How to Experience More Joy at Work

It is possible to enjoy our work lives more than we do and it often requires just a few basic shifts in our thinking to provide us with a greater sense of purpose at work.

Unfortunately, sometimes we’re under great stress or we’ve been in a job for so long that we have difficulty seeing the beneficial aspects of our work or understanding ways to make it work better for us.

 Here are five ways to go about experiencing more joy in the work place.

Focus on the meaning you derive from your work. A key aspect to finding joy in your work is to recognize and celebrate the good that results from your job, the ways your products or services make life better for your customers and clients, and the difference your company makes in the world. If you cannot identify this important part of your job, then you might need to consider a job move. 

Cultivate positive relationships with your colleagues. It’s difficult to enjoy our work place if we don’t enjoy those we work with. Of course, you cannot control the behavior of others at work, but you can make every effort to develop good working relationships with your co-workers and manager. It will help if you seek to recognize the strengths in others rather than focus on their failures and shortcomings.

Recognize how your job makes you change and grow. If you’ve been in a job or at a company for several years you have changed during that time. You have developed new skills and grown in ways that it’s important to recognize. Take some time to appreciate this growth and it will help you to experience greater satisfaction in your job.

Use your job to strengthen your weaknesses. You can look at your job as a laboratory and a place to make improvements. Be clear about the areas you need to work on, whether related to job skills or character traits, such as patience, and seek to measure your development. Paying attention to self-improvement on your job can add a level of enjoyment to your work experience.  

Pay attention to your attitude. There are a lot of things we can’t control at work, but we always have the ability to take control of our attitude and the ways we respond to the events on the job. Greater enjoyment at work is more likely when we approach our job and our relationships with our colleagues with curiosity, and a positive and helpful attitude.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Job

Maybe you've been on the job for fifteen years or only 15 minutes. Or you leave the house with energy and enthusiasm or you're like a zombie at work, or operating your career on auto-pilot.

Wherever you happen to be at this moment in your career you should be constantly evaluating your situation and asking yourself a series of questions.

Below are five questions you should ask yourself about your job at least monthly.

Am I challenged in my work? To be satisfied in your work there needs to be some difficulty and some challenge involved. If a job is without a challenge it will become boring, making it unlikely for you to experience growth.

Do I have opportunities to advance at my workplace? Speaking of growth, a dynamic career is one that involves change, development, and opportunities to move up and advance. 

What conferences or workshops should I attend to develop my skills? A great way to gain new skills and knowledge in your field is by attending regular conferences and training sessions. These also provide important networking opportunities that should be cultivated regularly.

Do I experience joy in my job? An underappreciated byproduct of our work is the experience of joy. Work does not have to be (and should not) feel like drudgery. The work can be hard, difficult, and challenging and also provide a great sense of joy. In fact, perhaps the most joy-filled work experience requires difficulty and challenge.

Do I feel a sense of purpose at work? The most successful people, and those who feel happiest in their lives and careers, have a clear sense of their purpose and how their current work fits into that purpose. If you don't have a clear sense of what your purpose or "calling" is, then take some time in the next week to examine this. You will feel a greater sense of engagement, energy, and enthusiasm in your career when your job integrates your purpose with your strengths and skills.

High 5 Weekly Career Transitions Roundup: How to Always Be Ready for a Great New Job

This is our weekly roundup of some of the best career-related articles, interviews, blogs, etc., we've read during the week. We share them so you have some great resources to prepare you for the coming week. Enjoy!

• How to Always Be Ready for a Great New Job: "Stay in touch with the folks you will rely on to vouch for you when the time comes to change jobs. It's much easier to update a warm relationship than to try and jump start a cold one."

• How to Make Your Workplace Joyful: "I actually think it's easier to have an extraordinary workplace culture in a smaller organization, simply because you touch your people more. As the leader of the organization, you're in touch with your people that much more."

• 9 Things Successful People Never Do in the Morning: "Successful people never find themselves getting distracted by the television or decide to watch just one show. Instead, they dive right into the tasks they want to tackle for the day."

• 20 Secrets to Avoiding Burnout: "Go to bed an extra hour early or go to a movie. Do things you haven't had time for. Go for a run. It's about allowing yourself to focus on yourself outside of work."
• How to Help Millennials Overcome Failure: "Help them to view failure as a toll booth instead of a roadblock. With a tollbooth, a price must be paid to move forward."

5 Tips for Finding Work-Life Balance with the Start of School

It's that time of year already! The end of summer and the start of a school. And, if you have children, you've likely noticed that your daily routine has become a bit out-of-whack over the last two months.

Not to fear. You can take some basic steps to get back into the swing of things so your work and personal life return to balance.

Here are a few tips to consider as you prepare for your kids to return to school.

1. Manage your expectations. Yes, there will be stress and everything will not go perfectly. Understand that there will be difficulties: you might oversleep, or the kids will oversleep, or you'll just be plain cranky in the morning and everything will bother you. These difficulties do not prevent you from having a good day, effective, and productive day, though, and do not allow them to prevent you from enjoying your children.

2. Get back into a routine early. Don't wait until the Sunday night before school starts to begin getting back into a routing of going to bed earlier, or waking up earlier to get that morning workout in. Start your new/old routine at least a week before school starts and he won't feel like such a shock.

3. Be prepared. Do whatever you can to make your mornings proceed smoothly. If possible make lunches the night before, have everything you need to take to work already organized and ready to go. Don't get into your car to discover you have no gas. All of these little things add up to bring great stress so do what you can to minimize inconveniences.

4. Watch your schedule. You might find that no more how organized you are something always comes up to make you a few minutes late for work. Prepare for this by ensuring, as much as you are able and have control over it, you do not schedule meetings first thing in the morning or have important deadlines to meet immediately. Give yourself a break and ease into the most demanding parts of your day.

5. Accept help. This tip might even be more effectively to "ask" for help. Perhaps a neighbor or grandparent can take the children to school, or pick them up. Even if this is done only one or two days in a week it can go a long way toward reducing your stress and helping you achieve a sense of work-life balance. There is no shame in seeking and accepting help.

Finally, be sure to enjoy this time. Before you know it, you'll miss these opportunities with your children. Take some time to sit back, relax, and experience some joy for the good things in your life.

Listening in on Great Career Advice

The boring commute to work, that long summer road-trip, or hours spent on the treadmill at the gym provide great opportunities to listen to podcasts that can offer useful information as you seek to advance in your career. We've identified five podcasts that you'll want to download to give you the necessary inspiration and knowledge as you move ahead in your career:


48 Days to the Work You Love  


Career Joy


Next Stage Online Radio


HBR IdeaCast


Escape from Cubicle Nation