Turn On Your ‘GPS’ For A Happier, Healthier Workplace

Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass; it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

 – Vivian Greene

You already have it! The innate desire to celebrate and be celebrated. In fact, our brains are hard-wired to be magnetically drawn towards a “reward” state, or a state ripe for celebration.

With a little “recalculation” and open reception we can learn to access and enjoy a better state of mind and life.

Embrace the ‘Celebration Mindset’ 

What can we celebrate?

Milestones, Mondays, one less cup of coffee today, failures, faults, holidays, achievements, finding your keys… and that’s just the beginning. Failures can and should be celebrated!

Celebration is about acknowledging all that is good in your life. Even what may appear to be a disaster can be “recalculated” if we focus on the gifts to be discovered and lessons to be learnt.

How can we celebrate? 

Imagine the last really great day you had. Everything was going your way, good news flooded in, you were just happy!

Are you happy every day? Why not?

You could be – you just need to turn on your “GPS”.

In a survey, we asked, “What is essential in making a celebration successful?”

Time and again, three words were mentioned: Gratitude, Play, and Surprise. G-P-S!

Let’s start with simple definitions for this context:

• Gratitude: Appreciation for all the good things we have in our life.
• Play: Having fun, living in the moment, staying open, curious and playful.
• Surprise: Including the element of the unexpected.

Let’s explore further.

Courtesy | pexels.com

READ: As Adults, We Need More Play

1. Gratitude 

Every morning ask yourself this question: What am I grateful for today? If you can’t think of anything, check the obituary section of the newspaper.

If your name is not there, that’s your “something to be grateful for”.

Food on the table, close relationships, health, a job, security, the air you breathe, a sunset, love in your heart – celebrate yourself and your many blessings!

Have a Post-It Party! Write down as many nice things as you can about the person or team you’re celebrating and start posting.

Post it on a computer monitor, a filing cabinet, a map on the wall, a family photo, or anywhere else in the unsuspecting recipient’s space.

When you practise being thankful, you attract more of that which you appreciate into your life.

Life coach Anthony Robbins puts it this way, “When you are grateful, fear disappears and abundance appears.”

2. Play 

A great way to incorporate play is to create humour rituals in the workplace. I know – you’re busy and don’t have a lot of time to waste. But I also know that if you’re too busy to play, you’re just too busy.

A quick “play” break will pay off in greater creativity and productivity. How to set the stage? Some companies will go out on a limb to bring this philosophy to life.

Jolene Selby tells us that the management of a government agency in Washington DC (WA) was determined to bring back a child-like state in their employees with “Get in touch with your inner-child Day”.

Each year on this day, all employees are encouraged to wear their pyjamas to work – appropriate ones, that is. The day starts with Captain Crunch and Cocoa Puffs. Cartoons run continuously in the break room, where anyone can stop by and tap into his/her inner child.

Candy and kids’ snacks are available throughout the day. Afternoon breaks include games such as “Pin the Tail on the Donkey”. Sing-alongs and pillow fights inspire adults to let go of worries and stresses.

This leads to creative brainstorming sessions, looking through the eyes of a child. It’s amazing the amount of good ideas a team can produce when inhibitions are gone.

Some companies take it even a step further. Explore Consulting in Bellevue, WA has a Nerf-gun shooting range, and Google headquarters in San Francisco, California has a built-in slide. Employees there have no excuse not to play!

This allows everyone to regain their sense of wonder, spontaneity, curiosity and playfulness while approaching the day’s opportunities without limitations.

3. Surprise 

Surprise is invigorating! Odette Huang, an accomplished hotelier for leading hotels in Asia, excels at surprising both employees and customers.

A case in point. Guests booking the Royal Plaza online are asked if they are celebrating something special. One couple wrote that they were celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.

The customer relations team tracked down their daughter, got a wonderful photo from their wedding, used Photoshop to improve the picture quality and gave it an attractive frame.

When the couple arrived, Huang invited them up to the Club Lounge together with the general manager, Patrick Fiat, and the customer relations team.

There, they sang “Happy Anniversary” and presented the framed photo to the astonished and teary-eyed couple.

Keep up the momentum 

Can you feel that celebration mindset taking hold yet? Good. Then you have officially turned on your GPS. Now, how do we keep it running?

Start by making it a commitment to face each moment of the day with as much gratitude, playfulness and surprise as you can muster. Your GPS will help you embrace the positive emotions of curiosity, spontaneity, passion, joy and love for all you do.

Remember, each of us has a choice at how we look at things. We can mope in the rain, or we can be thankful for the gift of moisture and carry a bright yellow, polka-dot umbrella.

Practise gratitude, and you will forever enrich your life.

When you operate with your GPS turned “on”, something good is bound to happen. Give yourself a turbo boost to unprecedented levels of well-being, productivity, and success… one celebration at a time.

In other words, life can make you bitter, or life can make you better. Choose better – choose GPS. And let’s keep the celebration going!

Scott Friedman will be speaking at the Malaysia Leadership Summit 2019: Connect, Collaborate, Contribute on July 11, 2019. To find out more and register for the event, head to leaderonomics.com/mls-2019. Tickets for this event are HRDF claimable.

Article first appeared on LinkedIn.

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To check out how Leaderonomics lived up to the naughty-but-nice ‘Play’ culture, sit back and enjoy these videos: