You have certainly heard and read the inspiring quote from Mark Twain: “Find a job you enjoy doing, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” I have to admit that for the longest time I was puzzled by this advice. And based on the discussions that happened with my peers over my 20 year career, I was apparently not the only one at a loss when it comes to the challenging reality of enjoying one’s work.
😀 6 Ways to Find More Joy at Work 💻
It is true that Mark Twain never worked in a large organization, nor was he an entrepreneur. I have been, and have worked with many formidable individuals on both sides of the fence and I have to say that most of us are not really looking at our jobs as something we necessarily enjoy doing day in day out. So, notwithstanding Mark’s thoughtful advice, for most of us work does certainly feel like work!
Business executives wish to have more agency, excitement, and build something for themselves. Entrepreneurs dream of certainty, support and time off. But overall, when it comes to work, we are all after the same few things; fun, money and impact.
So what if we could all find more joy at work with a few simple tweaks?
😀 Reframing Your Perspective
The first thing to find more joy at work is to realize that work, such as anything else, is a sum of moments. The blanket statement of work being “a grind” is highly likely inaccurate. Maybe the 100 emails a day are draining your energy, but the thoughtful chat with your colleague is not.
It is in good taste to be negative, I am from France, trust me I know all there is about that. It might indeed seem fancy to be critical and jaded, however the most important question is “How is that attitude working out for you?” I bet, not very well. It is difficult to feel enthusiastic and motivated when “everything is shit”.
Understanding that work is not just one big monolithic situation, but a combination of hundreds of interactions, activities, places and people is helpful in having a more nuanced, realistic, and hopefully positive assessment of what your work means to you.
Bringing your attention on the things you like versus the ones you don’t is a great first step to find more joy at work. I know, it doesn’t make for super exciting chats to discuss how much you enjoy your new colleague or your new investor. It is so much more fun to ditch about the latest reorg, or board meeting, however once again “How is that attitude working out for you?”
😀 Changing Your Lexicon
Just thinking about the word “grind”, your energy level is probably going down and you might even be feeling defeated. Grind is hard work; it also has this particular texture of hopelessness and helplessness. Maybe you are already thinking about the traffic to and from the office, the endless meetings to attend, the emails to write, the powerpoint presentations to review…
On the other end, the word “hustle” probably exhausts and stresses you just saying it. The texture of “hustle” is filled with anger, competition and greed. You might be envisioning long hours, fundraising, pitching clients, networking events, managing cash flow crunch, preparing for board meetings,…
Whether you are an executive or a entrepreneur, you are likely to use these terms. Beware, there is power in the words you use. Your unconscious, this wonderful little tool when used mindfully, is not only listening to everything you are saying, it is also making sure that your reality delivers on your expectations. It will do everything in its power to satisfy you. “You want grind?! Your wish is my command! Let me bring you grind ;-)” “More hustle? Here it comes”. Not only will your subconscious direct your attention towards any situations that support your expectations, may they be “grind”, “hustle”, but also “interesting” or “valuable” - your mind doesn’t discriminate. But it will also make sure that your physiology is aligned with the images related to the words you use. Hence the feelings of stress, but also the high blood pressure and aggressive body language associated with a word such as “hustle”.
The second action to find more joy at work is then to upgrade your vocabulary. Start with the big rocks, the overarching concepts that implies that everything and everyone at work is bad all the time. Banishing words such as “grind” and “hustle” is a great next step.
I speak on “How to Find More Joy at Work.”
Contact me to discuss speaking engagements for your company, team and clients.
😀 Right-sizing Your Expectations
No, the goal of right-sizing your work expectations doesn’t mean settling for average; I am the first one to admit that some organizations are psychopaths and that employees should push back. However there is a gap, quite large actually, between accepting to be bullied and expecting the unattainable (aka perfection) from one’s job.
As an employee, I fell into the trap of unrealistic expectations over and over which definitely shortened my corporate career and also made it so much more unpleasant. From my perspective, I was giving it all to my job, so shouldn’t I expect all my expectations to be fulfilled? The answer is a resounding NO!
If you make the parallel with being in a relationship, it seems quite obvious to anyone who has been in that situation for quite some time, that no, your spouse will not be perfect, nor fulfill all your expectations. And you won’t either. This doesn’t mean your partner is settling with you, nor you with them. It just means that everyone is human. It is the same for work. Whether you are a founder, a CEO, an executive, a solopreneur, an employee and everything in between, work will never check all the boxes.
It is impossible to be at the same time surrounded by great, fun, competent people and never be passed for a promotion. Nor is it to be intellectually challenged, in charge of large projects, and work 40 hours/ week. Working in a large corporation with great internal communication? This is just not happening. There is just too much complexity to deal with.
The question to ask yourself is; what is important for you? Not everything matters, and if it does, you have a problem. Focus on the top 3-5 things that are really significant to you and ditch the rest.
😀 Assessing Your Situation
Sometimes, (often?) we have the wrong perception of what our work situation really is, usually in the wrong direction, courtesy of our negatively-biased brain.
