"Happiness is a critical factor for work, and work is a critical factor for happiness. In one of those life isn't fair results, it turns out the happy out perform the less happy, happy people work more hours each week and they work more in their free time too, they tend to be more cooperative, less self centered, and more willing to help other people, say by sharing information or pitching in to help a colleague and then because they've helped others, others tend to help them also. They work better with others because people prefer to be around happier people, who are also less likely to show counter productive behaviours of burnout, absenteeism, counter and non-productive work, work disputes, and retaliatory behaviour then are less happy people. Happier people also make more effective leaders they perform better on managerial tasks such as leadership and mastery of information. They are viewed as more assertive and more self confident than less happy people. They're perceived to be more friendly, warmer, and even more physically attractive. A study showed that students who were happy as college freshmen were earning more in their mid-thirties without any wealth advantage to start. Being happy can make a big difference in your work life. Of course happiness also matters to work because work occupies so much of our time. A majority of Americans work 7 or more hours each day and time spent on vacation is shrinking also work can be a source of many of the elements necessary for a happy life, the atmosphere of growth, social contact, fun, a sense of purpose, self-esteem, recognition. Whenever I feel blue, working cheers me, sometimes when I sink into a bad mood, Jamie says why don't you go to your office for a while, even if I don't feel like working, once I plunge in the encouraging feeling of getting something accomplished, the intellectual stimulation, and even the mere distraction lift me out of my crabbiness. Because work is so crucial to happiness another persons happiness project might well focus on choosing the right work, I however had been through a major happiness quest career shift. I had started out in law and I'd had a great experience but when my clerkship with Justice O'Connor grew to a close I couldn't figure out what job I wanted next ..."
Then she goes on to talk about how she realized she didn't like law in her spare time, but other lawyers did, and she wanted something she liked in her spare time, so she went back to school to be a writer, and now she is and she loves it. And she hopes everyone can find a job they love, which is what I wish too!
Other tidbits
"Passion is a critical factor in professional success"
"People who love their work bring an intensity and enthusiasm that's impossible to match through sheer diligence"
"Enthusiasm is more important to mastery than innate ability it turns out", because the single most important element in developing an expertise is your willingness to practice, therefore career experts argue you are better off pursuing a profession that comes easily and that you love because that's where you'll be more eager to practice and thereby earn a competitive advantage."
"The chief happiness for a man is to be what he is" Rasmussen. She suggests that we should all try to be ourselves more, and our ideas of who we wish we were obscure our view of who we actually are.
"Money is a good servant but a bad master" not sure who said this.
"To change our feelings we need to change our actions"