Being Happy At Work
Why seeking happiness at work can make you miserable. There's a better approach.
Most of us spend so much of our lives on the job. Because of this, being happy at work seems like a requirement for leading a positive life.
The problem is, when we seek for what we think will make you happy at work, you can end up making yourself miserable, lose hope and have your career fall into a tail spin.
Looking for what being happy at work entails will often leave you without answers. Happiness is one of those elusive, fleeting emotions.
The more you try and attain it, the less of it you’ll have.
Why is this?
Aiming for the aspiration of being happy at work (or life in general) is a very surface level goal. It’s like seeking pleasure. It’s a selfish and short-sighted pursuit.
Now, I’m not saying you aren’t entitled to feel happiness or pleasure. It’s just that the shallow aim of being happy at work is not a great goal for a meaningful career. Seeking happiness for the sake of itself is kind of like taking a drug simply because you like the feeling.
If you’re someone who’s unhappy at your job or with your career prospects, it might make sense to ponder what the recipe is for “work happiness.” It seems logical, but there's a better approach.
The being happy at work trap
It’s a common pitfall that many people who are unhappy at work fall into. It’s one where they become obsessed on finding the ingredients that’ll make them happy again in their career.
The more they search for it, the harder it seems to find. So, in response they search harder to find it. Still without success and even more frustrated.
It would be easy to become consumed by this pursuit and lose all grasp on what meaningful and fulfilling work really looks like.
Happiness is a fluctuating and fleeting emotion. Even if you’re presently feeling the emotion, you could just get caught up on trying to hold onto it and keep it from escaping.
Happiness and comparison
We can often make the mistake of assuming the things that will make us happy at work are based on what other people have.
If someone makes more money than us or has a more senior position in the company, then their happiness level must be proportionate to their success.
Our society has often tied a concept of happiness to job comfort or careers requiring high levels of education.
All of these are false assumptions. However, they are engrained and powerful.
Even if we consciously know that these misconceptions aren’t true, we still get tricked into trying to place our efforts there. We can still seek to find happiness at work through these mechanisms.
A new and better career objective
Remember a time when you came home from work exhausted, sweaty and spent, yet you felt accomplished and oddly invigorated. All the little issues of life faded into the background and time seemed to become irrelevant.
At that time, you had transcended yourself. The boundaries between you and the completed tasks became blurred. You weren’t concerned with gaining credit for what was achieved yet you were proud to be a part of it.
The last thing you were concerned about at that time is whether you were happy or not. In that moment your soul was filled. Happiness was irrelevant.
That’s why we love manual labor work, gardening and getting immersed in projects around the house. It’s not because we’re thinking “this’ll make me happy,” it’s because while we’re engaged in the task or project, a deeper part of us feels whole in those moments.
A fulfilling and meaningful career
I often use the terms, fulfillment, meaning or purpose as the highest aspirations for a career.
On a purposeful career path, we create the conditions where happiness is more commonplace on the job. At the same time, when happiness isn’t currently present on the job, we don’t become obsessed with trying to find it.
A fulfilling and meaningful career is:
- One that is your own – it is a path that is personally important to you, not one that you are pursuing to make someone else happy.
- Not something that’s obtained but rather a means of living by.
- a pursuit of changing the perceived limitations of your life.
- Something that transcends yourself.
- A means of challenging the definitions of who you are. As you pursue it, you get closer to who you really are.
If you find you are seeking what will make you happy on the job, consider transforming your career prospects by adjusting your life circumstances and patterns.
If you can assess the person you are both on and away from the work environment. How can your career take on a new aspiration that aligns you with a deeper life purpose.
One that is of personal importance to you both on and off the job.
In doing this, it requires you to uphold a true standard of character that calls you to service your highest self.
If you have one version of you that shows up for work to gain something and another version that gets to enjoy the time off, you will inevitably seek a façade of happiness at work.
However, if your entire being is of service to a greater goal, in which the career is an extension of, then seeking happiness becomes irrelevant.