Happiness at Work

You’ll likely spend about 15 years’ worth of your lifetime at work, which means in real hours, many of us will spend more time with colleagues than with friends and family. The type of emotional energy you give and get during that time has an enormous impact on your quality of life, relationships, creativity, productivity, health and overall sense of well-being.

There’s a wealth of research about ways we can impact our happiness at work and in life.

Because as human beings we naturally move in the direction of the stories we most persistently tell ourselves, lessons from Positive Psychology suggest that the best way to move toward more happiness and well-being is to ensure your inner dialogue is working for you, not against you. That it’s firing off a cocktail of chemistry that keeps your span of focus open wide, not myopic and cut off.

Remember Barbara Fredrickson’s positivity ratio of 3:1. For every one heartwrenching negative emotion, you need to experience at least three heartfelt positive emotions. What stories are you telling yourself about what happens to you and why? Are there opportunities to reframe your daily experiences to see chances for growth, rather than defeat? To identify areas you can affect, while letting go of those over which you have little or no control?