Are you a joyful person? That’s a trick query. You most likely are, under the correct circumstances. But maintaining a way of joy through thick and thin is a tall order for anyone.
When you’re not always ho-ho-ho-ing, you’re probably more normal than those that are. Then again, if you happen to rarely summon even the tiniest ho, that’s not great either.
The query is, how does one push up the enjoyment meter? And the tougher query: Why hassle? In any case, you won’t find your troubles melting away just by pasting a smile in your face.
Or will you? Actually, there’s a surprising variety of studies that appear to show that joy can turn out to be a learned response to the challenges we encounter.
In preparation for this column, I made a decision to check the speculation while shoveling snow. Gosh, I said to myself (kind of), it’s 2 below zero. Joy! And this crusted snow is basically stuck. Double joy! And I would like to get my automobile into this driveway pronto since the snowplows are coming. Joy joy joy!
what? It sort of worked. By the point I’d finished scraping out a spot for the automobile I used to be cracking myself up a bit. I can’t say I felt joyful while thawing out my fingers, but at the very least I wasn’t peeved. Specializing in the positive elements of being outside within the crisp air and the satisfaction of clearing the driveway kept me from being annoyed. But I needed to work at it by consciously creating positive thoughts time and again.
My extremely amateurish experiment jogged my memory of a lesson I learned from a job seeker about overcoming unpleasant job search tasks. About 15 years ago, I met a person at a chat I used to be giving on networking. Afterward, he introduced himself, and explained that he was almost pathologically afraid of this process. Things modified when he decided to overcome his fear of networking and even perhaps enjoy it. Once I met him, he’d landed a job doing the final thing he’d ever have imagined for himself: Reaching out to strangers as a sales representative. His wife was with him and confirmed that he’d literally transformed himself by learning to seek out the enjoyment in meeting strangers.
If coming to like an onerous task seems improbable, I’d accept you finding a way through it along with your humor and good spirits mostly intact. Listed below are among the profession challenges you would possibly have the ability to use this practice to.
Unemployment. It could be hard to seek out the silver lining in not having a job if you need one, but job seekers over time have told me among the blessings they’ve present in this difficult period:
• The chance to pause, revisit goals, and check out latest things, even when driven by necessity.
• The possibility for renewal when it comes to skill-building, and for meeting latest people in the method.
• Recent-found flexibility, allowing more time to be present to family and friends.
Under-employment, and gig work. Needing more hours or higher pay, working below your skill level, feeling stuck in dead-end jobs … these are hardly joyful circumstances. But there is likely to be a number of reasons for optimism:
• Not feeling tied to the job, which makes it easier to maneuver on for something higher.
• Perhaps not being overly taxed by the work, which leaves more “head space” and energy for other pursuits.
• Having nowhere to go but up, and feeling the motivation to accomplish that.
Profession dissatisfaction. Being confused about your profession direction or simply plain unhappy within the work you’re doing can take a major toll, while also casting a shadow on other areas of your life. This can be a situation where the contrast along with your current unhappiness means the potential for joy could be especially acute, including:
• The chance to dig deep to seek out latest ideas and possibilities for earning a living.
• Permission to finally let go of things that haven’t been working.
• The invention of a brand new path that provides more hope for the long run.
• The thrill of self-renewal, whatever the challenges in making it occur.
We’re coming up on a brand new 12 months, and the symbolic probability to begin fresh. When you’ve been scuffling with your profession or job search, remember there’s all the time a brand new day and a brand new opportunity, even if you happen to can’t see it for the time being.
I’m wishing joy to you and yours this holiday season. Thanks for the enjoyment you give to me by being a part of my reader community.
Amy Lindgren owns a profession consulting firm in St. Paul. She could be reached at alindgren@prototypecareerservice.com.