Center for Workplace Happiness

There are a lot of examples of overcoming adversity in the world around us.

• Salmon swim upstream and leap up waterfalls – it’s their only way to keep the species going.
• Trees sway in wild storms, sometimes losing branches but remaining flexible enough to remain standing against Mother Nature’s worst.
• Airplanes take off against the wind, not with it – it’s the only way to get the lift needed to defy gravity.

Adversity happens to everyone – no one gets through life without having to overcome obstacles. When someone you care about is in a tumultuous place in their life, it might help them to hear about the salmon and the trees and the airplanes.

The salmon don’t stop at the top of the waterfall to tell all the other salmon how hard the climb was. People in painful conflict often do just that – they wallow in the difficulty instead of growing through it. Help that person you care about – maybe you – flourish instead.

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Do you have a manager who behaves badly? What if, instead of expecting them you change, you embrace their style as an opportunity for you to grow?

Radical thought, right?

First, you can’t make them change. Second, you’re part of their team, which means you report to them and they have a certain amount of control over your livelihood and advancement.

When you break it down like that, you have two main courses of action – either choose to leave the company and hope you’ll find a better manager at your next job, or use this manager grow your ability to relate to and work with all kinds of people.

When you take the second decision, you embark on a journey of personal growth and become the kind of person more companies want on their team. And who knows – your current manager may watch you cope and grow and start behaving better with you!

Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"

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Thanksgiving is nine days away, and in related news, it’s Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day. Was it started by a refrigerator company? Maybe – Whirlpool did some marketing about it in the 1990’s. When it started going mainstream, the 15^th of November is the date that was attached to it, so today it is! Perfect timing, since Thanksgiving, with its overload of leftovers screaming for space in the icebox, is only nine days away.

It’s easy to forget what’s in the fridge, so having a day that reminds you to root around in there and throw out things that might kill you is a good thing. It can also be easy to forget cleaning out other aspects of your life – aspects that seem benign and can actually be harmful to your mental as well as physical wellbeing. For example, I was recently shocked to discover that people who tailgate make me angry.

OK, so the tailgaiting thing wasn’t a discovery – what was the discovery was that the anger was...

Would you like to know how you can be a more compassionate person?

Would you be thrilled to learn that you can become more compassionate in the privacy of your own life, without having to go anywhere or learn something new and complex or even break a sweat?

And would you be chomping at the bit if I told you that the same thing that’ll make you more compassionate will also help your physical health?

OK, I’m through teasing you – dozens of scholarly research studies show a link between healthier vital signs like blood pressure and stress hormones and meditation, and now new studies show that a person becomes more compassionate when adding meditation to their daily routine.

Build 5 to 15 minutes into your morning routine for an eyes-closed, sedentary self-care session and watch your blood pressure drop and your caring heart enlarge. There are meditation apps you can put on your phone, and the Center for Workplace Happiness has a meditation podcast called the Mind Body...

Are there people who just suck the life out of you? They need more from you than you have to give, or they don’t value the time the constantly want from you?

Time to set a boundary with those people.

Because every situation is unique, every boundary is unique. Get creative on how you can only give this person the resources – and yes, your time is a resource! – that you want to give them. If they call or text you multiple times through the day, set up a quick response you can send – maybe something like “I’ll get back to you later today.” Keep it bland and impersonal and use it every time an unwanted intrusion arrives. I once worked for a man that seemed to have terrible tummy troubles - every time he was interrupted by anyone while he was busy, he proclaimed a hygiene emergency and dashed down the hall. OK, that might be a bit extreme, but hey, whatever it takes!

At first you may feel guilty, and the person may very well get mad. If they do,...

Do you feel stuck right now?

Maybe there’s something you want to do and you can’t see a way to do it? It’s easy to ruminate on the “how” instead of imagine the “why.”

When you find yourself feeling stressed out about how you’re going to accomplish something, stop. Think about why that thing needs to be done and why you are the one who should do it. Once you’ve sorted those two avenues out, if you think it still needs to be done and you are the one to do it, then imagine how you’ll feel once it’s done.

Will you be proud? Brave? Smart?

Savor the feeling and go over in your mind what is changed and improved now that the thing is done. As you imagine the accomplishment, complete with the good feelings that go with it, the way to do it may pop into your mind because you’ve opened yourself to possibilities.

There – not stuck anymore!

Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an...

Do you know your purpose in life?

We’re raised to be goal-oriented and success-oriented and driven to achieve, and yet that has nothing to do with our purpose.

Our purpose is to help and to love.

Our purpose is to smile at a stranger, carry grocery bags for someone on crutches, save a stray dog, listen deeply to a friend in pain. Our purpose is to love and to soothe and to lend a hand to someone who needs what we have to give in the moment. Our purpose isn’t one big accomplishment – it’s the hundreds of small accomplishments we hand out daily without even thinking about them or remembering we did them.

You fulfill your purpose in life in tiny ways every day. Starting today, notice all the ways you fulfill your purpose. And if you want to over-achieve, look for more tiny ways to fulfill your purpose. The good you do touches the world and changes the world in ways you'll never know. And you don't need to know...just keep on helping and loving and fulfilling...

Do you know someone who harms themselves? Maybe a friend or co-worker has an eating disorder or cuts themselves or cuts themselves down all the time.

People who do harm to themselves are in need of professional help, and you can help them get it. When your friend or co-worker expresses their problem – the anorexic skips lunch and has black coffee when you go out to lunch, or the cutter accidently flashes their scars, or the person who’s always down on themselves starts talking about how worthless they are, one phrase can sweetly get their attention: “I wish you loved yourself as much as I love you.”

If the word love feels too strong for you, substitute “cared about” instead. It won’t cure their problem, and it could open an opportunity for a direct, deep conversation. Keep it in the caring space, not the condemning space. Listen more, talk less, and  when they see that someone cares, it may make them get help.

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Are you a confident person? Just what is confidence, anyway?

Confidence is a feeling or belief that you can do something well or succeed at something, according to Merriam-Webster. Confidence tends to grow with age, because we gain more perspective about whether we can do something well and about whether it’s even ours to fix or not!

When you trust your ability to learn new things, you gain confidence. When you practice something, you gain confidence. Being confident doesn’t mean walking around with your chest stuck out, feeling better than others. Being confident means you are the quiet master of your day, no matter what it throws at you.

So, the question is, are you a confident person? If so, yay. If not, now you know the pathway to becoming more confident.

Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"
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Have you ever heard the phrase “it takes two to tango?” Well, it takes two to argue, as well.

When you find yourself having to deal with an angry client, give them plenty of time to vent. Let them pour out their irritation until they have nothing else to say. When they’re quiet, maybe even take a breath before you start to reply. Then speak in a quiet, even, as-gentle-as-you-can-manage tone of voice.

Even if they’re the biggest south end of a northbound mule, respond the way YOU want to behave, not the way they want or expect you to behave.

It takes two people to argue – when you chose not to be one of them, then an argument can’t happen.

Want more? Click here for a free audio course, "Happiness is an Inside Job"
#veterinarian #vettech #notonemorevet #petindustry #wellbeing #success #leadership #lawofattraction