Editor’s note: this is a guest post from Kaley Klemp the Co-Author of The Drama-Free Office

It’s gossip, turf wars, water cooler talk, and the chronic complainer no one can stand. When you talk with people about the organizations they work for, it’s common to hear about the “Drama” plaguing their companies: the energy-draining behaviors that keep people from focusing on the creative projects and basic business practices that make the company successful.

If we could just get through the drama, the business decisions and real work isn’t that hard…

Blame Game

It’s easy to blame drama on others.  After all, you’re the good guy in these dynamics; why don’t they get it?  One of the most difficult challenges for aspiring leaders is to “own their stuff”—to acknowledge that they are equally responsible for creating any situation where drama exists.

I learned this lesson working on a writing project with another author – my dad. He had some great ideas that I was happy to work with. But then he became controlling. It was easy for me to see how things were falling apart – and it was his fault! He was the one who wasn’t listening. He was the one who was setting impossible deadlines. I was ready to take all I knew about eliminating drama and apply it to him.

Four Energy-draining Personalities

Most drama is caused by four primary energy-draining personalities that sabotage workplace collaboration and synergy:

• Complainer
• Controller
• Cynic
• Caretaker.

The Complainer is the one who is never at fault – not enough time, resources or support. The Controller has to be in charge – perhaps micromanaging, sometimes being the bully. The Cynic must be right; often pointing out how others’ ideas will never work and making fun of the person who brought it up. The Caretaker wants to be liked so much that they say yes to everything, which becomes a problem when they bite off more than they can chew and they miss deadlines.

Like me, most people want to start with the question: how do I help others change? But, we have found that before you can guide others, you have to take inventory of your interaction strengths and the ways you sabotage relationships. The strength inventory is usually easy. It’s fun to appreciate your talent and amazing ability to do what you do. The sabotage inventory is more difficult. It requires the vulnerability and courage to seek others’ candid observations and advice about your behavior.

Watch Yourself

Taking my own advice, I asked myself what my part was in creating the drama. I wondered which Drama personalities I was using that were sabotaging us. I noticed how I had fallen into Complainer. I didn’t have enough time to do everything he asked and his requests were too hard. I realized that I would have micromanaged someone acting the way I was. Then I saw my Cynic. The enthusiasm I had at the beginning of the project had become critical… I saw everything wrong with what we were doing, but didn’t offer any suggestions to change. Once I saw myself in these drama roles, I could shift into taking responsibility – renegotiating our deadlines and making suggestions for how we could change the writing to be better.

By identifying and correcting the four drama roles (Complainer, Controller, Cynic, Caretaker), you are well on your way to eliminating drama. If you want even more clarity, invite your work colleagues, family members, and friends to give you timely, direct feedback.

Quick Drama Reducing Tips

Here is a quick way to start looking at how these drama roles show up for you.  Ask friends and coworkers:

• Where do you see me complaining? Not taking responsibility for my situation?
• Where do you see me controlling? Taking over and micromanaging?
• Where do you see be being cynical? Discounting others or being sarcastic?
• Where do you seem me care-taking? Rescuing others instead of letting them do things on their own?

You can also take a free drama assessment for yourself. Let me know what you find out about yourself. And what can you do to change?

Kaley Klemp and Jim Warner are the authors of The Drama-Free Office: A Guide to Healthy Collaboration with Your Team, Coworkers, and Boss.

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

You may notice that it’s easier to enjoy a certain situation when in a good mood. You aren’t affected by problems as easily. This occurs because your focus is on something that keeps you happy.

Standing in line behind two young women, probably in their early twenties, at the grocery store and they were complaining about their boyfriends. Their groceries were on the conveyer belt waiting to be wrung up. They had bananas, a mango, strawberries, two types of cheeses and crackers. It looked like they were going to eat an amazing snack. They weren’t excited about this wonderful meal they were soon to make, but only worried about their awful boyfriends.

