8 happiness myths we need to leave behind

Let’s discover the 8 workplace happiness myths we need to leave behind. And how I can help you do just that!

1)      Doing more than cope with work related stress

Stress isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it helps up reach out and stretch ourselves. It’s part of who we are for a very real and useful reason. There’s a few workplace happiness myths related to stress and how we can’t be happy when under it. Yet part of a healthy, productive relationship with our work is recognising the vital role stress can play in propelling us forward.

Yet there is a catch.

Continued stress in the workplace or when it’s related to personal ambition often comes from places that aren’t that positive. It could be overload, not quite having a handle on what you are doing, other people’s attitudes and expectations, your own performance anxiety and a whole host of other influencing factors.

I want to help you identify the good stress from the bad stress and make the most out of these situations. This is a major part of what makes us miserable at work, hampers our productivity and influences almost all of the other problems hacking happiness aims to solve.

2)      Learning to say no

 

We’re all guilty of not being able to say no to a boss, an offer of work- heck even a social engagement we really aren’t that keen on. However learning to say no is extremely powerful.

Saying “No, I don’t get it” stops you from being out of your depth. Saying “No, I don’t want to attend that meeting” can save you wasting time when the real work is piling up.

Another one of the workplace happiness myths is that old chestnut of “say yes to it and work out how to do it later.” Talk about creating a rod for your own back!

No is a word we struggle to use, but it empowers us. And it makes us far more professional because it means we understand when we can play to our strengths.

I work with all kinds of freelancers and business owners to lose the guilt and the worry by learning how to say no without the additional qualifications or fear of reprisals. It’s about understanding that a well placed no saves time, energy and space for a better opportunity.

3)      Dealing with difficult people

Let’s not pretend for a second that everyone who has ever worked together plays nice together. Jerks are everywhere. And what is a jerk to you could be someone else’s ideal workmate.

Oh, and contrary to the lovely workplace happiness myths perpetuated to allegedly take the WTF out of bad behaviour, bullies and jerks are not unloved people who just need a quick cuddle. Some of them genuinely enjoy being that way.

But how we deal with people in the workplace or with clients to your freelance business, or the moments where a situation drives someone to act like a jerk can be managed. You can’t control their response to the situation, but you can minimise your own damage.

We can’t solve the difficulties inherent with different personalities, at least not without a lot of time as referee or on the doctor’s couch. Instead, I help you to re-frame what you think and where your focus is so that someone else’s issues don’t distract you from your own goals.

4)      Keeping an even keel

When you spend considerable portions of your working life putting your arse on the line, the highs and lows can be quite extreme. From startups and small business where failure could spell the end through to agencies where the accounts won and lost influence job availability, the pressure is on.

This is about building the framework that protects you from the extremity of your career highs and lows. Keeping you on course, giving you techniques to maintain momentum, and teaching you how to make the most out of each business situation is what I offer.

5)      Busting the worklife balance myth

One of the biggest self employment and workplace happiness myths to date has been the invention of the idea of a worklife balance. Whoever decided that there was a Chinese Wall between work and life clearly didn’t like their job. That doesn’t mean the rest of us have to fall into the same category.

If you find yourself feeling annoyed, nauseous and full of dread at the thought of another day at work, or someone has to prise you off your desk and make you stop working at the day’s end, you need hacking happiness.

We’re going to teach you why you don’t need to skip through fields or have “I was great at my job” on your tombstone to find satisfaction and fulfilment in your career.

6)      Ridding the workplace of extrovert vs introvert battles

You’ve heard it a million times before- how introverts and extroverts have different working ways. But what most people don’t tackle is how do you get an introvert and an extrovert (or mixed teams) playing to their strengths without it falling down?

Why should we choose another label that defines us to divide us? Let’s explore how you as an individual can beat the workplace happiness myths associated with Myers Briggs or introvert versus extrovert or whatever else is keeping you down.

7)      Ditching meaningless measures of success

Why do startups feel the need to measure success in funding? Why does it come down to job title and salary at networking events? Does it really matter if you have 1K Facebook followers if none of them ever buy your products? Are budget projections and billable hours helping you keep track or getting in the way of true productive work? Is this sort of thinking really solving problems in your business life?

Business success and workplace happiness myths often have their roots in extrinsic goals such as fame, money and being at the top of the ladder. But if this were the case, why are some of the most famous and financially sound so desperately unhappy?

Success is a slippery little eel and is often tied to metrics that, on closer inspection, don’t do much for your business or career. This is why I work to remove the success window dressing and help you build real, meaningful business goals. It’s about pulling away from the sugar coated metrics nobody really cares about and getting you back to thinking about the things that do matter- and matter to you.

8)      Soothing your burnout

Motivation on a hard day can be difficult to come by, but what happens when you end up down the rabbit-hole of burnout?

Thankfully, we know how to cook up the remedy.

The coaching and other services I offer are about using techniques and simple ideas without the waffler and cheerleader cultism. Our aim is to take the heat out of your stress before it boils over into burn out. Plus it’s about grabbing hold of things that work for you as opposed to a “one size fits all” approach.

So if you are suffering from the after effects of these workplace happiness myths, get in touch.