3 Questions To Ask Yourself Daily To
Feel More Satisfied At Work
Forward thinking is great--but it
also makes you lose sight of progress. Use this exercise to shift some focus to
your accomplishments.
Caroline Ghosn has trouble acknowledging her successes. The
Levo
League
founder and CEO certainly has a lot to be proud of, but like so many hard-working,
forward-thinking startup leaders, she focuses on the future, rather than her
past accomplishments.
About
two months ago, she realized that she wasn't very happy, even though she had
every reason to feel fulfilled by her career. "I don't know why I'm not
sleeping well," she said to career coach MJ Ryan. "I don't know why
I'm not feeling 100% happy with every moment of this experience." Ghosn,
who runs a mentorship and networking organization, isn't alone in her feelings.
A Levo League survey found that 47% of the service's users are not satisfied
with their careers on a day-to-day basis.
With
the help of Ryan, Ghosn diagnosed the problem. "The busier you get and the
more forward-looking you become, the more difficult it is to actually
acknowledge and gain strength and inspiration from the things you've already
accomplished, which can become problematic when you're in a startup," she
told Fast Company. "You can lose sight of progress."
The
goal to a happier work life, then, is to find a way to recognize past
successes, which for Ghosn is as simple as asking the following three questions
every single work day:
1.
What
am I thankful for today?
This does not have to be work related, just
anything at all.
2.
What
did I enjoy today?
"Keeping a pulse of what energizes you
is really important," says Ghosn.
3.
What
am I satisfied with today?
"This question is particularly important
if you're one of those people who is seeking excellence and always trying to
progress along a path," Ghosn explains. "The shadow side of that is
that you might never feel like you're in the place you want to be."
These
questions effectively create what Ghosn calls a "to-done" list.
Instead of crossing off tasks, you're tallying accomplishments. Not only do all
of those little dopamine hits start to add up, but over time you will get a
sense of the types of things that energize and inspire.
This
practice relies, in part, on the cult of mindfulness--the business buzzword of
the moment that suggests dedicating time to meditative practices will boost
productivity and creativity. By taking the time to reflect on her life, she
recognizes her achievements, and in theory, that leads her to produce better
work.
"I
really believe that cultivating creativity as general principle is about
managing your energy," she explained. "And if cultivating creativity
is about managing your energy, then managing your energy is about exercises
like these that are about achieving mindfulness."
So
far, she says she feels happier, more satisfied, and fulfilled. "My team
will tell me I'm more comfortable in my skin, a little less hard on myself--just
a lot more comfortable with the fact that we're moving in the direction that I
feel we should be moving in." And she believes that all of that has led
her to greater, and better, output.
She
credits the success of her mantra with her dedication to the questions.
"The strength from the exercise comes from the ability to form a habit
around it and repeatedly execute it day-to-day," she explained. It forces
her to focus on everyday accomplishments, instead of over-representing
failures, which so many of us do.
By Rebecca Greenfield
http://www.fastcompany.com/3032444/agendas/3-questions-to-ask-yourself-daily-to-feel-more-satisfied-at-work?partner=newsletter
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