I woke up around 4 am today. I’m not sure why. My wife and one of my daughters are about to travel overseas to see my son who is studying abroad. That might be the reason. Or I just had one of those nights. On days that I didn’t sleep well or felt under the weather and was working as a private sector attorney, I was miserable. I wanted to just go home and sleep but… the boss, face time, work I didn’t want to do…
But now when I like my work, I’m having a really good day nonetheless. In fact, I feel better because of work. Why? Because my work is a mood enhancer, not a mood deflator. I rarely tell my friends who are in tough jobs about my work happiness because I know it might bring them down. But I do tell my career counseling clients because some have almost given up hope that there is such a thing as “happy work”.
While it is true that more people are unhappy because of their work than happy due to work, it is equally true that you can become one of the lucky ones. If so, your whole life will change because even your bad work days will be pretty good.