I Found Happiness in My 9–5. Here’s How You Can Too.

In an ideal world, jobs would evolve in-line with societies aspiration for a better work/life balance. Unfortunately for us, the working world is lagging behind. Remote, flexible jobs do exist, you only have to look at social media to stumble upon content that promotes it, and I have no doubt that one day we will achieve the right balance between work and personal time, but can we afford to wait that long? In a world where depression, anxiety and unhappiness is seemingly at an all time high, surely there’s more urgency than waiting for a promised tomorrow.

Thankfully, you can make changes today that mean you don’t have to wait for that tomorrow.

I’m fast approaching the half-decade mark in my corporate 9–5 career. Like all jobs, it has had its ups and downs along the way, but I’m pleased to say that I am happier than I’ve ever been and, perhaps surprisingly to some of you reading this, I enjoy my 9–5. Here are the lessons I’ve learned along the way.

Lesson #1 — Create Boundaries

Early in my corporate career, I was eager to impress. I worked on the assumption that the numbers of hours I worked would be the foundation to my career growth, so I put in long hours, working well into the evenings and the occasional weekend. However, on reflection, I was very, very wrong.

There is a saying, “It’s not about how much time you have, it is how we use it”. This can be perfectly attributed to creating boundaries in a 9–5. You can put in all the hours that are given to you and you’ll never go anywhere in your career, or alternatively, you can limit the numbers of hours but instead focus on making them productive, meaningful hours.

To that end, the second step to creating boundaries is consistency. As I said before, a flexible working environment would be ideal, but is not always possible. However, I have found that creating a routine has a similar effect. For me, I logon to my work laptop at the same time every morning, and logoff at the same time every evening. I decline any meetings that are scheduled before or after those times and, after being consistent, people have come to understand and accept those boundaries.

So — create those boundaries.

Lesson #2 — Learn Something Every day

Perhaps this is more life advice than career advice, but nonetheless, I believe it to be a contributing factor to my happiness in my career.

Humans naturally want to progress and grow. It is in our DNA. It is a trait that has been essential to our success as a species and there’s no denying millions of years of evolution.

Learning something every day, even for 10 minutes, will directly contribute to your sense of fulfilment and, as a nice side benefit, help you grow in your career too. Whether it’s an online course, a YouTube tutorial or a self-help book, make sure you learn something every day.

Lesson #3 — Find Your Purpose

One of the biggest causes of depression and unhappiness is a lack of purpose. Humanity evolved in tribes and in those tribes, every human had a part to play. Whether hunter or gatherer, you had a purpose.

In the modern era, many people find themselves in jobs where they either don’t have a purpose, or that purpose doesn’t align with their values. If that’s you, you must change that. I can categorically tell you that if you feel you have no purpose, you will never be happy. Sounds harsh, right? Well, the truth sometimes hurts.

In some cases, you may not be looking for your purpose in the right place. For me, performing my corporate role isn’t my core purpose. It does however contribute to it. It allows me to grow as an individual, it allows me to aid in the development of others (which is one of my core values) and it enables me to live a fulfilling life outside of work (thanks to those boundaries I’ve created). So you see, your purpose doesn’t have to be the work itself, so long as the work you are doing helps to enable your wider purpose.

See the bigger picture.

Lesson #4 — Create ‘me’ Time

This final lesson is perhaps the most important.

During your working day, I implore you to create some “me” time. I don’t mean a coffee break, I am talking about real time to yourself. For me, I usually take 30 minutes at the same time every day to read a book. It allows me to escape the noise for a small amount of time and at the end of it, I feel focused and energised for the rest of the day.

You could use this time for anything but my recommendation would be to link it with self-development, whether that’s learning or exercising, as the combination of these two things is incredibly powerful.

Final Thoughts

So, there you have it. Four lessons on finding happiness in your 9–5. Give each of them a try, experiment with them and mould them to your liking, but please make some change if you aren’t feeling happy.

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