book.chapter Finding joy in your work

One of the greatest feelings in the world is waking up every morning grateful for the work you do. This sense of fulfillment in your career does not happen by chance. To achieve it and sustain it over time requires a three-part approach: first, you must have clarity on what you want to accomplish in your work and why it matters to you. Understanding your motivation and purpose will help guide your decisions. Second, you must commit to continual learning and growth in your field. As the landscape shifts, you need to evolve your skills and perspective. Finally, you must nurture genuine connections with people you work with and serve. Relationships where you can share knowledge and ideas openly are the foundation for meaningful work. With clarity, growth, and connections as your pillars, you can create work you love and maintain that feeling of appreciation day after day. The right priorities Empirical research demonstrates a relationship between happiness and career success. For example, happy people receive higher earnings, exhibit better performance, and obtain more favorable supervisor evaluations than their less happy peers. Researchers have posited that success leads to happiness, but other studies suggest the alternative hypothesis may be equally plausible - that happiness causes success. A decade of additional research continues to show happiness is correlated with career success. Cross-sectional, longitudinal, and experimental investigations provide further support for the hypothesis that happiness promotes workplace achievement. Happy individuals not only attain superior evaluations, income, and performance but also behave more prosocially, cope more effectively with stress, and demonstrate better health. Multiple mediators and moderators help explain when and why positive affect fosters career success. For instance, happy people interpret events and information more positively, like attributing failure to external causes rather than blaming themselves. They also demonstrate greater creativity and efficiency when solving problems. Additionally, happy people build higher quality relationships with others, eliciting guidance, assistance, and rewards. However, very high arousal positive states like joy can sometimes impair performance requiring focused attention. Overall, though, moderate positive feelings frequently precede and contribute to career success. In conclusion, substantial evidence suggests happiness is not only correlated with but often precedes workplace success. Boosting happiness may provide both personal and professional benefits. However, success does not guarantee happiness, highlighting the importance of pursuing activities, relationships, and purpose that create authentic well-being. Monitoring and protecting one's happiness could supplement more traditional efforts to achieve external indicators of career achievement. Balance plans and chances Understanding what motivates us is critical for fulfillment. But that's only part of the equation. You need a career that stimulates you and meets your basic needs. If it were easy, we'd all have our dream jobs already. Rarely is it simple. Balancing aspirations and seizing opportunities is key. This strategy applies to companies and careers. Business strategy is fluid, starting deliberate then adapting as issues arise and openings emerge. Honda's experience entering the 1960s us bike market illustrates this well. Its initial strategy to compete with harley-davidson and triumph in big bikes failed. But when recreational riders saw honda staff riding super cubs and asked to buy them, a new niche market opened. Honda pivoted, selling super cubs via sears and sporting goods stores, not bike dealers. Honda began with a deliberate big-bike strategy but found success through an emergent small-bike strategy. Strategy evolves through responding to challenges and opportunities. Often the emergent approach becomes the deliberate one. This process drives most successful companies. The same holds for careers. Many graduates have detailed plans. This deliberate strategy makes sense only if you have a motivating, secure job. If not, stay open and experiment until you find the right fit. As general guidance, deliberate strategies work once you've found fulfilling work. Before then, remain emergent and adaptable. It's easy to say stay open, but life gets messy. When facing multiple options, ask "what must prove true for this to work?" clarify the assumptions and critical preconditions underlying each potential path. If you can quickly test assumptions cheaply, you'll avoid setting yourself up to fail. Just as few firms begin with an ultimately successful strategy, expecting a clear career vision early on wastes energy and closes you off to chances. While exploring career options, keep your aperture wide, ready to pivot. Only when you find motivating, secure work does a deliberate strategy make sense. You'll know when you get there. Use resources for goals Effectively allocating one's personal resources is crucial for executing strategy and achieving enduring success in both career and life. The ways we choose to allocate our time, energy, talent and wealth determines which initiatives and priorities we truly value. As andy grove stated, to understand a company or individual's strategy, observe where they direct resources rather than simply listening to what they say. We face ongoing challenges when allocating personal resources. It's tempting to prioritize short-term gains offering immediate gratification over long-term endeavors leading to lasting achievement. Misaligned incentives can steer our efforts away from ideal outcomes. And the diverse realms of our lives - professional aspirations, relationships, community involvement - compete for limited time and energy. We must make deliberate choices about resource allocation rather than relying on default tendencies. Deciding how to balance competing demands is a lifelong process that evolves over time. Without conscious allocation aligned with strategic objectives, it's easy to get locked into reactive patterns or a treadmill of lifestyle inflation where money fuels unfulfilling status-seeking. As christensen noted, high-achieving individuals often unconsciously devote resources to career goals because progress is more readily quantified through promotions, income and tangible accomplishments. Meanwhile intangible realms like relationships and personal growth get neglected. Observe where your money, time and energy flows. If resource allocation isn't actively supporting your strategic life priorities and deepest values, you risk serious problems. Talk means little if you don't back intentions with action and investment. Strategy takes shape through everyday decisions about exertion. Watch the trail of receipts, calendar marks and fatigue to see whether present patterns serve your aspirations or lead you astray. With mindful allocation into what matters most, you can create the life envisioned rather than settling into misalignment.