By Seiki "Stan" Hirota
Originally published November 20, 2019 on LinkedIn
There is a phrase that is often used in the U.S. that bothers me every time I hear it, and I have been thinking for a while why it bothers me. The phrase is “Thank god it’s Friday.”
After a lot of thought, I think this phrase bothers me because the collective act of counting down the week to Friday implies that any excitement is placed on a pause until the weekend. How could this be? If you are in business, you’re duty is to serve others. How could you serve the customers and provide them with a superior experience if you are not excited throughout the week?
So why can’t we be excited every day? Why is Friday happy and why is Monday blue? What is stopping us from having a “Magic Monday,” “Awesome Tuesday,” “Thankful Wednesday,” and “Terrific Thursday?”
Research shows that more than 70% of workers in the US, who are currently employed, are not happy at their work and are looking for another job. If you are not happy at work, rather than to seek for another job, you should probably do something about it.
If 70% of workers in the U.S. are not happy, the chances for you to be happy in a new job is probably slim because no one is going to resolve the unhappiness for you. What I would like to suggest instead, is to be a positive influence and impact, and to facilitate finding ways to evolve the organization together, to create a more optimal working state. In doing so, I believe the words of Dalai Lama will give us a good guidance.
“One positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” -Dalai Lama
If you can maintain your excitement every day to serve the customers that you love, and stay positive as taught by Dalai Lama throughout each day, I believe that you will start having positive influence and impact to the organization that you belong to.
As humans, we all have longing for meaningful work and fulfilling life. If you are in business, meaningful work always start from figuring out how to provide meaningful value to the customers that you serve. If you are excited about constantly improving the meaningful value that you provide for your customers, this should lead to a purpose and a high-quality relationships that breed productivity, performance and job satisfaction.
Dalai Lama preaches that happiness is a state of mind, so if you are willing to take ownership, it is possible to be happier at work. Just a small positive thought in the morning can make your work situation easier to stomach, moving forward without resorting to a drastic change. All you need is a small shift in the status quo with a positive thought.
Let’s take ownership and change “Blue Monday” into a “Happy Monday” and all the other work days something that is magic, awesome, thankful, and terrific.