I was so focused on their conversation that I forgot about myself. I was judging them. I felt like they were whining too much. I was doing the same thing they were. I was judging them for only looking for the negative. I had glorious food about to be purchased too. This made me think about my focus at work. Some days my focus is about knocking the work out, so I can get home. This defeats the purpose of work. We aren’t meant to be robots. We were created to feel and be aware of our experiences.

Losing Focus

Last Sunday… I was so caught up in finishing my drawing of a flower with a human face on it talking to a dog about proper mouth hygiene that I missed the point of the exercise – fun, stress relief, and relaxation. Drawing is an enjoyable hobby, but sometimes I lose focus. I need to remind myself why I’m doing it.

As I was finishing my drawing I slowed down and let the moment sink in, the pure joy of creating a white sheet into a story. That’s when I had a mini revelation. I needed to relax my drive and use my focus to experience the moment and the feeling of being productive.

Relationships, Tasks and Emotions

When we’re mad at a co-worker or family member it’s all we can feel. We are so caught up in the hurricane of emotions that we forget that there are other emotions to be felt. By acknowledging the main emotion that is dominating at the moment we can learn to allow it to only suck so much of our energy. Moving the focus toward other parts of the experience we can process through the emotions faster.

Working on tasks is similar to relationships. A certain task may frustrate us, but it’s because we get too caught up in accomplishing instead of experiencing.

When we push ourselves to finish our task we are losing sight of the larger picture. We make more mistakes because we just want to be done with it. The people who allow themselves to experience the fun in the moment as well as knocking the job out will have an easier time being productive. They understand that they choose how to process the task.

Your Perspective

Most of us have seen two opposite types of people working side by side in a retail store. One is smiling and willing to go the extra mile while the other one wonders why she is tortured by life. They are really not that different, but one learned how to divide her time between finding the joy in the work, while the other one sees and endless sea of people who need, need, need.

Your career happiness will depend on your focus. You can choose to find ways to make the experience enhance your career or you can keep complaining that whatever you try only blows up in your face. Your career is all yours, keep your focus on enjoying the moment for what is, nothing more and nothing less, as well as the joy of being productive. You’ll take your work happiness to a level that will astound you and your co-workers.

Your Turn

When working on an email or finishing a report where is your focus? (i.e. finishing the email or getting to the next project)

How do you make time to enjoy the moment?

* Karl Staib is addicted to throwing Twitter Parties. If you want to learn how Twitter Parties can help your business grow click here. You can also follow Karl on Twitter and learn how to build your business by standing on other people’s shoulders.

* I loved this post, A Dick Tracy lunchbox gave me some decent advice, from Havi Brooks of the Fluent Self. The bonus part is it fits nicely with the theme of my post.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• Coworker Trust – Sometimes It’s Better to Give AND Receive
• What Elephants Have in Common with Gratitude

Image courtesy of Blue Square Thing

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

Your road rage can build trying to get to and from work. It’s a double edged pain. Even those of you who work from home you still have to fight through traffic to get to meetings, dropping your kids off or catching a plane. You can’t escape the car culture that we live in. We are dependent on cars. Maybe one day we can sit in hydrogen powered pods that take us to our destination as we play with our iPhones, but for now we are stuck with driving our cars.

I’m writing about road rage because of my own issues with my commute. I used to get really pissed off at anyone who didn’t match my style of driving. It was pretty sad really. The rage can come on fast. Sometimes I don’t even notice it and all of a sudden I’m screaming. This doesn’t happen very often anymore because I can offset these feelings quickly, but it took one particular reframe to make it happen.

I researched some statistics and found some cool ones. This one is a bit old, but one of my favorites:

“A 1995 study performed by the Road Safety Unit of the Automobile Association of Great Britain found that 90 percent of the drivers surveyed had experienced “road rage” incidents during the preceding 12 months. In this study, 60 percent of drivers admitted to losing their tempers behind the wheel during the previous year, and one percent claimed they had been physically assaulted by another motorist.” from AAA Foundation for Driver’s Safety

You face this rage probably every time you get in the car. Just think of how many people you pass to and from work each week. If you live in a city like I do, it’s easily in the thousands. There are plenty of different kinds of drivers to spark your rage.

