Turn The Job You Have Into A Job You Love

Job Crafting

Ever been asked to do something at work you didn’t really want to do?

Perhaps you’re weren’t sure if you could really pull it off.  Or you just didn’t want to spend your days wrapped up in this particular work.  Or maybe you thought your boss had gone completely mad!

A few years ago I found myself in exactly this situation.  I was asked to take on what most people in my organization considered an impossible task to reposition our brand with a tiny budget, a small team and a tight deadline.   And I really wasn’t that keen on spending the next year of my life on this particular project.

Unfortunately my career progression depended on me not just doing it – but doing it well.

So what can you do when the job you have, isn’t the job you want?

Using Your Strengths To Craft Your Job

Of course one of the best ways to make a job easier, more engaging and more enjoyable is to try and find ways to use your strengths – the things you like doing and that you’re good at – in your work each d

ay.

But if your job description wasn’t written with your strengths in mind and the day -to-day demands of your job have you running around like a headless chicken, just how are you meant to find time to play to your strengths?

Personally I was saved by the research of Professors Jane Dutton and Amy Wrezneuski who have discovered crafting your job by changing where you choose to spend your time and energy and how you think about it, can help you reclaim your power, motivation and relationships no matter what your job is.

In today’s episode of Chelle McQuaid TV , I’ll show you exactly how to use the  job crafting toolkit created by Dutton and her colleagues to reshape the work you dread, into work you’ll actually love because it draws on your strengths.

Not only did the approaches I discovered mean my team and I were actually able to deliver the project on time, on budget and exceed every measure set for us, but it made the work I dreaded far more engaging and enjoyable and wound up getting me promoted the job I dreamed of.

How Can You Craft A Job You Love

Take a few minutes to note done all the tasks required in your job.  Now divide them into those you enjoy and those you feel drained by.  The ones you enjoy are usually are good indication of where your strengths lie.

Think about what you could do to grow those things you enjoy doing just a little more in your day.  Remember for me even 11 minutes a day shifted the way I felt and performed.  This might involve changing the type and number of tasks you undertake.  It might mean thinking about who you spend your time with.  It might mean thinking about how you think about some elements of your work.

Then experiment with what’s possible.  Move past your own expectations of how you “should’ spend your time and find small moments – even if it’s at lunch time or just before your day starts – to use your strengths and shine.  It’s likely everything else in your day will go better because you did.

If you want more help to develop your strengths grab my free video training series.  I also recommend the step-by-step video on job crafting,

What would you change to craft the job you have into  a job you love?  If you’d like a little help with more practical, tested approaches to play with just ask below!

- See more at: http://www.michellemcquaid.com/job-crafting/

What’s The Secret To Flourishing?

What’s The Secret To Flourishing?

What does it take to make your well-being last?  Day in, day out, through the natural highs and lows of life?

Ever had one of those moments where you feel like you’re truly flourishing?  When everything seems to magically come together – what you’re doing, who you’re doing it with, how you’re feeling about it and where it’s taking you in life.

There’s no doubt I’ve had moments of flourishing like this in my career.  The problem was it always seemed more serendipity than strategy, meaning I never knew when these moments were going to land, or how how long they were going to last!

Until I discovered there was a formula for flourishing. Want to know what it suggests?

What scientists discovered about flourishing

Professor Martin Seligman from the University of Pennsylvania, and one of the founders of the field of positive psychology, has proposed a new theory of well-being based on a growing body of evidence of what it takes for people to flourish.  The science suggests we perform at our best when we have a presence of:

• Healthy levels of positive emotions
• Regular opportunities for engagement
• The support of good relationships
• A general sense of meaning
• Genuine feelings of accomplishment

Otherwise known as PERMA.

It’s a simple theory of well-being, but there is evidence to suggest that each of these elements can help us feel happier leading us to feel more motivated, efficient, resilient, creative, collaborative and productive.  I don’t know about you, but I could sure use a bit more of that!

In today’s new episode of Chelle McQuaid TV, I’ll share with you just how you can go about improving each of these elements to help you to flourish.

How can you consistently flourish?

If you haven’t yet figured out how your well-being is faring, then take the free survey on my website and see how you’re doing.

Then put at least one of the tested, practical approaches to improve your level of flourishing into action today. Try to start this as a small, everyday habit – even for just ten minutes a day if you’re very busy – and see how it begins to impact your ability to flourish.

