Finding Happiness At Work

In this podcast we explore how we can find happiness at work and find a balance between all the responsibilities we are juggling in our lives. This podcast equips us with motivation and the tools that can help us perform to the best of our ability in the workplace, while retaining an optimistic mindset.

Transcript

Welcome to the Happiness Podcast.

I'm Dr.

Robert Puff.

Many of us listening to this podcast have a family to support or we're preparing to support a family someday.

And that means that we have to be good at what we do because if we're not,

Things can fall apart and there can be problems.

But if we're listening to this podcast,

Then we're also interested in finding happiness.

So the big question today is,

How do we do both?

That is,

Find happiness and still do well at whatever we're doing because it's important.

I'm doing today's podcast in part because of an email I recently received from one of our listeners named and who's a hospice nurse.

She writes,

Dr.

Puff,

I've been listening to your podcast for some time and do everything in the power I think I possess to implement the ideas you talk about.

Except I'm a very control oriented and career driven individual that has trouble even knowing where to begin.

I get so excited that I can identify with nearly everything you talk about,

Except it stops there.

And you think being in the business of death would make it easier because I see it every day,

But it doesn't.

It's a career and that changes the game and idea of how to approach the game.

Please help me focus on your message and understand how to implement the ideas you have that I so value.

Thank you,

Anne.

I think a lot of listeners may relate to Anne because we have things we need to do that are important.

We may be raising children right now.

We may be the financial supporter of our family.

We may be going to school,

But preparing for our future,

Or we may be running or even own a company that affects a lot of people and their livelihood.

So how do we balance happiness with the things we need to do in life in order to survive and get by?

I mean,

Most of us probably can't give everything up,

Go live in the woods and just find happiness by ourselves.

We're entangled.

We're involved with other people's lives.

And these circumstances,

These things that we do matter.

If we do it well,

It's going to have an impact.

If we don't do it well,

It's going to have an impact.

So how do we find balance between finding happiness with all the responsibilities that life gives us?

I think why finding happiness and doing a good job at our work is hard for many people is that it's not a simple answer.

I mean,

You really can't just not work,

Most of us at least.

And if we don't do a good job,

There can be consequences,

Quite serious ones.

We may lose our job.

We may make less money.

Our level of work may impact the people that are working with us and their lives.

But I'm going to try to touch on some of the key factors that really can bring happiness in our lives,

Even with the work that we want to do,

Need to do,

And still doing it well.

And the first thing is we have to decide that it's very important for us to be happy.

We want to be happy.

This is our goal.

So we spend a lot of time working.

So the thing we can ask ourselves is,

Is there things that I can do at work to make my work more enjoyable,

More pleasant?

I've talked about this a lot over the years.

And I actually think as long as we're working,

As long as we're doing things that impact other people's lives,

We need to decide how can we do it better?

Not better in the sense that we're making more money or people are proud of us,

But better in the sense that we're enjoying what we're doing and really having a good time.

Part of being happy is just enjoying life,

Being playful with life.

So if we're in a job right now that we really don't like,

We can't change it overnight.

That's not going to happen.

But could we every day come up with things that do to just make it a little bit better?

I mean,

I like the one of just taking our lunches,

Connecting with people,

Bringing things to work that put a smile on our face,

Like pictures or photos or music.

There's so many little things that we can do that can slowly begin to make our work better.

And that needs to be something we remind ourselves every day.

What we tend to do is focus on what other people are thinking about us.

We think about our yearly evaluation.

We think about our raises.

We think about what our boss thinks of us and our colleagues.

We don't want to not think about them.

But mostly what we want to think about is how do I do a good job and enjoy doing a good job?

How do I have fun at what I'm doing and not just doing it to pay the bills?

So yes,

We're going to have career goals,

But we also want to really have at our core happiness goals,

Happiness goals so that we enjoy what we're doing.

That needs to be the focus.

And the good news is what I've found after 30 years of working with employees is that when we enjoy what we do,

We do it a lot better.

That's really how it's tied together.

We can stay at the company longer.

We can keep doing what we're doing better if we're enjoying ourselves.

If we get burnt out,

If we're tired,

If we're just doing it for the sake of doing a good job,

But not for the sake of enjoying what we're doing,

We're going to get exhausted sometimes.

