Quick Tip No 24: How to Not Hate Your Job

gotpurposeIt is alarming when according to the frequently cited Gallup’s State of the American Workplace: 2010-2012 report 50% of all full time employees are not engaged at work and 20% (that is ~20 million people!) are even actively disengaged at work. As the study writes, these “are emotionally disconnected from their workplaces and less likely to be productive.”

Frustration often creeps into the work we are currently doing, be it in a job, as entrepreneur or elsewhere. Of course there is a multitude of reasons for why we can become disconnected with the work we are doing. For example micromanaging superiors, unpleasant clients, lack of incentives for good work, nasty colleagues, brutal competition, tedious routine, having no decision power, getting lost in micro-tasks, etc.
These all limit our motivation and can lead to a lack of confidence in the work we do and our future if we keep at it.

Even if we love our jobs there are still these phases when everything we do seems pointless. When we feel whatever we do has no purpose or impact. Those are the moments when we can easily become disconnected with our work.

We often hear how we have to follow our passion and do what we love. The problem is that we may be at the ground level, being busy earning the money and just surviving day by day. There is no passion lost in these moments, the thought of unfulfilled dreams and plans only adds to the frustration. Only after crawling out of this motivational ditch we can enjoy the luxury of thinking about what lies ahead in “Passion-Country”.

So how to regain motivation? (more…)

February 17th, 2014|Tags: , |

Scientifically Proven Benefits of Being Happy

Owl200As a psychologist , if you want to be taken seriously you better not talk about happiness, you call it subjective-well-being (SWB). Well, I am not a psychologist, and I am not afraid to talk about happiness. But, I think “the pursuit of happiness” means so much more than leaving everything behind for the gold rush or just putting a smile on every morning.
Those are two extremes in which happiness seems to be perceived. People on the one end of the spectrum are only happy when they hit it big, the others see happiness as a mask that has to be put on every day, regardless of their feelings. “Just gotta be happy”…

Of course, most of us operate in the area between. We are genuinely happy about a hot cup of coffee, the first spring day, our daughter’s twentieth stick drawing of a cat or that we did not lock the keys in the car again.

And we often wonder when someone wins big in the lottery how happy they must be. We are happy for someone winning a competition or getting married; there is so much to be happy about. But what makes us happy? And what does happiness mean for our lives? (more…)

February 8th, 2014|Tags: |
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