Want more on how to flourish?  You can read more about it here in Seligman’s book “Flourish”and watch him talk more about how this new theory to well-being differs from the simple pursuit of happiness with Jeremy Paxman on the BBC .

And if you want a little help on your flourishing exercises just ask below!

- See more at: http://www.michellemcquaid.com/secret-to-flourishing/#sthash.uZBho4Js.dpuf

Can You Live Happily Ever After?

Will Your Happiness Last?

Have you ever gotten something you’ve longed for, or even dreamed of, only to find a strange twist often follows “…happily ever after”?

It’s that moment where you realize despite having exactly what you want, the shine has somehow worn off and instead of feeling like you’re flourishing you feel completely flat – maybe even weighed down – by what you’ve so hard to get.

I experienced this first hand when I was about 33 years old and landed the job of my dreams in New York.  My role let me travel around the world.  I had wonderful family and friends.  I was in great health.  And had more money than one girl needed to spend.

Instead of flourishing however, it was all I could do each day just to get out of bed.  I was exhausted, stressed out and miserable.

At first I thought I just needed a kick up the you-know-where to appreciate all I had.  When that didn’t work I started to wonder if perhaps I was going a little mad.  Until I uncovered a scientific discovery that put lasting happiness and well-being more practically within my grasp.  Want to know what it was?

How scientists discovered we adapt

Back in the 1970′s psychologists monitored Illinois State Lottery winners who’d won between $50,000 and $1 million.  A fairly positive life changing event that most people expected would let them live happily ever after.

It turns out however, just 12 months later, these winners were no happier than people who’d won nothing at all. So what’s going on?

The truth is human beings have a tremendous capacity to adapt to new relationships, jobs, and wealth, with the result that even such positive life changes yield fewer and fewer rewards with time.  Scientists call this phenomenon “hedonic adaptation.”

Hedonic adaptation explains why both the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat abate with time.

What’s particularly fascinating about this phenomenon, however, is that it’s most pronounced with respect to our happiest experiences. Indeed, it turns out that we’re prone to take for granted pretty much everything positive that happens to us. It’s why happiness never seems to last.

How does this happen?  Professor Sonja Lyubomirksy in her new book, “The Myths Of Happiness“, suggests adaptation is caused by the toll of creeping normalcy and the constant ramping up of expectations that causes us to seek out more, more and more.

While the rate at which we adapt to happiness seems to vary between people and situations, there can be no doubt that our brains thrive on novelty which is why happiness and well-being should never be the destination but the journey.

The good news is Lyubomirsky and her colleagues have found it’s possible to train our brains to overcome, forestall or at least slow down hedonic adaptation and in today’s new episode of Chelle McQuaid TV, I’ll share with you how you can use these approaches to help you consistently flourish.

How can you manage adaptation?

Personally I think over the years adaptation has probably been the thing that most undid my happiness and well-being.  Things that once made me flourish would stop working and I’d give up in a fit of despair.

Turns out all I really needed to be doing was practicing gratitude consistently, sprinkling a good dose of novelty across my well-being approaches and being clear on why some activities were important to me even when they became a little boring.  Most importantly I needed to stop comparing myself to others to put and end to always wanting more, more and more to head off adaptation.

Which of these approaches can you use to reclaim your sense of happiness and well-being from the creeping shadows of adaptation?

You can read more about it here in Lyubomirksy’s book “The Myths of Happiness”and watch her talk more about adaptation here .

And if you want a little help managing adaptation just ask!

- See more at: http://www.michellemcquaid.com/making-happiness-last/

Need An Energy Boost?

Ever have one of those mornings where your energy is so low you’re struggling to get out of bed?  The thought of all the things you’ve got to pull off is enough to make you want to put that duvet right back over your head?

Even after all these years and all I’ve learnt about well-being, I still have days when all I want to do is crawl back under the covers.  Despite all my good intentions about the life I want to be living, sometimes the fears and the failures leave my energy levels running on empty.

Sick of sleep walking my way through life, lately I revisited one of my favorite positive psychology tools to help me tune in more closely to what boosts my energy and what depletes it.  Want to see how I found the energy to show up for the life I want to be living?

