The 6 Elements of Work Happiness
Work hard, become successful, then you'll be happy. At least, that's what many of us were taught by our parents, teachers and peers. The only problem is that a decade of cutting-edge research in the field of positive psychology has proven that this formula is backwards. Success follows happiness, not the other way around.
How to find work happiness
To really be happy in your work you need to get clarity on your 5 internal elements and live into them each day. They are:
Your strengths
Your values
Your passions
Your purpose
Yourself
To make these elements come to life requires you to take responsibility for your work happiness. And to find courage to be your authentic self at work.
Easier said than done?
Yes, it's easier to hide, to numb, to avoid. But that’s not an effective strategy and it catches up with you eventually. I know from experience…
When I joined my company I was identified as high-potential. I worked hard and got a series of promotions that took me from Bangkok, to Singapore, then to head office in Paris. It was a great experience. But after 9 years in similar marketing I had began to stagnate and I was out of alignment with my values.
I needed something new but I couldn’t see the way forward, so kept doing my ‘on paper’ perfect job. I did this to the point of feeling numb and borderline depressed. It took me nearly burning-out before I accepted responsibility for my career.
What happened next was a bit of a wake-up call.
When I raised the topic of making a transition into Learning & Development, my leadership team were surprised. They wondered where this change in direction had come from. *spoiler alert - it had been in my personal development plan for the past 5 years.
5 years…
An important lesson
No one is responsible for your career but you.
It took 6 months of life and career coaching for me to reconnect to my authentic self, my values, strengths, passions and purpose. It took that time in for me to take the hard decision to leave my corporate life.
It took those 6 months of coaching for me feel confident in my chosen path in becoming a life coach.
The good news...
It worked. I'm living authentically in alignment with my values, passion & purpose. I’m using my strengths to do something that I love. And I really do love it…
I have to be dragged away from my work each day and wake up in the morning full of ideas that I can’t wait to share.
The key take-away
My message to you is “don't settle!”. We’re not supposed to grind out our days, doing work we hate, so that we can enjoy ourselves when we retire. I am passionate about supporting women to design a life and career they love (scroll down to find out how). My invitation is to do the work now to uncover your path to career happiness.
Before you go…
Now would be a good moment to add that there is an important 6th element to being happy at work -the environment.
You don't exist in isolation. You'll always be in "an environment" - be that a business - an office - a culture - a team etc. That environment will either support or detract from your work happiness (sometimes different elements or people may do both!).
Bottom line - even with your 5 internal elements in place, if the environment isn't a good fit - you're going to struggle to find happiness at work. If you're not able to change or improve the situation, please don't blame yourself. It takes more than one person to change the culture. It does not make you a failure.
To bring this to life, check out this video. I share a story about someone who's living into their 5 internal work happiness elements, and what happens if the environment isn’t right. Check out the video to see if the story resonates with you.
For support on finding your work happiness
⫸ For support on finding work happiness and designing a life and career you love, book a free Discover Coaching call now - click here