How to find Happiness at your Workplace?

You must have heard, “Happiness is an inside thing”.

There are a lot of factors that contribute for that “thing”.

Some of them we can control and some of them we cannot.

Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it.

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% of how you react to it”, goes a famous quote. The assumption here is that how you react is in your control.

But, is that true?

Does it apply to all of us?

Can we control our reactions all the time? And, what happens if you have to work with or live with some jerks.

We have heard, “cool as a cucumber”. Trust me, almost every person who loses her/his cool on a regular basis, does not get comfortable with it. They wish they can have a better control of their emotions.

If you are not the cool-as-a-cucumber types, here is the good news. It can be learnt.

While a single article is not enough to coach you to reach that goal, I hope to unlock an important door for you with this attempt. While the image talks about workplace maturity, it can be applied outside workplace as well.

If your goal is to have a better control of your internal happiness, one of the key factors is how we relate to people.

Do an unbiased assessment of where you stand in the 5 Steps of Workplace Maturity.

Difficulty Alert: The more you are in the initial steps, the more difficult you are going to accept the reality. Talk to a “mature” professional who you can trust and who knows you well, to help you with this assessment.

While all of us would like to be that perfect individual, understand that it is a journey.

Identify the next milestone on your journey and draw out a plan of action which you can follow for the next couple of months.

You will find some amazing practical tips about how you can be successful in working with people in books like “Winning with People” and “Everyone Communicates Few Connect”, coincidentally, both by John Maxwell.

I can hear you asking, “what do I do with that jerk I need to deal with?”.

The higher you move up your ladder, you will realize that fighting with them is actually pulling you down the ladder.

I remember this interesting quote from a successful entrepreneur, “Never fight with a pig. Both of you will get dirty. And the pig loves it”.

Never fight with a pig. Both of you will get dirty. And the pig loves it.

Enjoy your growth journey on the maturity ladder. Usually, there is a lot of room at the top.

PS: The core idea for this article was developed from an article in Harvard Business Review.

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About the Author:

Iniyan comes from a simple middle-class family, from Coimbatore. He says he inculcated the ability to work hard, maintain high levels of ethics and a never give up spirit from his parents.

After successfully completing his Electrical & Electronics Engineering, he went on to do his MBA, before starting his career as a HR professional in the IT industry. He steadily grew in his career to the level of leading the global HR function for couple of high technology companies. He has held critical HR roles at Aricent, Sarnoff Corporation, SAP Labs, Sasken Technologies and TATA Elxsi.

His passion to add value to people’s lives led him to the world of wellness. He has been a student of wellness for over two decades and has been offering wellness solutions to his clients. Iniyan co-founded Wellness Quotient, which is currently India’s largest wellness community. He loves helping working professionals handle their health issues and helps them create the much required work-life balance. He is also a sought after health coach for CXOs and doctors (specialists and super specialists). He is also an international speaker, often recognized by his pseudonym Common Sense Coach.