Taking a step back to evaluate the true-true is a worthwhile use of your time.
In 😁 How to have an amazing year 🙌, I showed a nice little tool I developed for myself to find more joy in life. It is a mapping of the activities, people, places you encounter and how they make you feel. Develop one specifically for your work. You can map every regular situations that happen at work. This will give you a good indication of where you have joy and energy leakage, and where you gain joy and energy.
It is helpful to cement once again that NOT EVERYTHING is TERRIBLE at WORK ALL THE TIME, but it is also a great tool to get these little grey cells of yours work on solutions to increase the energy accretive situations and decrease the energy draining situations. Sometimes we tend to forget that we have quite a bit of agency at work and fall into complacency. Even if you only change a couple of things the impact can be significant and you are moving towards finding more joy at work!
😀 Letting go of Your Irritants and Stressors
Irritation and stress are our unique answers to specific situations. You might be irritated by people showing up late at meetings, while I might get stressed by too many emails in my inbox. Not everyone react the same way to the same situation, which makes it impossible for you to control your environment, insure people follow YOUR rules and that nothing irritating and stressing for you will ever happen.
Coming to terms with the fact that this is the reality you are dealing with, will allow you to be more serene - accepting things that you cannot change, the courage to change the things you can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Bottom line, stressful and annoying situations (and people) are a fact of life and like everyone else you will have to learn to deal with it.
So what can you do about the stress and irritation that will inevitably appear in your life at work? Bury it deep down? Hmm… Explode? Hmm… Release? YES!!
I mentioned tapping multiple times in past editions. I have yet to find a better tool to release the “unpleasant” feelings that pop up when a situation is not aligned with internal expectations.
You can tap right as you feel the anger, frustration, stress, come up. If your are in a public space you can discreetly tap on your fingers (meridian points there too). You can also always tap when you are quietly in the comfort of your own home 😀
Instead of letting negative emotions related to work build up, by tapping you will release them and be able to keep a more level-headed perspective on your situation at work.
😀 Microdosing Your Way to More Fulfillment at Work
Performance and focus are usually the professional reasons behind microdosing psychedelics. However, I see a slew of other microdosing benefits you can gain from when it comes to finding more joy at work.
Increasing Your Mental Flexibility and Creativity
Uncovering multiple new options to find more joy in an unchanged work situation is one of the great benefit of microdosing. This will give you choices that have been there all along but that you have not been able to see. You will also feel more comfortable with introducing changes in your work life.
Calming Your Nervous System
Microdosing psilocybin is wonderful in terms of removing the edge off your nervous system. By being calmer, less reactive to outside triggers, you will feel less stress and anxiety in situations that would have challenged you in the past.
Uplifting Your Mood
Last but not list, an elevated mood will definitely support feeling more joy at work!
In a nutshell, microdosing psilocybin will bring you a better mood, less stress and the ability to see solutions to improve your life at work. What not to like?!😀
When combined with tapping, microdosing is particularly powerful to rewire your brain with the right programs. If you want to learn more about tapping, you can refer to “How to accelerate your growth”, “Release your limitations and bring your career to the next level”.
If you want to learn more about microdosing, you can refer to some of my videos; “What is microdosing?”, “Benefits of microdosing psilocybin”, “How microdosing improved my athletic performance”.
I hope the above will help you find more joy in your career and in your life. I know for sure that if I had used these tools earlier in my career I would have had a much better time in my professional life but better late than never. 😀
I speak on “How to Find More Joy at Work.”
Contact me to discuss speaking engagements for your company, team and clients.
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😎Key Takeaways:
Overall, when it comes to work, we are all after the same few things; fun, money and impact; Here are 6 ways to bring more joy at work
Reframing Your Perspective; work is a sum of moments. It is not just one big monolithic situation, but a combination of hundreds of interactions, activities, places and people. Bring your attention on what you like, versus what you don’t like;
Changing Your Lexicon; there is power in the words you use. Your subconscious direct your attention towards any situations that support your expectations. Upgrade your vocabulary and avoid words such as “grind”, “hustle”, if you want to change your experience;
I speak on “How to Find More Joy at Work.” Contact me to discuss speaking engagements for your company, team and clients.
Right-sizing Your Expectations; work will never check all the boxes. Focus on the top 3-5 things that really matters to you and ditch the rest;
Assessing Your Situation; we often have the wrong perception of what our work situation really is. You can map every regular situations that happen at work in terms of joy and energy leakage or gain. Then make changes to increase the energy accretive situations and decrease the energy draining situations;
Letting go of Your Irritants and Stressors; Irritation and stress are our unique answers to specific situations. It is impossible for you to control your environment. Tapping is a fantastic tool to let go of the feelings of frustration, anger and stress that will inevitably pop up at work;
Microdosing Your Way to More Fulfillment at Work; by Increasing Your Mental Flexibility and Creativity, Calming Your Nervous System, and Uplifting Your Mood.