For a life to be meaningful, it must also be worthwhile, says Steve Denning in the article The Ten Happiest Jobs http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/09/12/the-ten-happiest-jobs/. It's no surprise that money and status alone does not make for on the job happiness. Human beings need to be mentally, emotionally, and spiritually stimulated in order to be truly fulfilled. Most of us know this through experience. If you hate your job, it really doesn't matter how much you get paid. Soon, money alone will not be enough.
Today more than ever people are looking for jobs that fulfill them wholly. You may think that harder social economic times would make us go after money even more. But, this isn't the case. Actually, the tougher life gets, the more humanistic needs come to the forefront of our awareness.
Hard times seem to clarify all that is meaningful to a worthwhile life. Personal happiness becomes a non-negotiable consideration in job fitness.
Whenever culture is in a social economic decline, or what history calls a dark age, there's a related movement toward humanism, a vision of life that emphasizes the happiness of human beings now, rather than in the afterlife.
Humanism swept across Europe from the 14th through 16th centuries, effectively ending the darkness of the Middle Ages. It was a response to the restrictive ideas of the Christian church at that time. People wanted to spend more time on work that would benefit their and others daily lives. http://atheism.about.com/od/abouthumanism/a/renaissance.htm
If you look at the ten happiest jobs of Forbe's survey, you'll see that they exemplify humanistic values. From top to bottom is clergy, firefighters, physical therapists, authors, special education teachers, teachers, artists, financial service sales agents, and operating engineers. 8 out of these 10 jobs involve stimulating people's minds or teaching or helping people, social interaction, and higher ideals as the basis to a happy work life. In a nutshell, these jobs engage people's minds, hearts and spirit. This is in direct contrast to the 10 most hated jobs, where people saw little purpose to what they were doing. "The pain, says Denning, "is psychological". "It's the pointlessness and lack of meaning in what they are doing that is the problem." (http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/11/think-your-job-is-bad-try-one-of-these/).
Work is one of the four vital areas of living that gives us meaning, happiness and true fulfillment.If you cannot find happiness through family, leisure time, or a romantic relationship, then work life happiness becomes that much more important to you (http://vaughanradio.blogspot.com/2011/06/critical-importance-of-o...).
What is the Forbe's survey really saying to us about job happiness? Waiting for material and emotional payoffs that come at the end of our lives in retirement, or anything else that makes us put off happiness today for the benefits of tomorrow, no longer makes sense to us. To be meaningful and fulfilling, work must engage us mentally, emotionally and spiritually. The implications and consequences of what we do must matter to the welfare of our and others lives.
The Hardiness approach to managing stress and strengthening resilience engages you wholly in a problem solving process that heightens meaning and fulfillment, because it addresses the psychological part of you. Putting a band-aid on your troubles isn't enough to enhance your performance, health and leadership at home and at work. And, it's certainly not enough, in order to get the meaning you need from the things that happen to you that make you feel that your life is worthwhile, no matter what comes your way.
You have to dig deep within yourself to find answers to your problems that consider what is good for you mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. The HardiAttitudes of commitment, control, and challenge help you to do this (http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/%5Bfield_blog_ref-title-raw%5...). They motivate you to find solutions to your problem that are creative and satisfy your whole being. This is what you need to find a job that makes you happy across the board.
The HardiAttitudes position you to cope in a transformative way. You believe you have the tools to find solutions which are worthwhile enough to be truly fulfilling (commitment and control), and that the effort you have to put in to bringing about a satisfying home and work life is a normal part of living (challenge).
Through Hardiness, you will begin to widen your perspective on problems that open you to needs that go beyond materialism. You are impelled to innovative ideas for work that come from deep inside of you. What is more, solutions you get by this process engage you even more in living, so that you get the meaning and fulfillment that you want.
At home and on the job, you deserve a life that feels worthwhile to you. I hope you let some of the ideas of my post today guide you in finding work that makes you happier. If you like my post today, please say so by selecting the Like icon that immediately follows. I love your feedback; so don't hesitate to write me a comment as well. Deborah.