My Story

I finally had enough with my anger when I lashed out screaming obscenities at an older lady. As I stared down and passed by this older lady, I realized I was way out of line.

I couldn’t believe that I let my anger take over like that. All she was doing was driving 5 miles below the speed limit. She wasn’t kicking puppies for fun, she was just driving the way she felt safe.

After I got home I realized that the older lady was probably someone’s grandmother. How would I feel if my grandmother was yelled at by some guy because he was late to work?

I vowed to change my ways.

How

To change your perspective takes practice. You can’t just turn off the little anger switch every time you are commuting to work. You’ve got to work with these feelings, slowly massaging your way to a more gentle and happier driver.

What you can do is use a simple technique that encourages you to let go of your anger and bring yourself back to an emotional center.

Grandmothers

As you know my anger had me lashing out at an old lady, which I realized could have been my grandmother. So I used this information to keep my anger in check.

I realized that thinking of each person as my grandmother I could relax my anger and keep myself emotionally grounded.

Next time I felt anxious to get to work, a meeting or the airport and I was about to lash out I imagined my grandmother behind the wheel. It nipped my anger in the bud. I stopped letting my anger take over.

Even if it’s not an old lady, I realize that every person is just trying to do what they feel is right. They all have friends and family that care for them. Even if it’s some crazy dude with a long beard, he might be the coolest dad to his two son’s. Each person has an inner grandmother (AKA their caring side). I just try to visualize the person as a caring old grandmother who fusses over her grandchildren when I’m feeling road rage come on.

Your Rage

Your road rage usually comes from a place of frustration. You don’t want to deal with your boss or you don’t want to work on a certain project. The issue is not some jerk of a guy. It’s how you let yourself feel about this guy. This issue is for another post but know that you can only deal with the situation in that moment.

Your stress can hold you back from enjoying your co-workers or even send you to the emergency ward, so it’s your job to set up your commute so you are optimally happy when you walk in the door. It’s a lot easier to impress a coaching client when I show up calm, happy and centered.

Your Turn

Who can you imagine the other drive who is pushing your anger over the edge? (e.g. grandmother, 2^nd grade teacher, old neighbor down the street)

How can you remind yourself to practice this concept before you commute to work? (i.e. write yourself a note and stick it to your radio.)

* Join us at Party Biz Connect. We throw these awesome Twitter parties (click here to find out what a Twitter party is) to help people launch their cool stuff that they’re putting out into the world. You can win cool prizes at every party. One person won a 3 day workshop worth $1,999. You also get member only access to audio interviews that teach you how to build relationships to level up your business.

* One of the smartest and kindest people in the blogging world is Chris Garrett. You should check out how he can help you build your blogging authority.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• 5 Tips on How to Make Small Talk with Your Boss
• How to Stop Interruptions and Be More Productive

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

Editor’s note: This is a guest from Lisa H. (aka RunningBear) of Getting to Zen

What makes my boss so great is that he treats his employees like human beings and not like resources that are there just to help him achieve his goals. Although he is my manager, everything that I do for him feels collaborative (even my performance reviews).

As I was scouring the internet to increase my understanding of boss-employee relationships, I came across a hypothetical note a boss wrote to his employees. What I liked most about note was that it provided great insight on how to establish a good relationship with your boss from a boss’s perspective. I liked the idea so much that I decided to write one of my own.