And we're just going to think about quitting or we're going to go to work with a lot of tension in our bodies.

I think what we'll find is if our focus is on yes,

Doing a good job,

But mostly enjoying what we're doing while we're doing a good job,

Then we're going to find that life goes better,

A lot better.

And we begin to come to work with a smile on our face or whatever we're doing to support ourselves and others.

There's a lot more joy,

A lot more spring in our step.

And we're just not looking for some day for it to end.

We're not regretting Mondays.

We're saying,

Oh,

It's Monday.

I wonder what today will bring.

Our minds are so powerful.

I always remember when I was in college,

I went for a very long time,

14 straight years.

So every time I graduated from one degree to the next,

Most of my colleagues were very excited to be done.

They couldn't wait to graduate and go off to the next adventure.

I knew I wasn't done.

I was going to go on and on and on.

So when they were so excited,

I thought,

No,

It's good.

I'm glad they're excited,

But I like school.

I balanced it.

I really tried to avoid cramming for finals,

Which I never did.

I exercised throughout all my college years.

I spent time in nature.

I did a lot of things to make sure that at the end I wasn't burnt out.

And I really wasn't.

And so the key of it is enjoying it along the way.

And instead of focusing it on someday,

I can't wait till this is over and saying,

You know,

If this were to last 100 years,

That'd be okay.

If we can answer that question truly that way,

We're going to find a lot more joy with what we do.

Now I know this result is not easy to get to,

But we really are goal-oriented type people.

And if we make that our goal to be happy with what we're doing and doing it well,

I think we'll find that the focus on being happy will start start creating in us things that do make our work,

Whatever we're doing,

Far more enjoyable.

There's a parable I once heard.

I don't remember where I heard it from,

But it was a good message.

It went something like this.

I dreamt before I was born that life was joy.

When I woke up and was born,

I discovered that life was work.

But then I discovered that work could be joy.

So here's what we can do if we're struggling with work.

Instead of saying,

It's the work's fault.

That's why I'm unhappy.

I just cannot do this work because there are just things about this job that are too hard.

I just can't back off from doing my best.

And it causes me to be unhappy.

So if we realize that we're kind of the reason why we're struggling,

Then the good news is if we just change our hearts and the way we're looking at things,

We can begin to soften and find joy in our work,

Or at least not have it at first be so burdensome.

I mean,

Think about a bell arena or an emergency room physician.

In both these careers,

They have to be really good at what they do.

And if they make a mistake,

It's fairly obvious with consequences.

And yet they can do it fairly flawlessly.

And they do that with often without a lot of stress,

They're actually enjoying what they're doing.

And they can be quite good at it.

So we can move in that direction.

If we're struggling with our work,

Because we want to do better.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to do better.

I think that's a great goal.

I think it's good to do as best as we can at work.

But the key is,

Can we enjoy it along the way?

And might we find that that pleasure in doing it like a ballerina who he or she really loves the dance,

Does even a better job?

They often do.

Happiness doesn't have to be a hindrance to doing a good work.

Happiness can actually be something that adds to our work.

If you've heard about the concept of being in the zone,

Being in the zone whether it's sports or at work,

It's about quieting the mind and just doing the work for the sake of the work.

Not thinking about winning or losing,

Not thinking about evaluations or promotions,

But really just doing it for the joy of doing it.

So if today we are struggling with our careers,

If things aren't going the way that we like,

For whatever reason we're controlling,

We have negativity in our lives,

Realize that ultimately the person that's going to keep us from being happy or unhappy is ourselves.

So that is our focus.

It's not so much on the career,

It's on our hearts and our minds.

What are we doing mentally that is causing us to suffer?

Are we focused too much on what other people think?

Are we perfectionistic,

Which is really a path of suffering?

Whatever it may be,

We discover what that is and then we work towards changing it because our goal is to be happy.

We want to enjoy our lives and find peace and pleasure all along the way each and every day.

That's in our hands and when we discover that that isn't happening,

We are like little scientists saying,

Okay,

Why am I not happy right now?

And the next question is,

What am I doing?

What am I thinking that is causing this unhappiness?

We have a tendency to look external.

I mean,

It may be external,

But really at the core when we're struggling,

It doesn't have much to do with what we're struggling with.

