388. A Science of Happiness Changed Her Life

“As a kid, I really enjoyed making my younger sister play hours and hours of school. I was always the teacher and she was always the student. This was a really clear passion for me early on. But because I came from a long line of teachers—my great-grandmother was a teacher, my grandmother was a teacher, and my mother was a teacher—of course, I was determined I was not going to be a teacher!” Decades later, she’s most alive in front of people eager to learn.

“I was living in New York City, the city of my dreams. My husband and I loved living there. I had an amazing job that was more than I had ever dreamed my career would be. But about six months in, I suddenly found myself really struggling to get out of bed every day. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong. Then, I was watching the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart where Harvard professor Tel Ben-Shahar was being interviewed about his book, Happier. It reignited my simple childhood fantasy of living a happy life. His course had become the most popular class on campus. He was describing the science of positive psychology, this idea that we can measure human flourishing and create interventions to improve human flourishing. He said we can actually teach people to be happier. All the light bulbs in my brain were flashing on that night. I rushed out to Barnes & Noble the next morning, waiting for them to open, so I could get the book. I bought it, sat down and read it. It opened up this whole new field to me about the science of human flourishing, and what we can do to be happier.”

“I think we have to continually ask ourselves if we are on the right path for us. Once we get into the workplace, we are often put on paths that are designed for the benefit of the workplaces but not necessarily for us. We think we have to stay on that path, and keep climbing up to the next thing and the next thing. We stop asking whether this is the right path for us until we eventually come to some point not dissimilar to what I did in New York, where we ask, ‘What am I doing? How did I wind up here? Why am I not enjoying it? Is this just what being a grown up looks like?’ We assume we’re stuck and don’t have choice in it.”

1. Discover your strengths and passions. Find tools and people to help you do that.

2.  Ask for what you want at work. You might be surprised at the response.

3.  Explore the many small ways you can change your work day without permission. This can make your days much more pleasurable.

Happier: Learn the Secrets to Daily Joy and Lasting Fulfillment, by Tal Ben-Shahar

Your Strengths Blueprint: How to be Engaged, Energized, and Happy at Work, by Michelle L. McQuaid MAPP and Erin Lawn

www.viacharacter.org

www.permahsurvey.com