instructor Hood's Key Ideas from Find Your Happy at Work
by Beverly E. Jones

Three issues which form an “Engagement Triangle”:

• A well-honed sense of purpose – Work is more enjoyable and engaging when you feel part of something meaningful.
• Positive relationships with the people in your job-related sphere – When you feel strong, friendly ties to the people with whom you work, you feel happier and more engaged.

Your performance, or how you approach your work – When your work makes the most of your strengths and provides learning challenges, you experience greater job satisfaction. 

“The Engagement Triangle can help you plan your good days and feel better on your bad days.”

The method comprises four steps:

1. “Develop a vision” – Consider your ideal life and career and what big goals might help get you there.
2. “Identify micro-goals” – Break each big goal into specific, actionable small goals. If you want to get physically fit, for example, you might set a micro-goal of walking for 20 minutes a couple of times per week.
3. “Commit to sugar grains” – Plan out tiny actions that support each micro-goal, such as buying new walking shoes.
4. “Record your grains” – Keep track of your progress. Evidence of your successes keeps you moving forward.

Shift your existing habits to more productive ones. Forming a new habit is a three-step process:

• Cue – This is the prompt for the new behavior you want to turn into a habit. It might be an alarm on your phone or a physical reminder, such as leaving your walking shoes near your front door.
• Routine – This is the action you take in response to the cue – the new habit itself.
• Reward – This generates a sense of pleasure about your new habit. Pausing to reflect on how doing the new habit makes you feel can create this sensation.

When you help someone, you feel a greater connection to your community. Learning to focus your attention on tasks that demand your highest level of skill and attention also gives you a deep sense of satisfaction.

“Learning is fun. It can transfer routine work into a continuing adventure. And constant learners tend to be interesting to other people.”

“Any busy workers, even those in lively offices, may drift into loneliness without noticing that it’s happening.”