings try to find that little spot inside yourself that can laugh or smile at your reaction. It will make the situation easier to handle and more comfortable for the people around you.

The reason I shot this video is because we all need to find a way to roll with our emotions and the people we work with, instead of wanting everything to be a certain way. We don’t need to be accepted. We need to be doing the accepting. Everything else will fall into place.

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One of my all time favorite blogs…Michael Martine of Remarkablogger always hooks me up with brilliant ideas to improve this blog.

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Do you want to start your own Work Happiness Project? Then stay tuned because I am putting together a great series of posts.

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If you liked this video then check these out:

• Where is Your Focus
• Stressed Out and Loving It
• Indulge Your Senses At Work

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

I found an excellent talk from the website TED. Matthieu Ricard is a monk who emphasizes the importance of developing emotional intelligence. He presents the idea that we can train the mind so it handles situations in the way that we want to. Some of these monks have such intense control that when a bomb goes off they are able to process their thoughts so quickly that they don’t react.

We can also train our minds to do a better job of dealing with frustration, low motivation, and other emotional barriers.

I’ve been working on “no complaining” over the past month and I feel I’ve made great strides in improving my mind. I’m light years away from these mental juggernauts of the Tibetan culture, but every little bit counts. I feel more stable and happier than last month. It may be all in my mind, but that’s okay, at least I feel happier and more productive.

Give it a look, it’s only 21 minutes long.

If you like this article you’ll love:

• Day 23 of 30 – Change Spurs Complaining
• Creating A Project Ritual to Encourage Happiness
• Why Your Company Should Budget for a Fun Work Environment

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Being happy at work means growing as an individual. The funny thing is most of us don’t equate personal development with our jobs. We see them as separate entities that don’t belong together. I believe this couldn’t be further from the truth.

The reason why personal development and happiness at work are forever linked together is simple. The better we are at cultivating relationships and productivity, the more we enjoy our jobs.

 

Artists at Heart

We are all artists at heart. I watched a George Carlin interview over at 43 Folders. He talked about the importance of enjoying the various parts of writing, performing and promoting (marketing). He became successful when he began to understand who he was. In the earlier half to middle half of his career he thought that he should be an actor because everyone else was doing it. He hated it. Success came easier when he stopped trying to be something he wasn’t and figured out what really made him happy.

“Happiness is a continuation of happenings which are not resisted.”
- Deepak Chopra

By not forcing yourself to work hard (being a big bully) and allowing your desires to pull you like a giant work-happiness magnet to do great work, the pain (stress and worry) will be significantly reduced and success will happen.

Why It Works for Companies

Dwayne J. Clark, CEO of Aegis Living stopped reviewing sales numbers at his annual meeting and created a yearly inspirational meeting. He brought in spiritual, personal development, and relationship speakers (Deepak Chopra and Jack Canfield) to give back to his employees. Popular speakers cost over $80,000 for an hour’s time. They did this to show that they were serious about creating an atmosphere that would help people grow.

“From the day he launched Aegis with Bill Gallaher in 1997, Clark pledged to improve employees’ lives.”
-        Jim Berry of  Inc. Magazine (check out the whole article “Is it an annual meeting? Or an Episode of Oprah?”

Dwayne began to see a significant improvement with his employees. They were more compassionate toward each other. They were also willing to share personal problems with each other. He was able to create a community that supported each other.

The turnover rate at Aegis is 25% to 43% a year, compared to the industry standard of 70% to 120%.

By fostering personal development at your company, you can also promote better teamwork, happier employees, and of course improve the bottom line.

Your Career

When you take the time to develop your emotional intelligence and personal skills, you’ll reap the rewards at work. The better you understand your needs, the easier it is to fulfill them.

Next time you are caught in office politics, denied a raise or refused much needed appreciation, try to think of the situation as a chance to grow. Notice how it makes you feel and try to end the negative cycle and give appreciation to people you work with. Believe me, if you enjoy feeling a certain way then chances are they will too. You’ll probably notice that by taking the time to improve your happiness, your ability to be compassionate and your overall personal development skills, you will be able to enjoy your job even more.

I put a little resource list that I know you all will enjoy.

Three of my favorite personal development blogs are:

-        Steve Pavlina – Check out my Interview with Steve.