How Your Emotions Impact Your Energy

Professor Barbara Fredrickson‘s research suggests when we strike the right balance between the amount of positive and negative emotions we’re experiencing, we reach a tipping point that gives us the intellectual, psychological, physical and social energy to flourish.

Fredrickson‘s studies have found negative emotions like fear, anxiety and stress spark a downward spiral of negativity that cause us to feel helplessness, despair and left unchecked leave us to languish with very little energy.

On the other hand positive emotions like joy, hope, love, interest, pride, amusement, serenity, pride, gratitude, inspiration and awe spark an upward spiral of positivity that improves our sense of confidence, self-belief and ultimately move us towards flourishing so we have the energy to live a life we love.

The goal is not to get rid of all negativity.  Although it can sap up our energy, negativity that we can learn and grow from is a healthy part of human development. Rather, Fredrickson suggests the goal is find the right balance between the amount of negative emotions and positive emotions we’re experiencing.

While there’s hot debate in the scientific community about what this level might be, it’s important – like any piece of research – you put it to the test to find what’s best for you.  In today’s episode of Chelle McQuaid TV, I’ll show you how you can do just this to boost your energy levels.

How To Boost Your Energy

To see what you can do to boost your energy levels start by taking Fredrickson’s free positivity ratio test.  It takes about two minutes and she recommends you do it for two weeks to get an accurate gauge on how you’re doing rather than let one day skew your results.

As you track your positivity try to pay attention to what’s creating positive emotions in life and what’s creating negative emotions.  Notice how this impacts your energy levels each day.

Finally, experiment with what you can do to dial up your positive emotions or dial down your negative emotions to improve your ratio.

In her book “Positivity”, Fredrickson suggests dialing up your positivity by getting close to nature, performing acts of kindness, ritualizing gratitude, connecting with others and meditate regularly.  Try dialing down negativity by avoiding sarcasm and gossip, monitoring your media consumption and breaking the grip of rumination.  You can watch Fredrickson talking more about these strategies here.

By tracking my positivity ratio I became much more aware of how my energy ebbed and flowed over the course of a day based on the experiences I was having.  It helped to remind me that when the negativity is piling up, I don’t need to just crawl back into bed.  Instead by injecting some positive emotions back into my day, I can balance out what I’m experiencing and find the energy to continue showing up.

What are your favorite approaches to recharge your energy?  How do you slay the energy zappers in your life? And if you’d like a little help with more practical, tested approaches to play with just ask below!

- See more at: http://www.michellemcquaid.com/

Sick Of Feeling Stressed Out?

Sick Of Feeling Stressed Out?

Are you feeling stressed out?  Don’t worry it happens to the best of us!

When I’m trying to learn something new, pulling off something at work I haven’t tried before or just keeping all of life’s balls in the air at once – even today – I can feel my levels of stress mounting up!

Luckily a little bit of stress isn’t bad for us.  In fact it can narrow our focus and get us concentrating on the one thing we most need to pull off at that moment.

Left unchecked however, as stress begins to accumulate – hour after hour, day after day, month after month and even sometimes year after year – it can wreak havoc on our performance, our relationships and our health.  Our bodies simply weren’t built to handle that much cortisol – our stress hormone – without regular breaks.

So what can you do to protect your well-being when you’re starting to feel overwhelmed by stress?  Check this out.

How To Reset Your Stress Levels

Professor Barbara Fredrickson’s research suggests that positive emotions – like joy, hope, love, interest, pride, amusement, serenity, pride, gratitude, inspiration and awe – can short circuit the impact of stress when it’s undermining our well-being.

How does this work?

Fredrickson and her colleagues decided to induce stress in research participants by telling them they might have to shortly give a public speech to a roomful of strangers on why they were a good friend. Sure enough stress levels shot up as measured by the activation of participants sympathetic nervous system with the appearance of sweaty hands, increased heart rate and increased blood pressure.

After a minute or so, participants were told they were off the hook and asked to simply watch a randomly assigned video clip that generated a positive, neutral or negative emotion as measures were taken on how long it took them to recover from their state of anxiety.

Those who experienced positive emotions had the fastest recovery from the impact of stress.  Those who experienced the neutral or negative emotions had the slowest recovery from stress.

Fredrickson calls this the “undo effect” of positive emotions.

In today’s episode of Chelle McQuaid TV, I’ll show you how experiencing heartfelt positive emotions can literally put the breaks on negativity and help you to rebound physically and emotionally when you’re feeling stressed out.

