How to be happier at work

It’s broadly accepted now that we do our best at work when we are happy. It sounds simple but happiness comes in many forms. It’s as individual as you are and is significantly influenced by the culture that shaped you.

Happiness is a state of wellbeing. It often gets used synonymously with feeling positive but we know there are a lot of discrete, nuanced positive emotions. For example, there’s pride, passion, interest and joy. Happiness is used as sort of a gestalt, an aggregate of where we’re at in life.

In the workplace, what makes each individual happy is different. Do you want to be peaceful and calm at work and to have stability and security? Or are you a person that needs novelty and constant curiosity? Do you need to have something that you feel good about and recognition?

Happiness is also more than identifying these motivators, for these can change at different times. So as well as the ‘what makes me happy?’ there’s a ‘when am I happy?’ question to answer. The ‘when’ is influenced by what else is going on in people’s lives. They could be really happy at work but not at home, or unhappy at home and content at work. Overall, it’s whether the positive experiences outweigh the negative feelings that will define when we are happy.

Making progress on our goals makes us happy

Research shows that happiness typically comes to those who are making progress toward or are achieving meaningful goals. We have life goals, family goals and work goals, and if we’re making progress on any of those, then we’re usually happy and if we’re not, then we’re not usually happy in that particular domain.

This can present a challenge for organisations. What usually makes goals meaningful is that they are challenging and serve a higher purpose. However, by definition, this means that such goals will be more difficult for employees to make progress on or achieve. Organisations must constantly balance enabling people to make stable progress on existing goals while challenging them with new goals in order to help provide favourable conditions for happiness at work.

Individuals must also be mindful of how they pursue happiness. Often people can get stuck pursuing happiness like they would pursue perfection. What can happen is that happiness becomes an outcome that is always on the other side of accomplishing the next goal, and therefore, happiness is rarely achieved. Because we’re always adding new goals and pushing our goals to the next level, if we wait to be happy only when we accomplish our goals, we will miss out on many moments of happiness. Thus, pursuing happiness is a noble and worthwhile cause as long as you know it’s the process of being happy that often matters more than hoping for a particular result to make you happy.

Recognising this can give you back control over your happiness. You can define what that looks like for you and enjoy the process. Enjoy the winding path and ups and downs of your journey as opposed to just allowing your outcomes to drive your happiness for you. Everyone fundamentally can be happy. Instead of seeing unhappy periods as a bad thing, see it as part of the process.