How to find career happiness - Strategies of dealing with unhappiness at work

This blog post is aimed at those of you who can't always leave their job straight away and gives you some strategies to deal with unhappiness before you find another job or go to pastures new. When you realise you are unhappy at work you can't always leave your job straight away. This blog post gives you some strategies to deal with the unhappiness before you find another job or are able to plan for an alternative option. 

Please see three tips I share around this to support you with dealing with unhappiness at work.

1. Balance yourself everyday - Meditation is a key practice to restoring balance in your life. You can practice meditation or mindfulness to help relieve stress and get rid of worrying thoughts. It also helps you keep calm and grounded. I would also add here by doing positive affirmations  every morning after you meditate your mind will also be focused on having a good day. An example of a positive affirmation to help you cope with your working day could be "I am going to have a good day today no matter what". This will help you stay in this positive frame of mind no matter how stressed or overwhelmed you may feel. It will also allow you to cope with the happiness in a calm way where you are not becoming anxious about feeling overwhelmed etc. To find some examples of affirmations you can visit YouTube. 

2. Expressing your emotions - When you are unhappy at work you are likely to be suffering from a myriad of emotions and that's ok. Expressing these emotions can sometimes be really hard especially if you know you are putting on a bit of an act at work and pretending everything is ok when its not. This is where expressing your emotions is very important. Take some time to write in a journal either first thing in the morning or last thing at night. Write down free hand how you are feeling about everything for at least 10-15 minutes. Then read it back if you have had an especially horrible week or day at work this will help you reflect on your feelings and allow you to see how you feeling without bottling things up. You may have a friend or partner you can share your concerns with and talking to someone can also really help too. Be open and honest about your situation and remember if you are unhappy at work that's ok. Just be kind to yourself here and remember your situation isn't permanent its something you can get out. 

3. Exercise - If you are not releasing your emotions other feelings can also pop up. That is why exercise is an amazing way to release anger, stress and anxiety. If your unhappiness is causing you to feel depressed exercise can really help elevate your mood. When we exercise we release endorphins, Which is hormone that makes us feel good. It also helps us feel less stressed, energised and overall improves our mood. So exercising regularly whilst unhappy a work will help you cope day to day. If you feel frustrated at work and about your current situation this will help you feel more relaxed and release this frustration whilst helping you feel better. Notice periods can take time and this could help you cope with a long notice period at work or pending redundancy. 

4. Doing something fun - Your work life balance is important so it's important to do something fun just for you. This could be anything that you enjoy doing like going on a mini break, having a massage or doing something which is a hobby for you and spending the whole day doing it. For example if you like cooking maybe going to a cooking class for the day or doing something different like a dance class. This will help you to relax and not think about any work issues you may be having. Also its important to do things like this so that you remember the things you do life and you restore any unhappiness you may be feeling at work. 

I really hope that these tips help you whether you are thinking about getting a new job. Or have recently quit and are looking for a new job. It's important to remember however stressed you may feel now this time will pass and you will definitely get through it. 

If you are career unhappy and want more tips around what to with coping with being in job that you can’t currently leave you may also want to check out Episode 31 of the podcast. This episode is all about What to do if you work in a toxic environment and want a new job. To listen to the episode please go here

Hope you this blog encourages you in moving forward and wishing your career happiness.