Before you start updating LinkedIn, scouring job boards, and plotting your escape plan, consider these 4 strategies to bring happiness to your current job. The greener grass may be right where you are.

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Four Secrets to Loving Your Job More
May 7, 2013
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2. Get to know better the people
who frustrate you most.
The deeper the relationship we have with someone, the more
willing we are to make sacrifices on their behalf.
Often, our frustrations are predicated on assumptions based on our own self awareness or past experiences.
“If I was acting that way it would be because I was thinking or feeling _________.” When you get closer to the
culprit you’ll find out one of two things:
1. Your assumptions were wrong or
2. You like the person enough to overlook the frustration they caused you.
Most likely you will eventually discover ways to avoid that frustration in the future without avoiding the person.
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Focus on the opportunities your
work gives you to benefit others.
Fashion legend Diana Von Furstenberg starts every day by asking
and answering this selfless question, “What can I do for someone
else that has nothing in it for me?”
Perhaps you are overworked, underpaid, and underappreciated by your boss but dwelling on those things isn’t
adding any happiness to your day. Turn your attention to the needs of a co-worker, the benefit you are
providing to your target audience, or the intersection of your strengths and the passion of your CEO. You’ll find:
1. Energy to face long hours
2. Purpose that supersedes the amount of your paycheck
3. Self-satisfaction the doesn’t depend on the opinion of anyone else
Try sending an encouraging email or nominating someone for a corporate award.
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Take time to refuel your mind and
revitalize your heart.
Unless you are a professional athlete, your physical condition is not
your most valuable contribution to your organization. The one-two
punch of passion and perspective can make you an indispensible
asset.
We take breaks to chat, breaks to eat, and pay monthly to stay in shape. What might happen if we were
similarly committed to exercising our brains through learning or energizing our hearts with inspiration?
1. More knowledge to position ourselves as thought leaders
2. More passion to innovate better ways to do our jobs
Try integrating one of those 10-min coffee breaks with a business-relevant blog post on LinkedIn. Create a
board on Pinterest to curate job-related ideas.
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The real problem is the system that
is creating the problems. Solve it.
Systems produce the exact results they were designed to produce.
If you don’t like the results you are experiencing, examine the
system, present the solution and recruit the help you need to
implement it.
Employees talk about work issues a lot. The problem is that they talk about the issues to people who can’t do
anything about them. To influence a system change, pitch ideas vertically, rather than complain about issues
laterally. When we address a problem with gossip, we haven’t moved any closer to a solution. We’ve only
reinforced our own negative feelings with a chorus of yes-men.
“Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those who matter
don't mind" - Dr. Seuss
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Or if your job really is just that bad, you could
just check out the careers page at Kidsii.com and
join a team that really lives this stuff!
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