Ten simple ways to find joy in your work

Friday, 04.08.2017 When we motivate ourselves, we act according to the principle: "I'm going to do this now, even though I don't feel like it at the moment!" Usually, reason is the driving force behind our motivational efforts. We persuade ourselves to do things that we don't really feel inclined to do but consider necessary for some reason. Self-motivation is fundamentally an indispensable skill - but at the same time, it is very exhausting and fraught with various problems. Therefore, self-motivation should never be the basis for daily work. Instead, I rely on joy in work. Joy in work means: "I enjoy what I do." This has a completely different quality than self-motivation. Joy is quality of life for the moment, and in reality, we only have the moment. Joy in work is also possible even when the conditions are far from optimal. Like any happiness, joy in work always has the quality of "nonetheless." I know many ways to enjoy work, even though there might be reasons to complain. One of the many ways to find joy in work is to be present while working. We usually tend to let our thoughts wander away from the here and now. For example, many people think about the end of the workday while working. Or we formulate our response in our minds while the other person is still speaking. While working on a task, our thoughts are already on the next one... This often continues throughout the whole day, and it does not do us any good! We cannot truly feel alive if our attention is constantly wandering. The past is over, the future is uncertain. All we have is this moment. We should use it and savor it. For example, what if we were fully present in every conversation at the workplace?

1. We would be fully alert and could actually absorb what the other person is saying. The conversation would be much more effective. We would never talk past each other and could reach results more quickly.
2. We could gain a deeper understanding of the individuals and connections. This would enable more effective action.
3. The other person would feel acknowledged. Highest attention and presence are always a big deposit in the relationship account. This way, we gain the sympathy, appreciation, and trust of the other person - even if we may not agree on the matter.
4. Presence could make the workday more exciting. Because our attention would be constantly engaged. We would make many interesting observations that would otherwise escape us. At the end of the workday, we would be surprised that it's already time to go home.

Vitality and effectiveness are the rewards for presence. This is how work becomes joyful - a real alternative to self-motivation. Ten simple ways to find joy in work When we experience something terrible, our defense mechanisms ensure that we will soon feel better. However, it is different with the daily small annoyances. They slip under the radar of our psychological defenses. Therefore, the everyday small frustrations and burdens can often affect us more than a single major misfortune. In this way, our joy in work is sometimes significantly diminished by trivial adversities. Small things have the power to spoil our mood and take away the fun of work. An inappropriate remark from a supervisor, an unreliable colleague, computer problems, an unexpected rescheduling - actually just typical everyday inconveniences, but certainly nothing dramatic. However, the more we dwell on them, the more significant they become. They gain a large representation in our thoughts and feelings. Only a good dose of sovereignty can help here. Being sovereign means standing above things. In this state, we are not easily upset, keep a cool head, and allow ourselves to form an independent judgment. We determine our behavior ourselves, instead of letting others determine it for us. Sovereignty is actually very simple. I have a very simple formula for it: Sovereignty = Freedom of choice Whenever we take offense at something in our job, we should pause and think. It is important to find as many alternative courses of action as possible. The more ideas we have, the better. Then we choose the alternative that we like best. And try it out. If it doesn't work, we still have other options available. In any case, we are the ones who set impulses for our environment with the carefully chosen response. We determine the course of events instead of being carried away by thoughtless reactions. As sovereignty increases, anger and frustration decrease. It may not work perfectly overnight, but it is a reliable and rewarding way to enable more joy in work. Ten simple ways to find joy in work Work shapes. The brain and character. That's why there are so many jokes about teachers and psychologists. That's why you might not necessarily want to sit next to an auditor at an event all the time. John Ruskin expressed it wonderfully: "It is not what he earns with his work that is the true reward of man, but what he becomes through it." And we should be very careful about what our work makes of us. Many professions require very specific behaviors. The more often and more naturally we carry them out, the more likely we are to become what we do. Because the brain changes depending on what we do with it. No one as a child plans: "When I grow up, I will become a petty pedant, a perpetual know-it-all, a constant complainer, pessimist, etc." If we are not careful, we may still find after a few years qualities in ourselves that we never wanted to cultivate, that we may even reject. It follows that we should act very consciously in everything, that we must remain vigilant. While we cannot determine what happens around us, we can always decide how we want to react to a given situation. Therefore, an indispensable path to joy in work is never to be thoughtlessly shaped. We can always choose our behavior, and every choice demonstrates and strengthens our character. So, it would be good to ask ourselves more often: "What would the person I want to be do now?" And that's exactly how we should act. If we manage to do that, we can be proud of ourselves. We will feel good - even if things around us may not seem right in our eyes. But we act according to our own standards, and thus our self-respect remains intact. You can't ask for more. Ten simple ways to find joy in work Being controlled by others is an experience that is hostile to happiness, which many of us have to endure from time to time. It is in our nature to want to co-determine and shape our work. It is important to us to put our own stamp on things. Therefore, we find it unsatisfying when we are predominantly occupied with fulfilling requirements. This takes away much of the appeal of work. Then we are forced to motivate ourselves to remain capable of working. But self-motivation is certainly not a suitable basis for work life. Instead, we should be able to find joy in what we do. In fact, this is possible even with a high degree of external control. Because there are always spaces that we can discover and shape according to our own discretion. We just have to develop an eye for them. My favorite example in this context is a true story that took place in the Midwest of the USA. There, a mentally challenged young man worked as a packer in a supermarket. He spent the whole day packing customers' purchases into bags. One day, the store management sent the entire staff to a workshop focusing on how each individual employee could increase customer satisfaction in a very individual way. The young man remembered that he loved tear-off calendars with wise sayings. He duplicated some of his favorite quotes and from then on, he placed one of these quotes on the packed purchases for each customer. It soon became apparent that the longest queues formed at the checkout of this young man. It is beneficial for us to bring our own values and preferences into our work. This way, we experience deep satisfaction and can be proud of our contribution. And as the example shows, even the preference for tear-off calendars can be used to increase one's own joy in work. The necessary spaces for this can be found everywhere. We just have to develop an eye for them... For more information: Visit the profile of Top100 Trainer Marion Lemper-Pyschlau: https://www.trainers-excellence.de/redner/marion-lemper-pychlau.html Articles on the topic: http://www.wiwo.de/erfolg/coach/glueck/arbeitsfreude-welche-berufe-gluecklich-machen/7425254.html You might also be interested in: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/se/blog/freude-bei-der-arbeit