To: (insert your name)

From: Your Boss

RE: Welcome

Hello (insert your name),

I would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to the company. I am looking forward to working you. My hope is that this letter will give you a better understanding of who I am, what I need from you and how we both can effectively work together

1. I am under a lot of pressure from upper management, of which most of it you don’t see. Please, don’t hesitate to do or say something that would make my job easier. Most days I am working a minimum of 10 to 14 hours. And although I am compensated for it, it is a lot of hard work with rewards that don’t always pay off quickly.
2. Your work is important to me but so is everyone else’s. Please remember that I also have the concerns and feelings of other employees both inside and outside of our company.
3. I may not have been given the training I needed before being named to this supervisory position. As a result, I have had to learn through trial and error; sometimes at your expense. Please give me the same understanding that you would like from me when you make mistakes.
4. If I am about to do something that could be harmful to my job, please tell me. I may not see an impending disaster that you do. I would rather hear it from you than in the form of a pink slip from the Human Resource department.
5. Tell me what you need to be happy at work. I am not a mind reader. I want to create an environment in which we both can succeed. Let me know what your career goals are and we can work together to create a plan to achieve them.
6. If you don’t know the answer to something, don’t make one up. I use the information you give me to make decisions that impact our business in ways that you may unaware of. I don’t expect you to know everything, but I do expect the truth.
7. If you were a former co-worker of mine, please understand that as your manager I have to evaluate your performance. I hope that my managerial responsibilities will not change our relationship. Sometimes being a manager is lonely.
8. I would appreciate if you would respect my time by not coming to me at 5:30 PM with a critical issue that could have been discussed at any time during that day. I understand that emergencies happen but when they happen every day it’s not an emergency.
9. I expect you to take initiative. If you keep running things by me, I’m going to wonder why I have you around.
10. Let me know when I am doing a good job. I want to be the best manager that I can and feedback is essential for my improvement.
11. Just because I am your manager doesn’t mean that you can’t invite me to lunch. I have other interests besides work and like to talk about them too.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me, my door, in-box and instant messenger is always open. Again, I look forward to working with you.

Your Boss

Now wouldn’t a letter like this be a welcomed edition to the hiring packet? What would you have liked to hear from your boss when you started working at your company?

Lisa H. (aka RunningBear) is the founder of Getting to Zen, a personal development blog featuring articles on productivity, motivation, inspiration and organization. You can sign up for her RSS feed or follow her on Twitter.

* New things are happening at Work Happy Now. We are gearing up for some big changes, so stay tuned. We are trying to align your needs with our own. It’s how businesses are built. Too many people keep doing the same thing that made them successful two years ago. We don’t want to be that kind of company. So we are taking a proactive approach to work happiness.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• 5 Ways to Improve Your Attitude and Productivity
• 10 Common Career Mistakes

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

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Kole McRae of Office Buddha

I used to be a door to door salesman. I would get up around 6am to spend a 10 hour day selling phone services to people who didn’t really need them. I hated the job and dreaded each morning (I got no days off) but for some strange reason I just kept on doing it.

The money was pretty good. It covered rent and food and it let me go out and have fun whenever I felt like it. I reasoned that I only had to do it for a few years and then I could take a 2 year break and just live off my savings. So things sucked right now, the future would rock.

In reality I was lying to myself. Every since I was a kid it had been beaten into me that you have to suffer if you want something good. You suffer through school to get a good job, suffer through 50 or more years of work to get a good retirement. You’re whole life would be suffering just so you could get maybe 20 years of fun.

This is completely wrong. You can be happy now AND in the future. All you have to do is get your priorities right.

Priorities

Chances are your priorities right now center around money. It’s understandable why they would be. Without money you can’t afford a place to stay, food to eat, nights out with the girls, etc. You think that if you work hard all this week you’ll have enough money to have a fun night out on Saturday.

This is an old way of thinking that used to work incredibly well. Back in the olden days you’d get paid every week for the labour you put in. Do manual labour for 40 hours and you’d be able to party all weekend.

Things have changed though, the work we do isn’t manual any more. Most of us work in an office doing what I like to call ‘high’ thinking. We come up with strategies, use creativity and make managerial decisions.

I have an alternative: prioritize based on happiness.

Right Now

What’s going to make you happy right this second? To tell your boss his haircut looks ugly and that he can take your job and stuff it?

Well, you probably shouldn’t do that.

What you can do is start work on making it so you can. Do you have a business idea burning at the back of your head? How about a novel that you know will be an instant best seller? Do you want to rock out on a stage, guitar in hand?

