Three mental shifts to recharge your work

When I lived on the outskirts of Antananarivo many years ago, I would often drive past a work site on the winding road that led into the city. A group of women -- some with babies tied to their backs -- swung mallets to break big rocks into smaller rocks all day long. As they toiled in the dusty lot over their hand-made gravel, they often laughed together. Each time I passed, I was in awe of their grit (and asked myself how I found reason to complain about much of anything). Even more, I marveled at their joy. It was an important lesson, and one I'm still apt to forget: So much of how we feel about work is shaped by the ways in which we choose to experience it. If we pay attention, inspiration is everywhere.

This summer, I've been reading and listening to experts who study the ways in which our mental frameworks make major differences in our satisfaction and our success. I find these concepts energizing, because they are a reminder of our own self-efficacy in the workplace. While we can't control everything, we can choose how we experience our environment, our attitude and our aptitude.

Little Joys

The psychologist William James wrote that "My experience is what I agree to attend to." Julia Cameron, my favorite writer on creativity, has said, "The quality of life is in proportion, always, to the capacity for delight. The capacity for delight is the gift for paying attention."

Everywhere around us, all the time, are little joys awaiting notice. The intrepid flower bursting through the crack in the sidewalk outside your building. The colleague who says your encouragement made her day. The palatable electricity of an idea taking shape in a room of people solving a problem together.

I've come to believe that where you direct your attention will determine your experience. The good news is there is almost always something uplifting to find, if you pay attention.

Larger Purpose

It's important to see little joys. It's also vital to feel a sense of larger purpose. The former gives us a sense of presence. The latter allows us to be part of something greater than ourselves.

In the workplace, purpose is a matter of leadership as well as a personal choice. Simon Sinek says very few companies can articulate why they do what they do - the purpose, the cause, the overarching belief - noting that "People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it." I feel fortunate to work at a company that has put a lot of thought into communicating our "why." At the same time, each person must define what the mission means to their own work. That individual relationship to the collective is a powerful determinant of happiness as well as performance.

Amy Wrzesniewski, a Yale School of Management professor, has said that people who see their work as a calling are more satisfied with their jobs and lives as well as better performers, regardless of their line of work. She asserts that by "job crafting" - thinking of your work as pieces that can be reconfigured - you can assemble them into the building blocks of something with personal meaning, whether it's focusing on the relationships in your office or how you shape your priorities.

This makes me think of Daniel Pink's concept of intrinsic motivation in his book, Drive: "to have a larger goal in mind is more motivating and activating than money could ever be."

Wrzesniewski has studied custodial staff in a hospital and said on Hidden Brain that those who focused on what they were doing for patients and their families - "in the course of their cleaning work, noticing who hadn't had a visitor and several shifts, who looked like they might be on the verge of tears, who seemed like they really needed to talk" - were far more engaged in their work. They were paying attention. It gave them a sense of higher purpose.

Rebel Tendencies

The third mental frame is that of the rebel, who finds the magical balance of deep experience and novel thinking. In another edition of Hidden Brain, Rebel with a Cause, Harvard Business School professor Francesca Gino describes her study of non-conformists and their ability to balance expertise and experimentation. She found that the best performers - whether they were chefs or pilots or cardiologists - never stop questioning the status quo and break rules in a constructive way. They are rebels with a cause, drawing on what they know yet possessing the fresh thinking of a beginner's mind.

Gino notes: "Being rebellious means leaving what's comfortable and known and familiar. And so people perceive it as risky business. But... what I've learned is that you might feel uncomfortable at first, but really, it does pay off."

Every day is a series of choices in mindset. We can - and in many cases, must - hammer the rocks. But we can choose how we view our labor, through small joys, a bigger purpose and a new way of thinking. What we shift within us changes our experience of the work before us.