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The One Thing You can Control at Work

This article was sparked from dropping my eldest at the enrichment centre. Before I left her for class, I told her to "Enjoy Youself!". Then I stayed for a short moment while she walked in, and overhead many parents telling their kids like "Pay attention.", "Speak loudly today." "Get more stars (the teacher will give a number of stars according to their performance)", and so on. None asked their kids to enjoy. Seems like the focus is performance.

Well, let me set it right. I expect my child to pay attention in class, and speak up when she knows the answer or have some stuff to say. My intention of enjoyment is definitely NOT just playing other things while the teacher teaches. However, what I hope is through the class, she finds things that she enjoys. It's a Chinese enrichment class. So it could be finding enjoyment in reading, listening, or interacting with others in Chinese. Whatever it is, as long as she enjoys something from the lesson. Whether she shows that she is the best or read the loudest in the class is not essential, unless that's something she enjoys.

This makes me wonder, instead of hoping for a smooth day at work, or a fruitful day and so on, why don't we enjoy a day at work? Instead of focusing on the things that we do not enjoy at work, why not complete all the tasks and at the same time, be mindful of the things that we enjoy and really savour it. Make that the highlight of the day. After all, we could be spending more time at work than anything else. This enjoyment could be doing an analysis that you are passionate about, reading up on a work related topic that interests you, talking to a colleague to understand more about what they do, negotiating with your favorite client, savoring the delicious coffee in pantry, working with a software that is only available in your company's computer, and so on.

For most of us, we can't fully control who our boss is, what we need to do, how our clients react, and so on.  These are external factors that have too many dependent variables. However, we definitely can control our mindset, and this in turn controls how we behave or react to things.

You have chosen to work today, so enjoy your day at work!

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