Why aren’t you working on that?

These days it’s become incredibly easy to make money doing what you love. Look at all the independent authors making millions. So start writing your business plan, start writing that novel. Go and take those guitar lessons you always wanted to do. You’re happiness is far more important than what your boss may want.

You’ll find as you do this that you are already feeling happier. Stress will melt away and you won’t worry about getting fired any more.

Now here is the fun part. Start having fun every day. Don’t worry about working late or doing your work at home. Instead go to a movie or out to the bar. Do something that makes you smile.

The value of money changes every day. One day an American dollar is worth its weight in gold, the next it could be worth nothing. Happiness on the other hand will always be valuable. Plus, to earn happiness, you don’t have to suffer. You just have to smile.

Full Circle

A few weeks after making this realization I was able to walk into my bosses office and tell him where to shove my job. I’d taken the time to apply to college, figure out all the financing (you know if you look hard enough you can go to college for free and make something of yourself).

Walking into his office with a huge grin on my face was the most exhilarating feeling of my life. I was literally shaking with excitement as I sat down and gave him the ‘bad’ news.

I’m a professional writer now and love every minute of my life. I don’t have to worry about dressing up nice or pretending to like someone I don’t. I now value my happiness above any other thing in existence.

How about your priorities? Is family more important than work? How about your health? You do know stress has been linked with heart disease right? That can’t be good for your health.

My Tip

The best advice I can give is to write down all of your priorities. Make a simple list that you can look at every day. Then when you have to make a decision take a look at the list and use it to help.

When you realign you’re priorities you’ll find life gets far better.

Your Turn

Are you living your priorities?

How can you tweak your career so you can live more of your values?

Kole of Office Buddha is a writer and all round nice guy. He was built by a mad scientist with the parts of lesser writers. He was made to destroy the world but ends up just eating ramen all day and writing. His work has been published in newspapers, national magazines, blogs around the world and even on the radio.

* Follow me on Twitter. Join over 3,700 people who get happiness tips, productivity tips, and thought provoking quotes each day.

* I’ve been doing a lot more audio recently and one of my favorite audio editing tutorials is from Pace Smith of the Connection Revolution.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• 7 Ways to Have a Good Relationship With Your Boss
• 6 Tips on How to Have a Productive Day at Work

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

Your internal battery needs to be recharged on a regular basis. You can’t continue at break neck speed and expect to stay happy and keep reaching your goals.

The hard part is making your recharge a daily habit. If as many people meditated as much as they drank beer we would not be so stressed out and exhausted.

Drinking alcohol is fun. I enjoy a good dark beer every so often, but I stopped drinking every day because of the drag on my body.

I also stopped relying on vacations to recharge my battery. Needing a vacation is a myth that I want to crush right here. You don’t need a vacation. Yes, it may be nice, but you don’t really need one.

The Reality

In reality a vacation is nice, but I will say that vacations actually make you feel more tired. Think of the last vacation that you went on. How did you feel after you got home?

Tired?

You probably felt tired because taking a vacation takes you out of your element, which is fun but not usually refreshing. Dealing with the packing, double checking reservations, checking in to your flight online, getting to the airport, sleeping in a weird bed, new noises, more drinking than usual, staying up late, and all the other stuff that comes along with traveling it can be exhausting.

The real reason you go on vacation is for some extra excitement not to recharge your battery.

Your Help

I’m putting together an e-course to help you keep your energy at a high level so you can get more done and feel happier doing your work. I need your help. If you could fill out this online survey right here and let me know what you need in an e-course to help you with your energy at work I would be very appreciative. It should take less than a minute to fill out.

The thing is I don’t want to create something that none of you care about, so if this course doesn’t interest you then that’s cool. I’ll move on to a different project.

Your Need for Relaxation

It all comes done to creating habits that will support your energy level. You have to learn how to develop habits that fit into your day. Your body is giving you a lot of cues that you are probably ignoring. The human body isn’t meant to sit for 8 hours at a time.

You have to move around and keep that blood flowing.

Check in and notice how you feel throughout the day. Is your back getting tight or maybe you are feeling anxious. What are you doing to balance out these feelings?

Recharge Tip

You need to make time during the day to recharge your body without having to go for a quick fix like coffee. Drinking coffee at 4 in the afternoon so you can make it til 5 is not the healthiest choice. It’s better to have a routine during the day that helps you sustain your energy without too many spikes.

Every time you are done a project take 60 seconds to check in with yourself. Notice where the energy is trapped. My energy usually gets caught in my neck and lower back. Take 60 seconds to do a back twist, neck stretches or whatever else you need to slow down and release that tension.

By using this transition time to slow down and check in with your body you are more apt to make smarter choices.

Your Turn

What do you do to recharge your battery at work?

How do you check in with your body, so not to let irritability take over?

Side note: Party Time

I’m throwing a Twitter Party with Johnny B. Truant and Pace Smith this Wednesday 2-16 at 8pm ET. We are celebrating the launch of Profitable Idealism. You should join us and hopefully win some free prizes. Over $300 in prizes will be given away. Check out the details and sign up at Party Biz Connect.

* Join the Work Happy Now Facebook Page and interact with other people who are trying to improve their superpowers. It’s very basic right now, but it’s a fun place to visit. We ask good questions, support each other, and laugh. Stop by and hang out.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• Holiday Stress Relief Tips that Last All Year Long
• How to Stop Interruptions and Be More Productive

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

Just be yourself and they will love you. How many moms have said that to their little boys and girls?

What they should really say is just be yourself and screw everyone else because people will find ways to hate you no matter what you do. This is true in business and life.

Happiness

You want to be happy. That means you can’t let other people dictate your decision making process.

I’m trying to be more me, but I find it difficult.

I still remember the first day of school during my 7^th grade year and a popular student telling me to sit down and stop being so annoying. The pain goes deep. I don’t want to be annoying. I want people to like me.

Conundrum

That’s where the conundrum begins. We can’t be ourselves without annoying people along the way.

It really is a catch 22.

If I’m myself then of course I’m going to annoy some people. Even super cool people are hated because they are just too cool. Steve Jobs almost has as many haters as people who love him.

So I’ve decided that it’s either a win-win or a lose-lose. It’s up to you to decide how to look at it.

As a business owner I don’t want to annoy anyone I want them all to like me. This is impossible. I know this, but still have trouble understanding it.

I know not every coaching client won’t click with my coaching style, but that’s my point. I can’t try to be someone I’m not otherwise they aren’t able to use my superpowers. It becomes a waste of both of our times.

Make a Choice and Run with It

The best option is to make choices that aligns with your values and forget everyone else’s reaction. The haters are going to hate. The lovers are going to love. You can’t stop this.

What you can do is not be afraid of annoying anyone.

It’s better to put yourself out there in a way that makes you happy. So if you like to wear a superpower cape to meetings because it helps you get in the consulting zone then go for it.

Your Turn

What do you think?

Are we raised to conform and not annoy?

Can we break out of these social struggles and live our core values?

* Follow me on Twitter. Join over 3,700 people who get happiness tips, productivity tips, and thought provoking quotes each day.

* Plugin ID wrote a solid post about leveling your life up. Click here to check out the awesomeness.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• How to Unlock Brilliant Solutions
• 7 Skills You Need to Develop a Career that You Love

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

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Michelle of Wicked Whimsy.

At any give time, there are a great amount of people who are working their current job as a “day” job or a “right now” job, while they work on their dream job or passion projects on the side. I know I’ve done my share of this, and sometimes, it’s not easy! If you feel forced into your work arrangement, it can make you resentful, angry, and unproductive at work – which doesn’t do anyone any favors, since you’re spending most of your waking hours there! If this happens to you, try using the following tips to improve your attitude & productivity at your day job.

