Happiness, Attitude and Action

by Peter Navarro
(Burlington, NJ, U.S.A.)

The year was 2003, I had just received a big promotion at work which effectively doubled my salary. At age 27 it felt like I had finally arrived. It wasn't long before I learnt that money does not equal happiness however.

You see my new role involved a heavy dose of project management and having never worked in project management before I was unaccustomed to the terminology "deliverables"; "timelines"; "stakeholders"; "milestones"; and my personal favorite "status reports".

The reality of the raised expectations coupled with the seemingly cut throat approach of some colleagues who either withheld support or simply avoided offering any support, caused me to slip into what could best be described as a mild depression.

You see I had allowed the increased ambiguity to dampen my self-confidence and told myself that I could not consider my input into the project as meaningful until we completed the project. After several months of this, it dawned upon me that unless I made some changes I would continue to be unhappy indefinitely.

Firstly, I decided that while I could not change the stressful situations that arose from time to time in project work, I could change how I reacted to them, viewing them as challenges which would allow me to grow vs. impossible tasks which sapped my enthusiasm.

Secondly, I realized that it was important to celebrate small successes vs. deferring all celebrations until the entire project was completed. This transformed my mood from being constantly anxious to one where I was more relaxed and actually enjoying my work.

Finally, I decided that I needed to boost my technical knowledge in order to perform my role better and enrolled in an accredited 2 year Project Management Course.

This final decision proved to be one of the best of my career as it allowed me to discover that the key to success and/or professional happiness lies in being as knowledgeable if not more than your colleagues.

If I had to summarize my journey from depression to happiness, and offer tips to another person going through a challenging time I would ask them to consider the following questions:

1) Could my attitude be a major factor in my current situation?

2) What actions can I take to improve my situation?

In my experience, happiness is achieved when attitude change is followed by action. So look inward and then make some changes.