5 Ways to Find Happiness in a Hectic Job

 By Jenny Fisher

When you’ve got a stressful workday filled with meetings, issues and deadlines, it’s often hard to maintain balance with personal goals and intentions. Stress isn’t necessarily a bad thing – I’ve always enjoyed fast-paced jobs, as they tend to bring new energy and opportunities along with them.  

So, how do we thrive in a fast-paced, dynamic work environment while being grounded in our life’s purpose?

1. Take time to reflect.

Many think there’s no more time available in the day.  We all play many roles as leaders, employees, entrepreneurs, wives, mothers, and friends, while also trying to get in some exercise, hobbies, social networking and the like. I don’t have much reflection time, but the time I do have is sacred. My favorite time of the weekend is when I can grab an inspiring book, coffee and my notebook for an hour of quiet time. One of my favorite books is Living with Joy: Keys to Personal Power and Spiritual Transformation by Sanaya Roman. After getting my mind quiet and my spirit open, I reflect on any issues I’m going through and listen to my internal guidance. 

2. Visualize your intentions.

To reconnect with your life’s purpose, you need to have one. This doesn’t mean you need some grandiose purpose like ending world hunger, solving illiteracy or redefining corporate culture. But it does mean you should have some “theme” of what you want to contribute and what you want to experience in your life. When you have a “theme” for what you want in life, it’s easier to create a big-picture view and to put all the smaller, day-to-day activity in perspective. This is your higher purpose, something you want to be remembered for. When I visualize what I want to experience and achieve, I see energy levels very high, desired results coming easily, people working well together and life flowing easily.  While the topic of your intentions may change, your internal focus and reflection should remain a steady process.

3. Be in alignment with yourself.

In Living with Joy, Sanaya states, “When you are clear on your purpose, your intent, your motivation, your agreements… action flows.” We can all feel when we’re flowing along with it and when we’re paddling upstream. To experience this “flow,” it’s critical that we get our whole self aligned with our intention before we start launching into action. When we have clarity in our feeling, thinking, talking and doing, we are in alignment and reach our desires quickly, finding them naturally downstream of our thoughts and actions. It’s only when I have perfect alignment that I have any hope of success.

4. Create your personal “mantra.”

To keep your vision and maintain alignment, it’s good to have a personal statement you can repeat throughout your day to keep yourself on track. You may have a few of these statements that direct and re-focus your intentions on your higher purpose or one core statement. I have a few mantras I’ve carried along with me such as, “I have perfect health”, “I bring light, love, and energy to every situation.” Mantra’s can help redirect your attention when something external happens that counters your intention.

5. Manage your emotions.

Emotions are like your GPS system for reaching your desired intention or destination. You can’t pretend to always have positive emotions. Things happen in our lives that frustrate, anger or sadden us. If we were positive all the time, we would not be being truthful with ourselves. We are not in alignment with our intention if we are experiencing negative emotions. Use negative emotion to adjust and get back on track so that you are in alignment with your intention.

Keeping focus on your internal clarity – through reflection, visualization, alignment, and managing your emotions – does wonders for handling all those external, chaotic things that are a natural part of a dynamic, fast-paced work day.

Jenny Fisher is author of The Feminine Side of Leadership. Check out her Inspiration@Work Blog and follow her on Twitter at @FSLJenny.