Set goals

Instead of doing the bare minimum to get by, set aside a few minutes each week to think of ways you can go above and beyond, putting emotional labor into your work and not just “showing up”. If you’re motivated by something intrinsic (like a feeling of accomplishment) instead of extrinsic (money), your satisfaction when you complete your goals is likely to skyrocket. A great book on this topic is Linchpin, by Seth Godin.

Make a list of things your day job provides for you

Karl has written before about the power of gratitude, and this is another great example of it. Instead of thinking “My day job makes me get up early five days a week and spend 40 hours slogging away”, think of the things you couldn’t have without your day job. Try to get creative with your list – instead of saying “my apartment”, say “my two bedroom home in the heart of the art district”, or instead of saying “cat food”, say “the ability to feed my beloved pets”. Make the list as long as you can, and keep it on hand for when you start getting frustrated with work.

Make it a game

This doesn’t mean, don’t take your day job seriously – just maybe not quite as seriously. If you’re finding it impossible to have fun at your day job, make an effort to make it fun. Give yourself points for handling a customer or coworker successfully & professionally, subtract points if you don’t. At the end of the day, add up your total. If your points are above a certain number, treat yourself to your favorite meal.

Work to improve your environment

If you have control over a small amount of space, improve it. Add pictures of things that make you happy or your list of things your job provides for you. Any time you start feeling frustrated, take a deep breath and look at these things to remind yourself of the positive things your work brings into your life. Make an effort to improve your work environment in other ways as well – try instituting a no gossip rule for yourself when talking to coworkers. Gretchen Rubin recounts a tale in the Happiness Project of a friend who worked under a notoriously difficult boss. Gretchen’s friend made a rule for herself that she wasn’t going to say anything negative about her boss or his habits, and that if others were saying negative things, she’d walk away. Not surprisingly, the friend turned out much happier with her job than her coworkers, and even found herself liking her boss.

Watch your labels

This can be one of the toughest tips to follow. If you’re constantly referring to yourself – out loud or in your head – as a “wage slave”, that’s going to be reflected in your attitude and the way you act at work. Remind yourself that the place you work for is renting your time, and that your time is valuable. If you feel like the title your place of employment gives you isn’t very empowering – say, secretary, or sales associate – think of a spin on it that does make you feel good (instead of secretary, try administrative assistant).

There’s five ways to start improving your attitude & productivity at your job right away. What are your favorite ways to flip a negative work attitude around?

Michelle is a rainbow haired freelance writer & blogger located in Austin, TX. She writes about life creation for thoughtful renegades at Wicked Whimsy. You can sign up for her free e-course, Finding Yourself 101, here.

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* You may want to check out How to Discover Your Superpowers over at my marketing blog Super Power Coach. It’s a lot easier to have a great attitude and stay productive when you are doing work you enjoy, gets you in the zone, and plays to your strengths.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• Your Attitude and How it Affects Your Career
• How Transitions Can Dramatically Improve Your Productivity

Image courtesy of Dunechaser

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

People love the idea of living life by their own rules. It’s a beautiful thought. We all want to create the life that we need to be happy. Some of us are better at it than others.

Creating a great career is a lot harder than it seems. It’s why we need to learn from other people. We can’t be blindly shooting for career happiness. We have to plan, learn, mess up, and adjust. It’s a process.

It’s why I recommend the book Art of Nonconformity (Amazon affiliate link) from Chris Guillebeau. It’s a well thought out book that helps a person create a more flexible and much happier life.

My favorite part about this book is Chris doesn’t sugar coat the concept of creating a career of your dreams. It’s hard work. It’s a beautiful process, but not easy.

