Enjoy! - Have More Fun in Your Work and Your Life

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March 1, 2009

I have recently started posting columns on ezines.com. Here's a column I recently wrote with tips on how to enjoy your life and work more. It's called "How to Have a Happier Workday."

Today, even if you don’t like your job, you may feel lucky to have it. So how can you brighten up your day so you enjoy your job more? By doing so, you may find you do like your job after all, do better work, and end up getting promoted to an even better job.

Here are some tips on what to do, based on my workshops and interviews with dozens of employees and managers.

- Do a relaxation exercise or meditation, where you concentrate on what you like about your job. Think about the particular activities or people you like the most, and keep your focus on them. Make your visualization as vivid as possible, as you imagine yourself doing those activities or being with those people. The exercise will leave you feeling more positive and upbeat. And as researchers have found, what you think about helps to make you more attentive and aware to those experiences, since we all perceive what is around us selectively based on the mental schema or framework we bring with us.

- Fix up your office or your desk with objects that are fun and expressive of you. They will not only brighten your day but be great conversation starters too. For example, one very popular bank manager who loved purple, not only often wore purple, but she put all sorts of purple items on her desk, from little cars to purple puppies, and she prided herself on being called the “Purple Lady.” She not only created a cheerful environment around her, but customers loved her.

- Collect amusing cartoons, jokes, and articles, and post them around your office, desk, or in the lunchroom. You might send them by e-mail too before or after work on or breaks if that’s acceptable in your office. These help to create a more playful, comfortable atmosphere for not only you, but for everyone, and they can be conversation starters for lunch and breaks during the day.

For more fun ideas, you can see some chapters from my books Want It, See It, Get It (www.wantitseeitgetit.com) or Enjoy: 101 Little Ways to Add Fun to Your Work Everyday (www.enjoythebook.com).

January 21, 2009

Now that I'm back from L.A. and the economy is still crashing, here are some fun things to do if you are now in the ranks of the unemployed or are worried about being unemployed.

- Start or join a group for people who are unemployed, so you can support each other in your experience of

being unemployed.

- Get a dartboard and darts, draw or put a picture of the company you left in the center, throw darts and try to hit
it, and think "I'm free! I'm free!" each time you hit it, since you are now free to think of new possibilities.

- Get a sheet of poster board (about 17"x24" or larger), some magazines with pictures, and some glue stick. Cut out pictures of what you would like to do or pictures that inspire you and glue them into a collage of pictures. As you do, imagine that you are doing these things now or feeling inspired. Finally, hang your "Wish Board" where you can see it everyday, and use it to inspire and motivate you with what you imagine for the future.

January 3, 2009

        Since the economy has been crashing, I've been thinking that finding ways to have fun at work is more important than ever. Here are some suggestions that come to mind:
        - Keep an Enjoy! Journal, where you write down your ideas of fun things to do.
        - Collect some inspiring clips from newspapers, magazines, or the Internet and post them on your
              desk or in the employee lunch room.
        - Bring your cell phone with a camera to work and take some shots of other employees mugging for the
              camera or doing funny things.
        - Appoint one employee to be the funmaster for the day and come up with some fun things to do on breaks.
        - Have a cartoon contest -- and invite people to submit them and then give a small prize to the winner, like
               a box of cookies or cupcakes.
        - Cut out funny pictures from the papers and have a caption contest, with a small prize to the winner as above.
        - Have a "Say nice things to others" day in which each person has to say something nice to everyone in the
              office.

Any other ideas? Please send them in and I'll post them. Send them to me at changemakers@pacbell.net.

GINI GRAHAM SCOTT, Ph.D., is a nationally known writer, consultant, speaker, and seminar/workshop leader, specializing in business and work relationships and professional and personal development. She has published over 50 books on diverse subjects. Her latest books on business relationships and professional development include: Enjoy!; Disagreements, Disputes, and All-Out War; 30 Days to a More Powerful Memory; A Survival Guide to Managing Employees From Hell; A Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses; and A Survival Guide for Working with Humans. You can learn more about Gini at www.ginigrahamscott.com.

LINKS:

Enjoy! http://www.amanet.org/books/book.cfm?isbn=9780814409855

Disagreements, Disputes, and All-Out War http://www.amanet.org/books/book.cfm?isbn=9780814480632

30 Days to a More Powerful Memory http://www.amanet.org/books/book.cfm?isbn=9780814474457

A Survival Guide to Managing Employees from Hell http://www.amanet.org/books/book.cfm?isbn=9780814474082

A Survival Guide for Working with Bad Bosses http://www.amanet.org/books/book.cfm?isbn=9780814472989

A Survival Guide for Working with Humans http://www.amanet.org/books/book.cfm?isbn=9780814472057