-        Positivity Blog – How to double your productivity (series)

-        Abundance Blog – Five Stress-Busting Techniques for Busy People

Three of my favorite blogs on improving your career through knowing yourself:

-        Penelope Trunk – How to go to a meeting when you want to sit home and cry

-        Get Rich Slowly – JD doesn’t post many career based articles, but How Do You Turn Passion into a Career? (And Should You?) is fantastic.)

-        Delightful Work – An Authentic Approach to Making More Money

Do you believe in personally improving yourself at your job? How do you bring more love, spirituality, and power into your working day?

If you enjoyed this post I have a good feeling you’ll like these:

• Day 8 of 30 – No Complaining
• 6 Exercise Hacks While You Are At Work 
• Digging a Little Deeper to Develop Your Emotional Intelligence

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Over the past few months I’ve noticed my complaining getting a little louder (in my own head and with friends). It might pop out when I’m asked to work on an extra report or maybe during a conversation with a friend. The complaining has become a nuisance and I’m going to challenge myself to thirty days of no complaining.

I’m an East Coaster living in Austin and the driving styles are much different. East Coasters will push their way into a lane. Texans will wait patiently to be let in. I know I’m generalizing, but bear with me. East coasters like to get through pink lights. Don’t get me started on New Yorkers who will go through a red light until the other cars from the other direction push forward and make them stop. Whoops, there is my first complaint.

So this East Coaster is getting used to the more laid back driving style, but lately my patience has been worn thin. A burst of “what the f**k are you doing” will pop out. I feel bad after I do it, so I send out an apology to the universe, but lately this hasn’t been helping me.

A New Level of Happiness

It’s time to challenge myself to achieve to a new level of happiness.

“We are shaped by our thoughts; we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.”

- Buddha

If I let my complaining run rampant I’m going to fall back into my old habits of negativity. I don’t want that. My wife doesn’t want that. So it’s time to challenge myself to a new level.

Traci, a friend of mine from WorldBlu, recommended a site called  A Complaint Free World. I decided to check it out. They recommend not complaining for 21 days. I wanted to go a little longer so I chose 30 days to document in detail what is happening to my reactions during uncomfortable situations.

Join Me

If anyone wants to join in with me, we can start a little Meme. Let’s get people talking about no complaining for thirty days. I’m going to start on December 1st 2008, so if you are joining in with me let me know. I’ll give your blog a link along with everyone else who is game.

I’m going to post about my progress as long as I feel it’s interesting to you.

No complaining for thirty days will be tough. A lot of my co-workers and I bond through complaining. My substitute will be compassion, understanding their pain, but not feeding into it. It will be an eye opening thirty days.

More Chellenging Articles on Work Happiness:

• Day 16 of 30 – No Complaining
• Day 8 of 30 – No Complaining
• Day 1of 30 – No Complaining
• No More Complaining at Work – A Thirty Day Challenge

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!

Do you wish other people at your job wouldn’t be so gossipy? Would you like your co-workers to recycle?

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”

- Mahatma Gandhi

All of these problems that we see in others we also see in ourselves; a lot of the things that annoy us stem from an internal attack on our own person. I’ve noticed the people who are most at peace with themselves are most compassionate toward other people. They understand that improving their outlook is more important than changing other people’s habits.

I always wanted to be more relaxed when I commuted to work, but I couldn’t find a perspective to help me be compassionate toward other people. I wanted them to drive like me. I found myself getting mad at each driver who took their good old time making a turn or they stopped at a yellow light and this needed to change.

When a driver in front of me didn’t make that yellow light, I let the anger in and accepted these feelings. Eventually they stopped taking hold of my mood because

• I acknowledged these feelings

• Relaxed with them

• Redirected my thoughts toward something positive

Now when I’m making a turn I take my time and enjoy the shift in force from the car’s speed. When I come out of a turn I take the time to notice a tree that I pass or a person walking on the sidewalk. My attention is not about getting to work it’s finding the cool little things that I’ve never took the time to notice before. I’ve created a new me when I drive, redirecting my thoughts to encourage happiness.

I’m changing my life one habit at a time. I don’t require as much from others. I just make the change in myself and it allows me to have more compassion.

You can make changes in your own life to reflect what you want to see in others. Please remember that you will never be perfect, but as long as you keep adding new positive habits to your life, you’ll improve your happiness.

Other cool “Emotional Tools for Better Working” articles:

• Positive Belief
• Enjoy Your Mistakes
• Use Your Imagination

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Image courtesy of Rigmarole

Download the Free eBook Work Happy the Google Way * Post from: Work Happy Now!