* Join over 1,300 people who have already subscribed to the FREE 10 part E-Course on Leveraging Your Superpowers. Learn how to discover and leverage your superpowers so you can do amazing work. (Sign up is in the top left corner)

* My favorite trait of Chris Guillebeau’s is his ability to care so deeply. He is not one of those big bloggers that writes to hear himself think. He writes to connect. One of my most recent posts was about him asking his tribe what was the bravest thing that they’ve done. Click here to check out some of the cool responses.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• 10 Common Career Mistakes
• 19 Reasons to Buy Zappos’ Delivering Happiness Book

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

As my 1 Sentence Journal fills up I’m beginning to see my happiness patterns. For example when I start writing early in the day I can get my thoughts on this track that allows me to write in large quantities. I plant the seed early and I can’t let go. I almost always end up surprising myself with my productivity levels.

I never would have discovered this if I hadn’t taken the time to contemplate my workday. You don’t need to meditate in the typical sense to enjoy the benefits of contemplation. The idea is to find a way to relax your thoughts and be in the now, so you can improve just a little bit each day.

Habits

A big portion of my happiness felt anchored to how much I could write/create, especially on the weekends when I needed to get a bulk of my writing accomplished. Understanding my process allowed me to bring clarity to what made me happy.

Adding the one sentence journal helped me expose some hidden happiness that I hadn’t expected.

The older I get and the closer to death I get less likely I am to fool myself into sticking with the same old patterns. My fear just doesn’t have a strangle hold on my emotions like they used to. I’m much more willing to expose the lies that I hold on to, so I can make positive changes.

Excerpts from my one sentence journal:

3-20-10 – I had trouble staying focused, still need to work on relaxing with my work.

4-12-10 – My mind was scattered trying to focus my energy on how to reach my right people. I was grumpy and frustrated. My mind was focused on my mistakes instead of the possibilities that I could create.

5-25-10 – Planning my day each morning is very important. Helps me stay focused.

6-15-10 – Called out sick because I had Saturday hours, got some good work done. Nice to have the house to myself so I could stay focused.

10-19-10 – Got some little stuff done. Need to stay focused on big picture.

12-11-10 – I was a little disappointed in myself this Saturday. I need to get my work done so I can hang out with the family on Sunday. I putzed around and when I did work I wasn’t very focused. I don’t think the two beers and green helped very much.

This is only a small portion of my 1 Sentence Journal. There were many patterns that I found and improved. To help me keep my focus I’ve implemented the technique I talked about, Doing the Important Stuff Early.

I also implemented two other techniques:

• Review big picture each week and each month. This helps me get my focus back on track. I use my 1 Sentence Journal to do this as well. (Macro)
• When doing singular tasks I use an egg timer to stay on task. As long as my egg timer is counting down I refuse to check out my Twitter account or my email. (Micro)

I know myself. When I’m productive I’m happy. I love knocking out an ebook, e-course or interviewing someone. It makes me proud. That’s time well spent.

You

You probably hold back from happiness to placate others or because of your fear. It’s natural. I still do it. The thing is – what are you doing to expose these lies you are telling yourself?

If you love getting your creative work done early why are you putting it off until the afternoon? If you hate doing to Sunday Brunch with the Stewarts and their annoying kid then why do you do it? If you hate cold calling why do you do it?

We know what we need to do to be happy, but for some reason we don’t do it until we see the patterns for ourselves and feel enough pain to take action.

You have to find a way to stimulate yourself to ask yourself these tough questions. It’s the only way you will expose your willingness to accept the unhappiness. No one likes to ask and answer these tough questions. I understand that, but what is the alternative? You can’t go on living in unhappiness.

I couldn’t do it any longer. I had to expose the lies I was telling myself so I could open myself to changing my bad habits.

What things do you do now that makes you happy? (i.g. Eat fried food during lunch or cold calling customers.)

What changes have you made to improve your happiness? (i.g. You go to the gym during lunch or you only make warm calls to people who already know you.)

* Need a boost to your work happiness? Then check out the Happy at Work Project and start one yourself.

* I’m co-hosting the Book Yourself Solid Twitter Party this Thursday with Michael Port. Come check it out and win some cool prizes. Did I mention it’s free.

If you found this post insightful, you will probably like these too:

• Is Work Stress Hurting Your Family Life?
• What You and a Hermit Crab have in Common

Image courtesy of Policardo

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