Does Corporate Life Make You Happy?

When pressed, I believe most of us would say what we want in life is to be happy. It's one of the reasons we get a good education, climb the corporate ladder, and work hard to succeed. So what happens when you achieve the success, buy the big house, and join the country club, but then realize it's not making you as happy you expected? For me, that was a disheartening feeling. Call it my midlife crisis if you want, but after 20 years working in Corporate America I found myself wondering if this is all there is. Sure, I could continue to climb the corporate ladder, increase the size of my paycheck, and keep at it until I retired, but when I put it like that, it sounds depressing.

At the same time, quitting the corporate world is not always an option. Besides the fact that you need that income to survive, maybe what you do can really only be done in a corporate environment. When you hold those two feelings simultaneously: that your corporate life is less than fulfilling and that you're not in a position to change that until you retire, you can feel trapped.

Well, I have good news. Liberation is within your reach, and it doesn't require quitting your job.

I came up with the phrase Corporate Hell when describing a difficult time in my own career. What I found in speaking with hundreds of leaders over the years is that the phrase resonates with anyone who's spent enough time working in a corporate environment. I was not alone. But here's what I've come to know over the course of my career: Corporate Hell is not a place, it's an inner experience. The feeling of "corporate hell" does not come from the difficult, and often frustrating circumstances so common in the corporate world. The feeling, like every feeling you've ever had, comes from within you. And if that's true, then you have more control over the experience than you might think.

Liberating yourself from Corporate Hell is something you the power to do. It's not a magic pill, and it's not a quick-fix life hack. It's a recipe for happiness, which if you choose to embrace it, can transform your life. It took me a while, but I've finally captured that recipe in my first book Corporate Life Is Hell: How to Liberate the Leader Within You and Be Happy in Your Career. I hope you'll check it out and let me know what you think!