The Happiness Project

I just finished reading this book and I loved it. I had been waiting to read it for about a month. I had ordered it on Amazon and it ended up never coming so I had to cancel and then reorder. Once it arrived I read it in three days.


I've been thinking a lot about happiness these past few months and what I want to do with my life, five year and ten year kind of plan thing. I am not unhappy, but I think it will be good for me to really think about what I am trying to achieve. So I am going to be focusing this week on happiness related to my career.


I started out this blog almost two years ago now. It seems like such a long time ago! The purpose at the time was to write about what it was like starting a career in London. I wanted to capture the experience of what it was like to go from a very familiar and established environment (Minneapolis) to something completely unknown (London) and share what it was like to find a job and then what it was like working in London.


The only issues is now that I am working I can't really write about it. I want to respect the privacy of the people I work with and there's always the issue of not knowing who's going to be reading, which can be a bit of a pain if things aren't going so well. So I am going to write a bit about what it is ideally that I want out of work.


I would describe myself as an ambitious self directed person who has always been able to figure things out and make things hap


My career is important to me, I like work. My guiding philosophy has always been I do what I love and love what I do. When I look back over my CV/resume I am happy with every single job that's listed there. I've looked for challenging opportunities. I believe that when you do something you love it doesn't feel like work at all.


What do I want from work? I want to be part of a thriving dynamic and energetic team. I want to work with people who are excited to get out of bed and get to work.  I also at some point want to lead a team. I have always been a natural leader and can see myself working towards that.  I thrive on collaboration. I of course am able to work on my own, but I enjoy working with other people.


 I want to get better at what I am doing and be constantly learning. I want to be productive and make things happen. I like people and am  good at getting people to work together. I also am not precious with my ideas and am open to other people's points of view. Of course I think I have great ideas, but I am not afraid to have them challenged and expanded upon. I want to be busy. I want to make mistakes, to take risks and to really push things. I want to be so excited about an idea that it wakes me up in the middle of the night. I want to solve problems.


 I do feel very happy with what I've achieved in London. I remember reading on the UK Yankee forum back in 2008 about people who were never able to work in their chosen fields and worrying that I might end up doing something completely unrelated. Hard work has paid off and I am proud to say that I've been working in my chosen industry.


So I am going to spending some time this week thinking about career goals. I've got an informational interview coming up with a successful lady and a new mentor which I am very excited about.


Lots of exciting things are happening!