For me, the start of a new year is a time to recharge the batteries with a few weeks off, and rethink about my personal work and home life. I usually try to unplug completely, and preferably take a few long-distance drives to see relatives to clear my mind. This gives me clarity to work through the past year and begin to think about what I want to work on in the year ahead. Over the holidays I had the good fortune to run across an article that aided my annual processing. In the December 21 edition of BusinessWeek, Marshall and Kelly Goldsmith share results of a study about happiness and meaning at work and at home, and they come away with some very interesting conclusions.
In a study that is at the heart of the appropriately titled forthcoming book, Mojo: How to Get It, How to Keep It, How to Get It Back If You Lose It, the Goldsmiths interviewed more than 3,000 professionals about what gives those people short-term satisfaction (happiness) and long-term benefit (meaning). The biggest finding from their survey is that there is a very high correlation between people’s happiness and meaning at work and home—”in other words, those who experience happiness and meaning at work tend also to experience them outside of work. Those who are miserable on the job are usually miserable at home.”
Because full-time workers spend the majority of their waking hours on the job, we might as well admit that happiness and meaning at work is the key to both in life overall. I have always felt this to be the case for myself, but I am surprised that so many others feel the same way. This idea lies in the epilogue of my book, where I describe how Marketing with Meaning not only helps improve sales and customers’ lives, but by doing the latter, we enjoy our work much more.
Another key insight in this study is that “since work and home are very different environments, our experience of happiness and meaning in life appears to have more to do with who we are than where we are.” In other words, we are responsible for our own happiness and meaning—not passive beneficiaries or victims of our work or home environments. If we are unhappy, we must take control and make changes to get to a better place.
These two lessons are what I work to practice and improve upon every year. I accept that my work has a huge impact on my home and family life, and I work to shape my career to better tap into what makes me happy and what makes life meaningful. In 2009 I had the chance to progress very well on this in seeing my book published, in watching our company grow revenue and staff at a double-digit rate, and in providing opportunities for our employees to succeed with new clients and challenges.
On the other hand, there are a few other goals that I hoped to accomplish but fell short on. After reading this article I sat down to commit to some goals that will make me happier, accomplish more meaningful results, and help our company continue to grow and succeed. One big one is to see the “Marketing with Meaning” concept take on a life of its own beyond me. For me to accomplish my goals, the concept cannot just be a “Bob thing” or even a “Bridge Worldwide thing.” I can only succeed if you make the concept your own, and, as a result find happiness and meaning in your work/home life by creating marketing that people choose to engage with, and advertising that itself adds value.
Thank you for stopping by to read this blog or the book, and let me know how I can help myself succeed by helping you create more meaningful marketing.
I completely agree, and I think this applies to university students as well, where engaging meaningfully in class leads to a more positive life outside of class. I hope many people can create meaningful marketing and meaningful work which in turn has a positive effect on their own lives and the lives of the people they reach through their work.
Bob,
Great insights on the correlation between happiness and finding meaning at both work and home.
This is my favorite from your post, “our experience of happiness and meaning in life appears to have more to do with who we are than where we are.”
It reminds me of a story about a family that was moving into a new town. They stopped just before the city limits and asked an old man, “What it like in that town . . . what are the people like?”. He thought about it for a second and replied, “What were the people like where you came from?”. The family then launched into a tirade on how everyone was unfriendly and miserable.” The old man said quickly, “Well, you’ll find the people in the town unhappy and dreary”. Just a few minutes later another family stopped the same man. They were also moving into the town and posed the same question. In similar fashion the old man asked what the people were like where they came from. The family gushed about how open, generous and caring their neighbors were. The old man pondered and replied, “You’ll find the people in our town easygoing, friendly and happy”.
Best,
Stan
@9inchmarketing
#PurpleGoldfishProject
I read and was inspired by that BusinessWeek article as well.
One thing that stood out to me was the idea that so many people (surprisingly, as you pointed out) understand the direct relationship between happiness & meaning at work and at home, yet many of the people I know seem to think work HAS to be an unpleasant chore. Things that inspire passion and create meaning, I’m told, are best as “hobbies.”
That has never made sense to me. There are certain things–style, marketing, social media, creating opportunities for others–that make me positively giddy. One of my goals for 2010 is to “shape my career to better tap into what makes me happy and what makes life meaningful.”
Thanks for the reminder.