Monday was Valentine’s Day and at 10Eighty we love a celebration and are loving the idea of being able to socialise again. We like to live life to the full and as part of that we love our work.
Life is hard enough and we don’t know what tomorrow will bring so why waste time in a career that doesn’t make you happy? A research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America found that adolescents and young adults who report higher life satisfaction earn significantly higher levels of income later in life.
Shawn Achor, author of ‘The Happiness Advantage,’ says that happier employees have better levels of productivity, produce higher sales, perform better in leadership positions, and receive higher performance ratings and higher pay. They also enjoy more job security and are less likely to take sick days, quit or become burned out.
Be happy
If you do what you love you will be happier, more motivated, more productive and better equipped to do the best job possible and be the best version of yourself. Here are five of the many good reasons why happiness at work is important:
- Make good use of your time – a large portion of our days is spent at work; in fact, the average person will spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime. That has a huge impact on your quality of life, if you don’t love what you do that’s a terrible waste.
- Motivation – when you love your job, it provides the motivation to improve, to invest in yourself and your career. If you love what you do you are more likely to invest in more training, build meaningful relationships in the workplace and reach for promotion.
- Less stress – those who experience a lot of work-related stress are also prone to illness and have higher levels of incidence of the common cold, and call in sick more often.” There could be serious physical and mental health problems if you spend your day at a job that you hate.
- Your best self – as an employee, your self-image is tied into how successfully you perform your job. Tap into your talent and skills and take joy in your accomplishments.
- A sense of purpose – the positivity, excitement, challenge and connection with others make a job fulfilling job a source of pride. The more you challenge yourself to keep learning and to keep making new connections the more you achieve in terms of career growth.
Find a job you love and you will never have to work
Our Chief Executive Michael often quotes this because it has worked for him. A lot of people just stray into the jobs they can get and then work out what they don’t want before they hit pay dirt and start on meaningful career path. If you are not sure about your career path then start with three questions:
- What is the passion in your life?
- What would you pay to do?
- How would you fill your days if you were a millionaire?
Don’t settle for less than you deserve, there are ways to boost your job satisfaction. Think about what you wanted to do when you were a child, and think about your role models. We know we have to be realistic, work is still work, and we can’t all be astronauts or trapeze artistes but we can look for a role that fulfils expectations and aspirations.
Working a job you love is great; at the very least find one you don’t hate. No salary is worth the death of your morale and mental health. At 10Eighty we believe it is possible for everyone to enjoy their job, and to find meaning and fulfilment in their career.
