There are many reasons people feel stuck at work.
"Is it that you don't like the people that you work with?" says happiness expert Jessica Weiss as a possible reason. "Is it that there's no growth opportunity? Is it that you know you're not having any learning opportunities?"
Luckily, she says, there are ways to up your joy at work even when you're hitting a wall. They're "the solution to 99.9% of problems."
Here are two tactics to consider.
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1. 'Build into your day the sense of accomplishment'
To begin with, carve out some time to make progress on a project. Specifically, make time for a project that you both enjoy doing and that requires deep work and quiet concentration.
"For me it's about writing, because I love writing," says Weiss, adding that, "for somebody who works in finance or works in numbers, maybe it's about creating this amazing spreadsheet that analyzes things on a whole new level."
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You can't control every aspect of your day. There is busy work that needs to get done and tasks you'll enjoy less than others. But carving out that time to move a project you enjoy forward by really focusing can help to unleash a sense of satisfaction.
2. 'Make it a top priority to find and make friends at work'
Find a friend — and make sure to spend some time with them.
Even "if you're doing the most miserable work possible," says Weiss, "if you're doing it with people that you really like, you can still really enjoy it." Having those relationships is the biggest driver of happiness on the job.
"Make it a top priority to find and make friends," she says. Try striking up a conversation with people who have lunch at the same time you do and sit around you. Or pay someone a compliment after a successful presentation they made.
Whatever you do, she says, "going out of your way to make friends at work is going to be a game changer."
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