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Choose Happy! By Jane Wigg

September sees the launch of Happiness At Work Week. Undoubtedly, we have the ability to choose happiness! However, is it really that simple to make this choice, and what steps can we take to consistently choose this behavior each day?


One thing I know for certain is that it all comes down to attitude. Almost 25 years ago now, my Dad gave me a book called 'Fish.' It’s quite a life-changing book. It was about people working in a fish market and how working with the smells and the slime and the awful conditions could be so happy. The book's conclusion was that individuals have the power to 'choose their attitude'; they can choose to arrive at work feeling miserable, hating the smells, the conditions, and their job, or they can choose to adopt a happy attitude. Happy for the people they meet, the stories they hear and can retell, understanding the risks and conditions of the fishermen who put their lives at risk, the food they provide, and the friends that they have.


Several years ago, we conducted a survey of 160 lymphoedema therapists to understand why nurses lose their passion. We published it as the final paper in our 'Compendium of Best Practice'.


It talks about that 'negative voice in your head', how we deal with stress, and many other issues. It discusses how and why we lose our passion for the job that we do. It discusses what helps us love our job and why. This survey revealed that 10% of lymphoedema therapists faced workplace bullying! 10%. We learnt that managers took the therapists ‘passion’, that they knocked them back by not listening or understanding, and that the managers own thoughts, beliefs, and ‘attitude’ altered the therapist's feelings.



So how can we choose to change that? One saying is, ‘If you do a job you love, you never work a day in your life.' So choose to do the job you love. Many therapists and nurses love what they do; it's why we're here day in and day out, going above and beyond to give the best for the people that are trusting us with their health, their improvements, and their dreams. To keep your passion is important. The bottom line of how I maintain my passion for what I do is to never give up. It's to know that we make a difference. It's to know that I always go above and beyond and always want to try to give our patients (and students) the best that we can in order to allow them to deliver a better life.



How do we choose? First, we need to be conscious. When we wake up in the morning, be grateful for the day that's ahead of us, understanding that not everyone got to live this day. I wake up in the morning, and as I walk to the bathroom, I say, “Thank you, thank you, thank you."



I think about the little things I'm grateful for—the warm water of the shower, the coffee in the morning, the dog happy to see me!


Sometimes, looking at the small, lovely things and not having to look at the bigger, overwhelming picture, can make us feel like the world isn't on our shoulders.


Life is so busy, we have so much to do, and we have ‘to do lists’, it's often useful to have ‘achieved lists’. Reflect on what you have done and accomplished, what you have ticked off, knowing that you are moving forward on that ever-increasing list. Tick off those small achievements and accomplishments… Quoting to yourself, ‘I am succeeding; I have achieved X, Y, Z.’


When you get to a difficult situation and you can feel that you may be going downhill, be ‘conscious’, listen to that voice, hear it, and ignore it. Tune into your feelings, use your heart as a barometer, and if it feels good, continue on that path and if it doesn't feel good check in with yourself and switch to something you know that's going to make you feel good and make you feel happy.


We can go down a spiral with feelings, so be conscious and choose happy, get a mind movie in your head, think of the good things, think of where you want to be, who you want to be there with and imagine that.


Easier said than done? Sometimes yes, but sometimes, be conscious, hear the noise, switch the switch and choose happy. What you do today will affect tomorrow, but like any journey, we get on the road, maybe take a detour and get to the same place.


Choose happy, and if you’d like more to learn more of how to bring this to your everyday life… come join us on our turnabout training.



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