By Kripa Watts

Do you wake up on Monday morning and start counting down the hours until Friday at 5 o’clock?  If this is so, you are perhaps missing one of the most valuable opportunities to nourish your life – and since many of us work for close to 50% of our adult life, surely the benefit of more enjoyable work would be enormous.

Whenever I am willing to observe I find that work days are peppered with moments that can transform my relationship with my self as well as those around me.  This ultimately has a transformative impact on my life.   Following are some tips for making your working life a more enjoyable experience:

1. Try to make an effort throughout the day to imagine that each person you are talking to is yourself (set aside all jokes about talking to yourself being the first sign of madness!)  As MegaFood’s Nutritional Consultant I have spoken to thousands of customers over the years.  Often times I am being asked the same questions time and time again and this can definitely be a test of patience.  By taking a moment to imagine that it is me on the other end of the phone, and that I am asking the question for the first time, I find that I am able to answer with a fresh perspective.  In that simple act there is a bond of openness and mutual respect that happens between me and the customer – thus the exchange becomes one of mutual benefit.


2. Try to give more than you are being paid to give.  I’m not suggesting you become a martyr or a workaholic spending every spare hour on the job; but rather that you go a little above and beyond what is expected of you in simple daily situations.  When you give in this way, without being attached to a reward for your work, the world just begins to feel like a more abundant place.  It is almost as though there is an invisible energy that starts to permeate everything you do.  The universe almost invariably responds positively to this type of action.
   
   
3. Don’t be afraid to make mistakes.  There is a wonderful video on ted.com of Sir Kenneth Robinson, in which he speaks of the importance of creativity in education.  In that video he states, “If you are not prepared to make a mistake, I can guarantee you will never come up with anything original.”  He goes on to discuss how mistakes have been stigmatized in the work place.  When we go beyond our fear of making mistakes we open up to a whole new world of possibilities.  This being said, we must also be willing to forgive ourselves and others for mistakes made in the process of learning.


4. Always allow some space and time to nourish yourself.  A lot of us feel guilty if we are not ‘working’ in the conventional sense – sitting behind our desk, taking calls, sending emails, working toward a deadline on a specific project etc.  However, many of the most brilliant ideas occur when people are away from the habitual motions of the regular work day. Work without space is like music without silence – it just becomes noisy.  Make it a practice once a day, once a week or at least once a month to give yourself some alone time – and drop the guilt, you might just have a brilliant idea.


5. Listen wholeheartedly.  I read this quote once and I love it – “God gave us two ears and one mouth because we are supposed to listen twice as much as we talk.”  I believe we could construct an entire spiritual practice around the art of listening.  To truly listen to someone is to hear them, not with just our ears, but with our whole body.  It means not thinking about our response while the other person is talking, and itching to say your piece before they’ve even finished the sentence.  Even if someone comes to you with a complaint, this act of listening alone can change the whole quality of a conversation.  When a person feels heard they often resolve the initial problem within themselves and what could have been an unpleasant interaction becomes an enjoyable exchange.


6. Don’t forget how important you are and how the smallest of your gestures can change your day and the day of those around you in a big way.  A smile, a note to acknowledge a job well done, a friendly exchange – these are all small ways to bring us back to our humanness and remind us that we are an interconnected web of beings working together – one happy person can lift a whole team and transform the workplace.


7. Be grateful.  There is a tremendous value in just taking the time to say thank you.  It may be that you just express a silent gratitude for the fact that you are gainfully employees, or it may be that you actually reach out and thank those who make your work possible.  However you do it, a simple thanks can go a long way.