Five Ways To Undo Stress

Five of my favorite practical, tested ways to undo stress include:

• Getting close to nature – going outside when the weather is good has been found to boost your positivity and expand your thinking.
• Doing something kind – helping someone else takes your mind off your troubles and connects you to something larger than yourself.
• Finding something to laugh about – watching a funny video, reading a funny story or talking to someone who makes you laugh induces feel-good chemicals into your brain.
• Savoring something positive – think about something good that’s happened in the past or that’s coming up in your future and literally jump up and down for joy like you did when you were a child to experience heartfelt positivity.
• Slowing down – taking some deep, slow breaths and if you can mixing in a short period of meditation helps to calm your heart rate and get the blood flowing through your brain so it’s more fully engaged to cope with what your facing.

In her book “Positivity”, Fredrickson suggests a whole lot of other practical, tested ways you can also inject an experience of positive emotions when you’re feeling stressed out.  You can watch Fredrickson talking more about these strategies here.

The goal here is not to get rid of all stress.  Remember a little bit of stress isn’t bad for us. Sometimes it’s exactly the kick in the pants we need to get focused and moving on what’s important.  Rather your intention should be to become more aware of when stress is serving you well and when it’s undermining your well-being, and then be able to act in ways that support your journey to flourishing.

What are your favorite ways to inject some positive emotions when you’re feeling stressed out? If you’d like a little help with more practical, tested approaches to play with just ask below!

Unleash Your Best Performance

Unleash Your Best Performance

When was the last time you were really performing at your best at work?  Today?  Last week?  Last month?  Last year? 
You know those moments when you feel like you’re in the zone and everything is coming together.  You lose all track of time.  You might not feel anything much in the moment, but afterwards you have that real sense of satisfaction of having done something well. 
Great ideas are flying.  You’re getting the right people on board.  Solid plans are being executed.  And exceptional results are materializing. 
Don’t you think it would be handy if you create more of these moments – just when you most need it?  Then keep reading! 

The Secret To Your Best Performances

Professor Mike Csikszentmihalyi from Claremont University has found that when we’re able to strike the right balance between our skills and the challenges we’re undertaking we become so absorbed and involved in that moment that enter the state he calls “flow”. 
Now if the task is too easy, the we risk slipping into boredom,  If it’s too hard, we draft towards anxiety.  But when the level of challenge for our strengths is “just right” we hit the goldilocks moment of flow where our sense of engagement is at its very best. 
In today’s episode of Chelle McQuaid TV , I’ll show you how to create moments of flow to unleash your best performances.

click to watch video 

How Can You Unleash Your Best Performances More Often?

Now this might surprise you but Csikszentmihalyi’s research has found that work is an ideal place to create flow experiences because we’re often finding our strengths are being stretched by the challenges presented to us.

Chances are you already experience flow sometimes in your work.  So start to pay attention to the moments where you’re feeling really engaged and energized and give yourself permission to spend more time performing at your best.  It’s good for you and for your business.

As you approach different tasks think about:

• the goal you’re trying to achieve
• which strengths you can draw on to get the job done. – try to match your strengths to the task
• seeking feedback on how you’re doing.

This will help you continue to match and stretch your strengths to the tasks you’re undertaking so you’re consistently performing at your best.

In his book Flow, Csikszentmihalyi suggests different ways you can perform at your best from work, to play and in your relationships..  You can watch a video of Csikszentmihalyi sharing his work on peak performances here.

What are your favorite flow activities?  If you’d like a little help with more practical, tested approaches to play with just ask below!

- See more at: http://www.michellemcquaid.com

What’s Your Greatest Strength?

Have you discovered your strengths – the things you like doing and that you’re good at – only to wonder what on earth you do next? 

If you’re lucky enough to work for one of the growing list of organizations now encouraging their people to use their strengths, chances are you’ve been asked to complete a survey of some kind to help you identify what you do best.  It might have been the free VIA Survey, the Gallup StrengthFinder or Realize.

The challenge for most of us then comes in trying to figure out just how do we go about using our strengths to make it easier to achieve our goals, lower our levels of stress and improve our well-being. 

Luckily scientists have recently discovered a formula to guide us.  Want to know what it is? - 
See more at: http://www.michellemcquaid.com/greatest-strength/