Episode 6, A cheerful workplace, Are you cheerful at work?

But what is work? What is cheerfulness? And, Why and how to be cheerful at work? Those concepts are vital for our well-being in general. However, what really matters is your perception about those definitions. The funny is that your perceptions are not totally yours.

The part that is yours is the part that you create consciously. Otherwise, the main stream is all the time pouring stories and talks in your subconscious mind. Our subconscious mind is very powerful that it collects whatever is running around us. Moreover it draws your attention to some part of the scene even if it is remote and far from you but the subconscious mind concludes it is important for you. All what is gathered by our subconscious mind is stored somewhere in our memory and tabulated somehow in a way that we don’t know. Then the programmed perception pops up when the key word comes in our conscious talks.

So again based on this: What is work? What is cheerfulness? And, Why and how to be cheerful at work?

What shapes our perceptions?

The literal definitions are engraved in our subconscious mind because it is what you find when you look up the word or read about it. Or, an article in one of the main stream media from a popular source or figure reaches millions of minds. That’s how the perceptions in this social media or news article widely spread and shapes our perception.

So if the mainstream continues to speak about electrical vehicles and how it is taking the market from conventional vehicles, we are subconsciously over time attracted to own one. Then, manufacturing of electrical bikes, cars and other transportation methods boosts their production in this sector. Why? Because there is a demand for this technology. What created this demand? It is the continuous recordings in our subconscious mind by the main stream media.

Work Perception

To work is to do something that involves physical or mental effort, especially as part of a job

A job is a work for which you receive regular payment or a particular task or piece of work that you have to do.

https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/

In this literal definition you can find some keywords that shapes our perceptions. The Effort for example, implies that there is a difficulty to do something. The Job, reflects that you do certain things repeatedly. Also, the job involves the receiving of a salary. Moreover it implies the sense of obligation i.e. you have to do those tasks. And some times you have to do them asap. BTW did you realize that I had used three abbreviations in a couple of lines.

“i.e.” = that is to say , “asap” as soon as possible and, “BTW”= by the way. while reading your subconscious mind interprets those words correctly in their context. Maybe “i.e.” and “asap” were used for long time in formal writing and literature. But, “BTW” is a new comer to the scene and it was introduced along with almost 80 other abbreviations to speed up the fast short text messaging to make it faster. Due to its frequent use it gained popularity and our subconscious mind understands it easily.

The power of choice makes you cheerful at work

In the same subconscious programming manner, doing work involves the meanings of exerting effort, repetition and if it related to a job; then it involves salary receival. Those meanings and reflections can carry negative connotations. It is normal to put effort in what you are doing. When gardening, running, cooking and many other daily activities you exert some effort but the magic word is that you exert this effort willingly. When in a workplace as a part of a job, there is the sense of enforcement, threatening, punishment, comparison, along with the anxiety of deadlines and perfection rewards. Sometimes you feel deadly tired from a short vacation where you slept very few hours that is close to null and you were hopping on and off between planes and buses. Even though it was tiring, you feel that you have the freedom to repeat it or organize it in a different way.

At workplace in our job we don’t have this sense of freedom. We feel that forced obligations is the only way of doing things. The perception that work totally consumes my energy, time, effort, attention gives a sense of heaviness. The real problem originates from the feeling of scarcity. There few sources of income. Income should be regular and monthly. There is one way of doing things.

A simple workaround for our team is to involve them in planning their jobs and distributing it. Providing a clear requirement, an end date and leaving the execution timeline to the agreement of the team. This gives a sense of freedom instead of forcing. For ourselves, we can write down all what we have to do, prioritize it and write the target date. Then, delegate, take first step, send emails based on what you had written down. Writing down can be on a piece of sticky note, on a calendar, on an app or, you can design it your self using the below training:

Understand your perception about work

To reach to an understanding if you are cheerful at work or not, you need to understand what does work mean to you?

1. Is it a place where you reach fulfilment and get energized?
2. What makes you depleted out of your energy?
3. What is running constantly in your mind? Anger, fear, hope?
4. Is it the source of income that you are afraid to lose?
5. Can you express yourself or ideas at work?
6. Does it match with your believes?
7. Is your life outside work negatively affected by your work?
8. Do you believe that you have alternatives in life in general?
9. If you think that your work is totally consuming you time and effort, Does it really do so?
10. Is the perception of a tiring depleting job a reality or an inherited perception?
11. Did you try to make plans for what else you want to do and you couldn’t fulfil them?
12. Must all the required tasks from you be finished now?
13. If I had already planned a task and started the first steps and waiting for the other side response, Why am I anxious? Why do I keep thinking of this task again and again?
14. Are there tasks that you don’t fulfill as it should be? Why? What are you missing? The skills, the tools, the time? Did you ask a support to get prepared for this task?
15. Do we spend a lot of time at work blaming the boss, the colleagues, the team and so on? This blaming daily tea party, did it ever yield a positive result?

Answering those questions will help you pin point the pain in your daily work. Any tweak you can do around any of these questions to make it work in your favor will add some cheerful shades to your workplace. Your workplace might be collocated with others but, everyone lives a unique experience inside it based on his perceptions.

In conclusion,

Your perception about something is transformed into your conception about it. Your conception governs your channels of communication, your emotions and your reactions towards that same thing. The core deception in this loop is that your perceptions are subconsciously shaped by the environment you are living within daily. It can be your colleagues negative talks, the news, the social media, your close community and family. The 15 (fifteen) questions provided at the end of this chat will help you see your perceptions about work and the sources of these perceptions. Once your eyes are open and you can see the image clearer, you can recolor it in your favorite shades.