The pursuit of happiness at work

A few weeks ago, an old friend of mine posted an Instagram story about work and happiness in life. He created a poll where he asked his insta friends to choose between ‘do what you love’ or ‘love what you do’.

When I saw his post, I felt super related to what I’ve been trying to look for since college; to look for my own happiness. I read many books to help me with this such as The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin, The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari by Robin Sharma, some Malcolm Gladwell books, and many more. But after college, I faced the hardest challenge ever in life which is to find happiness at work.

A shocking fact comes to the surface when I find out that we spend 90,000 hours at work on average during our lifetime. So I feel that happiness at work is really important. It’s either you choose to do what you love or to love what you do. Remember that our own happiness is 100% in our control.

You are the decision-maker

If anyone can choose between the two, most of us will definitely choose to do what we love. But getting there is not an easy way. It might take more time and also lots of effort and determination.

However, loving what we do is not a bad option either. I also always ask myself how my current job is aligned with what brings me joy in life. I find a few things that encourage me to do my daily job and motivate me to reach my happiness goal on a daily basis.

And as I previously mentioned, being happy is 100% in our control, I’ll share with you some ways to determine what makes us happy or how to be happy despite our circumstances.

1. Be friends with your coworkers – this is my biggest motivation at work, having a friend to talk to, share your concern that can relate to your daily job, and can give you his/her advice at work is the best way to get through your day and be happier.
2. Find a reason to be thankful for -even your day, your week is rough and tough, finding just a reason to motivate you and be grateful could help you to be happier with what you have.
3. Find ways to learn or help others – start small, help others, and learn to see problems from different perspectives could shift your focus from the unpleasant situation to openness and clarity to make a better decision.
4. Practice your self-care – take time to do things that make you happy, recharge, and re-energized is a big part of your journey to find happiness at work. When you feel overwhelmed and unable to perform at your best, you won’t feel happy at work.
   
5. Find things that you look forward to – learning new things from work that you might never get from other jobs, staying up to date with what’s happening in the world, discovering new exciting things at work, or even as simple as planning a surprise for your coworker’s birthday makes any workplace more fun, which will help you stay motivated and focused.
6. Be yourself – this is the key important thing to remember because being yourself makes you comfortable with who you are. And this could lead to not only happier at work but also in life.
   

Finding happiness in life can simply be added up with having a small scale of actions that brings good things around you. And remember the most important thing is to enjoy your life, if you don’t enjoy your life, change it! Doing the same thing today will create the same results tomorrow. And for work let me ask you again do you prefer to do what you love or love what you do? Your choice.