4 weekly practices for a happier work life

Workweeks can go by in a flash. Starting a day can feel like getting on a roller coaster. Strap in, and almost before you can blink, the day is over. And then it is time to start it again.

Because you can get immersed in the chaos of the day so quickly, the momentary emotions you experience as you move from one task to another probably get lost in the shuffle. As Barbara Fredrickson and Daniel Kahneman pointed out, though, most of our lives are really experienced through our memories of events rather than the moment of those events themselves. Paradoxically, then, you want to think about how to create memories of a happy work life rather than maximizing the happiness you’re experiencing in the moment.

As an analogy to better understand why this approach works, think about your experience of the passage of time. In the moment, time seems longest when you are bored and can pay attention to the passage of time. But then when you are looking back at things, time seems longest when you are doing the most new things that serve as landmarks in your memory for time that has passed. So, days that seem long don’t feel long when you look back on them, but days that fly by may seem long in memory.

Understand the paradox of ambition

You are energized by dissatisfaction. Engaging in a goal to perform an action requires that there is something you would like to achieve or something you would like to avoid and you have not yet succeeded. After all, if you have everything you want in life, there is no reason to do anything.

One place that manifests at work is in the desire for promotion and recognition. When you aspire to another role or greater responsibility, you derive your motivational energy from being dissatisfied with your current situation. That can cause you to focus on aspects of your current role or employer that are less than ideal. On a day-to-day basis, then, your ambition is going to make you feel less positively about work than you would if you were satisfied with your role.

That doesn’t mean that you can’t be happy if you’re ambitious. You have to find your satisfaction by looking at your trajectory rather than at your current state. Feel good about improvements in your skills and the things you have accomplished. Focus on the relationships you have developed at work and the impact your work is having. By expanding your time horizon for thinking about your work, you can enable yourself to be both ambitious and also pleased with your progress.

Celebrate your wins

Because you probably have a lot on your to-do list, it is common to complete a task and immediately move on to the next thing. As a result, you focus on the intensity of the work you’re doing, but don’t have an opportunity to reflect on the value of something you have finished.

Take the time to celebrate the wins you participate in. When a client signs a contract, a sale closes, or a report gets distributed to a big audience, take a little victory lap. Reflect on the impact that your work is having on your organization and the people it serves.

Those few moments you spend in celebration will help you to remember the important influence your work has on the success of your team and your organization. That will increase your overall satisfaction with your work.

Look for joy moments

Sometimes, there aren’t natural chances to celebrate a particular win. That doesn’t mean that you aren’t contributing to important positive outcomes. You may have to seek out chances to enjoy the work you’re doing and its impact.

If you have a really enjoyable and productive meeting with a team, call it out at the end. Talk about how much you enjoy the time you spend with them. If your work contributes to positive outcomes you don’t see directly, find ways to acknowledge those as well.

I encourage the staff I work with at the University of Texas to walk outside during the busy times of the semester to remind themselves that the work they do is contributing to the college experiences of so many students. While they may not see the direct influence of a specific project on students, without this collective effort, those blissful college years would not be as rich.

Celebrate your colleagues

Often (particularly if you are ambitious) you may treat the accolades and successes in your organization as a zero-sum game—meaning that if someone else hits a home run or gets acknowledged for their contribution, then that diminishes your own standing. But that’s simply not true.

You and your colleagues are all on the same team. If a colleague gets a promotion, lands a big sale, or solves a huge problem, celebrate their efforts. Take pride in being on the team with other talented people. This shared joy in the successes of others creates a sense of camaraderie that brings satisfaction to your work. It also lays the groundwork for other people to share genuinely in your successes.

After all, the world could always use a little more celebration. Embrace every opportunity to share the joy of your community.

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