How to get more joy from your career

“Tis the season to be joyful!” But how joyful do you feel in your career? If you feel you want more joy and happiness in your job in 2023, read on for some tips.

As you come to the end of 2022 and look back over your year at work. What are your feelings about your career this year? Has it been a toil and really felt like hard work or have you had a real sense of achievement and times of joy and happiness? Enjoying the work you do has such an impact on your life, so it is worth working at.

1. Find your joy at work

The first step to finding more joy is understanding what give

s you joy in your job or career.

I often ask my clients what makes them joyful or happy at work. Many do not know. To find out, think back over your career and remember the happy times.

What was it about those times that made you feel joyful? What were you doing? Who were you with and what made it joyful? You might see patterns emerging. For example, you may have been using certain skills and abilities, such as creativity or problem-solving. Or, perhaps it was the sort of people you were working with or the team you were a part of.

Some people find joy in learning new things, trying new experiences or meeting new people. Others find joy in achieving difficult tasks or setting and meeting difficult goals. Many find joy in giving back by helping or developing others.

Researchers have found that people feel happier and more joyful when they have meaning or purpose in their work and life. Meaning and purpose do not have to be big and significant things. It can be that you are helping others at work or creating a product or service that helps others.

Once you have worked out what gives you joy at work, come up with some ideas of how you can do more of those things in your career or work, whether that is working on creative projects or helping others at work.

2. Know and use your gifts and strengths

We are all blessed with the strengths and gifts that make us who we are. People who know and use their strengths or abilities at work, tend to feel happier and more satisfied.

Abilities are what we can do easily and naturally, rather than what we can or can not do. Abilities can be found by objective psychometric testing. I use the Highlands Ability Battery to assess clients’ abilities. This is an online assessment that looks at nineteen different aspects that affect our ability to do different types of work. It also examines how we best communicate, problem-solve and make decisions as well as the best sort of environment for us to thrive.

Knowing your abilities and strengths means you can make the best career choices to plan your future career. Whether this is to achieve promotion, decide direction or change career to get more joy in your working life.

Understanding your personality and who you are can also help you to know your gifts and strengths at work. We all have preferred ways of going about our life. Whether that is preferring to work with large groups of people or working mainly alone. Or perhaps we enjoy an organised and scheduled way of working or prefer to be more flexible and adaptable in our everyday life. I use the Myers Briggs Personality Type indicator in my career change and career development programmes that helps people to understand their personality and preferences . Finding work that suits who we are can help with being happier and more joyful at work.

3. Build Relationships

Strong working relationships can be joyful. Toxic or problematic relationships can be painful and suck the joy out of anyone’s day!

The foundation of strong working relationships is trust, which is vital to great teamwork and productivity at work. When you can be vulnerable and show your weaknesses as well as your strengths, you can be your real self and others trust you.

Being positive and surrounding yourself with positive people can also affect your happiness at work. We all know how energy-zapping negativity can be! Emotions are contagious. Leave your negativity at home and don’t get involved in the negative work chat as this can be a downward spiral towards a negative and toxic culture. So many of my clients say they do not feel appreciated at work. So just saying thank you to others can make a huge difference as to how people feel.

4. Ring in the changes

To be more joyful at work, you have to make changes. these career changes can be large or small.

Do you find yourself in a cycle of negative feelings about work? Dreading the morning alarm going off and what the day ahead holds? Hating work and counting the days to the weekend or a day off? The idea of work being joyful is just laughable!

Have you tried thinking about things differently? if you stop looking for the bad in everything and focus on the good, you will find your whole view on work can change. Positive psychologist, Martin Seligman argues that humans are naturally negative to keep us safe. We have to work at being positive. He found the practice of “Three Blessings” has the impact of changing our thoughts to be more positive. This daily habit involves listing three things we are grateful for or feel blessed about. Rather than setting goals at the start of the day (we all know what happens to goals!), at the end of the day we look back and pick out these three good things. If you tie this practice in with another habit you do every day, such as brushing your teeth you will find it easier to remember to do it on a regular basis. Some of my clients do the Three Blessings with their children or partner, at dinner, for example, to train others to look on the bright side.

If you really can not get joy from your work and haven’t for a while perhaps it is time to make bigger changes. Such as making a career shift or career change. There are many ways to do this, whether moving to another organisation or doing the same thing as you always do. Or perhaps moving within the organisation to a different role. Or even moving to something else in a different environment entirely. If you want to have a career change and need help, why not contact me for a chat to see how we can work together on a career change?

Or maybe you have your eye on another role and need some interview coaching. You may need help with your interview nerves, understanding how to answer behavioural interview questions or competency interview questions or how to answer pre-recorded interview questions in a pre-recorded interview. Interview coaching will help you to build your interview skills which will lead to interview success.

5. Look after You

Being joyful means looking after yourself and being happy.

You are the most important person in your life! Many of my clients are so busy looking after everyone else that they forget this. In taking care of yourself and paying attention to what your mind and body tell you, you will understand yourself. You will know what makes you happy and joyful.

Looking after yourself means getting enough sleep and rest and exercise and doing things you love. Work is good for you as it gives you meaning and purpose and social interaction. But you also need a balance where you have enough time to look after yourself.

If you have problems managing anxiety at work, managing your work-life balance or building your confidence at work, why not contact me to discuss Well-being Coaching

Have a restful and joyful Christmas and a Happy New Year!

If you would like to find out about any of my services, please do contact me, Diana Dawson

I am Diana Dawson, Founder of Working Career. As a Professional Career Coach, Career Psychologist, Career Counsellor, Career Consultant, Executive Coach and Wellbeing at Work Coach, I work with organisations and individuals to help manage their careers.

I am an Accredited Master Coach with the Association for Coaching, a Coaching Psychologist and Cognitive Behavioural Hypnotherapist with nearly 20 years of experience in the field.

I work with professional people from different sectors and backgrounds to cope and flourish at work. I also run Career Workshops and Wellbeing Workshops for organisations.

I can provide one-to-one career coaching in Edinburgh or zoom sessions worldwide. I can provide Career Workshops at your organisation or remotely. Find out more about me here