Kammie over at Passion Meets Purpose recently had a link to a great blog called The Chief Happiness Officer by Alexander Kjerulf (he's got a book coming out called Happy Hour is 9 to 5 - I love the title!).
On it, I discovered a draft version of his Happy at Work Manifesto, "a declaration of principles and intentions for those of us who have decided, that we want to be happy at work." It gets a little long and maybe over-detailed, but it has some great points. Here are three of my favorites:
3: My happiness at work is my responsibility
4: Knowing what makes me happy or unhappy at work is my responsibility
5: Letting others know what makes me happy or unhappy at work is my responsibility
Taken together, these three are HUGE. Your happiness, your delight in your work, your feeling of fulfillment in what you do, are 100% your responsibility. There is no happy-fairy who's going to float down and shower you with magic happy dust (yeah, I know - that was a tough one for me to swallow too...sorry to burst your bubble).
If you don't a) figure out what makes you happy and b) put it out there so others can help you get there, your chances of finding it are slim.
At the heart of the system I developed to help people find passion in their career is an internal compass I call the Passion Core. In a nutshell, it consists of the underlying characteristics of what lights you up.
Identifying your Passion Core (i.e., knowing what makes you happy) is beneficial because it helps you focus your efforts in a direction that leaves you feeling energized and engaged. It's also valuable as a tool to help your boss know how to get the most out of you (if you love what you're doing, you'll likely to it better and have more energy to put into it. Everybody wins.).
Comments