It has to do with what we are doing with that which we are struggling.

That's kind of a mouthful,

But what it means is one person can be at a job and find great pleasure doing exactly what we're doing because of the way they're looking at it and someone else can be at that exact same job and be miserable.

We all know this is true.

We've seen this throughout our lives.

The key of it is how are we looking at it?

So,

As always,

We don't judge ourselves,

But we say,

Okay,

If I'm struggling right now at work,

If I'm not as happy as I want to be,

What can I begin to soften inside of me and begin to change?

Can I perhaps see my boss in a different light?

Can I perhaps see the work that I do,

Though it's monotonous or it's hard,

Whatever that may be,

That there's also a lot of pleasure,

A lot of joy,

A lot of things that I'm glad I'm doing.

And even if it's boring,

Or even if it's just monotonous,

We say,

Well,

I'm thankful that I have this job so that I can go home and take care of my family and do the things that I do when I'm not at work.

And I'm also going to work on finding pleasure when I'm here,

Perhaps making sure that I really connect with the people here and just doing things throughout the day that put a smile in my heart.

So,

The really good news here is that we are in control of our happiness.

No one can make us unhappy unless we let them.

And if we're letting them,

Then let's begin to work towards not doing that so much and work towards having better days,

Having better lives.

It's clearly a learned skill,

But that's why we're here.

That's why we're listening to the Happiness Podcast,

To improve our lives.

I do think through almost now 270 episodes,

There are a lot of things that we can do to make our lives better.

As we implement them,

We're going to find improvements.

Sometimes they're small,

Sometimes they're big,

But they add up to each and every day a better life.

And we're just going to keep getting better and better and better because the control of our happiness is in our hands.

And as long as we commit,

As long as we make that our goal,

Not only will we find happiness and peace in our lives,

I deeply believe we're going to help others with our joy in their lives.

Because who wouldn't want to be around a happy,

Joyful person?

We all would.

So let's be that person.

Even if everyone around us is negative,

Let's make that our goal.

Wouldn't we be such a better employee or an owner of a company or for a CEO if we were someone who had joy and happiness in their heart?

I mean,

Wouldn't you rather work for someone like that or be around someone like that?

We all would.

So let's work towards being that person.

That's the one thing we can control and we can change it.

We just have to make changes.

It's that simple.

It's hard because we have a lot of habits in place,

Strong ones,

And it takes time.

But if we're patient and if we're kind with ourselves,

We will find with time each and every day,

Till the day we die,

We're going to get better and better at this.

So we're going to look in that mirror and say,

Wow,

This is a good moment.

This is a good life.

I like this.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining me on the Happiness Podcast.

Besides creating this podcast,

There are a variety of other things that I do.

If you'd like to keep abreast of these activities and perhaps someday we may be able to meet in person,

Just go to www.

Happinesspodcast.

Org.

That's happinesspodcast.

Org.

You can subscribe to my newsletter and if you do,

You'll be emailed a free PDF copy of my meditation book called Reflections on Meditation.

Until next time,

Accept what is,

Love what is.

Reviews

Very helpful
Feeling hopeful
Thank you

Great 💯

I do like this sentence: we are responsible for our happiness, no-one else or nothing will do it for us. Thanks you for this podcast. That was a great remember.
Namasté

This was great. Simple but effective. I’m starting a new job on Wednesday after a year off travelling the world. I had the dread...oh well, at least I have the weekends! But you’ve reminded me I can’t live like that. I’ll work hard to be excited for my first day, for every day and enjoy my life even on work days. Thank you.

Thank you. This is a very interesting subject!

Another outstanding podcast with good advice that anyone can implement into their daily life. I, also, try to practice a lot of your advice & try to make it part of who I want to be as a person. It isn't easy to not become caught up in old habits. Love your podcasts.💕

Great podcast! I’ve been recently looking a lot about this topic!

Thanks, this is worth practicing ❤️

I’m so grateful to have listened to this Podcast!!
I’m 72 years old hair stylist and working 30/35 hours a week married for 52 years at the same time custodian of a 17 year old and a3 year old .... this Podcast will be the best tool for our teenage daughter she is getting ready to go to college!!! This coming year! You are an blessing a entity for the good in this would !!!!🎁😍🙏🙏

Thank you Dr. Puff