Question: Why do you work?
Answer: For money.
Question: Is that your final answer?
Answer: Of course, yes.
Question: Are you successful?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Are you the happiest when working?
Answer: Um…..
Is it possible to be the happiest when working? Finding happiness in our work may not be something that occurs automatically, but contrary to popular opinion, you can design your work to help you achieve greater work satisfaction.
The first step is to understand the necessary components for achieving work satisfaction. There are three components to consider:
1) YOU: Satisfying work provides you with a venue to use your unique talents and your passions to address tasks that you deem challenging or interesting. You gain satisfaction in the knowledge that you achieved something that has impact or significance.
2) YOUR WORK VALUES: Great work embodies what you value about work. These values are different for each one of us – for example you may value gaining wealth, receiving recognition, becoming successful, using your creativity, providing a great service, or making a difference in the world.
3) YOUR NETWORK: To have an enjoyable work experience, you need a work environment that gives importance to values similar or close to your own. Most of us enjoy working with people with whom we share a connection. Imagine an ideal workplace that had all these components custom-designed to fit you. If such a work environment would pay a few hundred dollars less, would you still consider doing it?
Question: What was your answer to the question above – yes or no? Question: So, why do you work? Is “for the money” still your final answer?
Please visit again next week for the next installment on how to design your current work environment to be more satisfying.
