Does your work make you happy? I mean really make you grin from ear to ear?
I pinch myself every day that mine does now.
But I don’t share this fact to be smug. I haven’t always felt this way about my career!
Back in 2015, ‘on paper’ you’d be forgiven for thinking I had it all.
A senior ‘Head of Talent and Engagement’ job title, a decent pay cheque, a senior management team role, shares, flexible hours… plus a loving family and a beautiful home.
To the naked eye, everything looked just peachy.
But the truth was my post-maternity leave imposter syndrome was out of control.
And what I referred to then as my ‘paranoia’ – but now refer to as my ‘intuition’ – was running riot.
Becoming a mum for the first time in 2014 was the ultimate test of self-trust and autonomy for me and I found that I craved these things all the more when I returned to work.
I also see now that my role no longer aligned to my definition of ‘work happiness’. Or at least my definition of ‘work happiness’ had changed since I’d become a mother.
I’ve found this to be recurring pattern amongst my clients, and that significant life events, such as motherhood (and Covid!), seem to change our perspective on what’s important. What we want and need in our lives. What would make us happy personally and professionally.
After 15 plus years of working in the fields of work happiness and development, and another five of working as a coach, I’ve identified what I class as the key ingredients for work happiness and I’ve combined them in a model I refer to as ‘Your Work Happiness Blueprint’.
In other words, when you identify your own personal ingredients in this model and weave them into the fabric of your work life, you’ll find work happiness and make the impact you want to make in your professional life.
This model is underpinned by positive psychology and neuroscience, and I’ve used it with hundreds of clients over the past five years to great success.
When my own ‘paranoia’ was confirmed and my role was made redundant a few months after returning from my first maternity leave back in 2015, it gave me the perfect opportunity (ok, shove!) to try something new.
A new way of working that would be more ‘me-shaped’ and fit around my young family.
And so I built a business around my own ‘Work Happiness Blueprint’. And around my ‘why’ of empowering disillusioned women to create more work happiness on their terms.
Latterly, this why has evolved to help women leave their 9-5 careers so they can shape, start and grow happy, purpose-led businesses. On their terms. Around their own definitions of work happiness.
I’d love to chat if you’d like a hand to shape, start and grow a business that makes you smile from ear to ear again.
This article was written by our partner coach, Sarah Clarke.
April 21, 2022
