Fall in love with a job you don’t even like, in 3 steps

Many of us also uselessly combine our self-esteem with our career. Our job unhappiness becomes a life unhappiness, which increases participation.

Wouldn’t it be nice to stop being jealous of those who love your job and become one of those people?

There are many professional tips on how to apply for a promotion, get a promotion, deal with a difficult boss, manage others, and more. But it deals very little with the fundamental theme of your day-to-day happiness at work.

Factors that can tip the scales one way or another for job happiness can be reduced to our innate desire for three things: control over our lives, positive daily connections, and joy and meaning as we go through the process. wake time (half of which works, for most people).

The problem is not the job

This leaves you with only one powerful resource: take things into your own hands.

Wrzesniewski and Dutton’s research focused on three main factors of deeper job satisfaction that are within your sphere of influence: 1) Refine your work to add parts that you like and remove those that you like. no. 2) Build better relationships with your peers. 3) Rearrange the work to add meaning and purpose.

And, in my way, less scientific, more DIY, here are exercises I’ve been practicing to get a better form of job happiness.

1) Hack your job

Start by making three lists. (Do this with a good cup of coffee or tea in a quiet place, during work hours, even if you are in your own living room.) A list includes all the things you currently enjoy about your job, big or small. The second lists all the hassles and headaches of your job, from small to systemic.

And the third one lists things you’d like to do at your job that you don’t currently do, even if they have nothing to do with what you get paid. If you want, you can add “take more coffee breaks to brainstorm solo.”

Now, it’s time to systematically attack the items on the second second lists. Go for a few easy wins first. Some things you can start adding and subtracting today; others may take months. Some may require the purchase of your boss (who, hopefully, will be able to increase your happiness in the workplace), but many will not. Some changes will be directly related to your work, while others will just be ways to increase happiness or reduce stress.

Everything is progress.

Over time, your lists will grow and, as you create the items, they will shrink. But make sure that when you remove an item from the second list (things you don’t like) and from the third (what you want to add), write the change to the first list (things you like about your work). Each new item on this first list is another step in job happiness, and it’s good to look at it from time to time and see how far you’ve come.

2) Enjoy the neighbors at work

Not much can be done to change the cast of characters you work with. But you can improve each of these relationships.

Learn more about what others want and help them achieve it, even if you’re not their own boss. Make meetings more fun or engaging. Help reduce the length, mandatory attendance, and frequency of these meetings. Try to insert humor throughout the day.

Just getting to know your colleagues better, which is no harder than asking them questions, deepens your connection with them. The more connected you are, the more you look forward to working with them every day. And if you want to interact with your co-workers, you’ll enjoy your job a lot more. You may not like what you do, but at least Michael, Jamie, Collin, Fiona and Saeed will be there.

The added benefit of this second effort is that it also increases happiness for your colleagues, perhaps helping them tilt their ladder to the “satisfactory” side and beyond.

3) Create a new job title in your head

But what they found was that a significant factor among those who reported that they liked their job was how they reformulated it cognitively. The work was the same for everyone, but while some thought it consisted of uncreative tasks, those who enjoyed the work thought it played a critical role in healing patients. A hospital worker considered himself an “ambassador.”

And it’s not just thinking differently, because that has a limited effect when nothing else changes. Thinking differently also altered the way they performed the work.

“It’s more than just a change of mindset,” Wrzesniewski explained to me. “It is a change in your behavior approach to their work. If you think “I’m an ambassador in the hospital,” change what you do. ”

For example, you may be cleaning bed beds, but if you think of yourself as a caregiver, you may be looking at what’s in the bucket to find signs of health issues that alert a nurse. “Don’t think,‘ I can’t do this, ’’ Wrzesniewski said. “This is where the action really comes in.”

Changing the paradigm around his work and adding meaning and purpose, the hospital staff made the hardest parts of their job tolerable, even important, and changed their behavior to support that purpose.

Can you do it with your work?

Think about the role you play in a broader framework that has a positive effect on others, culture, or the environment. You can enter data in a cubicle, but what is the data for? And, how vital is your commitment to accuracy and detail to the effectiveness of this data? You may be doing memory tasks in a factory, but are you helping to build something that people need or that gives joy to others?

How can your actions change when you start seeing it that way?

Beyond what you do the job, there is also a meaning and a purpose to what you do with your salaries. Providing your family, for example, is fundamentally important to their ability to thrive. It is important, especially when you are stressed, missing, or otherwise unhappy, to remember your safety and the opportunities you get from your salary. Only this can give you strength in difficult times at work.

On boarding

“Onboarding” is the term people use when they start a new business to prepare it.

Now it’s time for you to get on board with your new start. Are you ready. You are the human resource you expected.

Here’s the latest takeaway: These factors, such as improving your time, connecting with those around you, and adding meaning to your work, are just as vital to your work schedule.