Speaker 1: Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Good Morning, This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.
Speaker 1: Today's tip is about how to feel happier about your work,
Speaker 1: whatever your work happens to be. If you can have
Speaker 1: three particular sorts of experiences each day, you can most
Speaker 1: likely have very good days over and over again. Today's
Speaker 1: tip comes from ya Ll Shoenbrun's new book, Work, Parent Thrive.
Speaker 1: This book is about cognitive strategies that can help you
Speaker 1: navigate working parenthood with far less stress. In her book,
Speaker 1: ya Ll has a chapter encouraging people to tend to
Speaker 1: their happiness needs. What you might ask, are these happiness needs? Well,
Speaker 1: there's pretty good evidence that people feel best about work
Speaker 1: when they have three things that happen regularly. First, opportunities
Speaker 1: to feel skillful, capable, or masterful. Second, connection to people
Speaker 1: or causes they care about. And third, freedom to choose
Speaker 1: their own actions. So basically progress, connection, autonomy. Now you
Speaker 1: might be thinking, well, of course, those are three things
Speaker 1: that sound great, but it is different to know that
Speaker 1: those three things are important versus actually designing your days
Speaker 1: to have experiences in each of these domains. What you
Speaker 1: want to do is look through your days and identify
Speaker 1: how you will experience this progress, connection and autonomy. If
Speaker 1: you do that, you will have died to your happiness
Speaker 1: needs and we'll probably be much happier. We can envision
Speaker 1: many ways this might work. For instance, I feel particularly
Speaker 1: skillful while creating second drafts of things. If I've got
Speaker 1: a rough draft and I'm using my editing skills to
Speaker 1: make the piece better, I can see massive progress and
Speaker 1: this makes me feel very happy. I feel connection when
Speaker 1: I have chats with other writers whose work I enjoy.
Speaker 1: I feel autonomy when I decide what I would like
Speaker 1: to work on. So for me, a good day might
Speaker 1: involve spending the morning editing a piece I'm really into,
Speaker 1: a lunch break where I have a video call with
Speaker 1: a few writer friends, and then leaving the afternoon open
Speaker 1: so I can decide what I'd like to work on
Speaker 1: in the moment. Your experiences might be entirely different. Perhaps
Speaker 1: a presentation to a group where you show your mastery,
Speaker 1: a lunch with your direct reports making a decision to
Speaker 1: green light a new program. But that would hit all
Speaker 1: three domains too and would make for a great day.
Speaker 1: We can also think of how to have these experiences
Speaker 1: while doing the work of caring for family members. This
Speaker 1: can be harder, as sometimes a sense of progress is
Speaker 1: not nearly so obvious, but we can engineer it. Maybe
Speaker 1: you find a really great book from the library and
Speaker 1: make it through it with your kid. You have a
Speaker 1: play date with another family whose company you enjoy, and
Speaker 1: you plan out a day where you've chosen things you
Speaker 1: find energizing, like a walk with the stroller and some
Speaker 1: relaxation with a hobby during naptime. That day would likely
Speaker 1: feel better than the sorts of days where we are
Speaker 1: counting the hours until bedtime. So if you are looking
Speaker 1: to experience more happiness in your work, whatever your work,
Speaker 1: maybe see if you can create experiences in the three
Speaker 1: domains yah L talks about in work parent thrive. Can
Speaker 1: you feel skillful? Can you feel connected to something that
Speaker 1: matters to you? Do you have at least sometime where
Speaker 1: you feel free to choose your own actions. You can
Speaker 1: certainly look back on a day and identify those kinds
Speaker 1: of experiences, and that might be a good exercise for
Speaker 1: a day that wasn't all you hoped it would be.
Speaker 1: But it's even better to think through these things ahead
Speaker 1: of time, as Yeah. L says when you experience competence, connectedness,
Speaker 1: or autonomy, pause, acknowledge and relish that moment. Spotlight what's
Speaker 1: going well. This practice us of savory will increase and
Speaker 1: extend experiences of happiness in the meantime. This is Laura.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, and here's to making the most of
Speaker 1: our time. Hey, everybody, I'd love to hear from you.
Speaker 1: You can send me your tips, your questions, or anything else.
Speaker 1: Just connect with me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at
Speaker 1: Before Breakfast pod that's B the number four, then Breakfast
Speaker 1: p o D. You can also shoot me an email
Speaker 1: at Before Breakfast podcast at i heeart media dot com
Speaker 1: that Before Breakfast is spelled out with all the letters.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much. Should I look forward to staying in touch.
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