Being a creative professional whether you are a freelancer, working a job or running your own creative venture wanting to feel happier and content is a very common desire.
But how when these days working in any way seems to expect us to be the creative producer, marketer, finance whizz and admin guru?
It’s just a road to nowhere thinking we can and are able to do it all, let alone any of it well or with joy. It’s no wonder so many of us are experiencing workplace stress, creative burnout and extended periods of our working lives present, but not really there or off sick.
So what are common steps to keeping your happiness and contentment jar replenishing?
Taking care of your physical and mental health: taking care of your physical and mental health can help you feel all your feelings and be more able to access joy, contentment and happy moments in your work and wider life.
Engaging in activities outside of work: making time for hobbies and other interests outside of work can help to balance the demands of your professional life and provide a sense of joy and fulfilment. The saying “if you do what you love you never work a day in your life” is a major hook to forget where the boundaries or work start and end.
Set realistic creative SMART goals and review regularly to create a feeling of progression: feeling that you are making a however small amount of progress towards your creative goals and experiencing a sense of accomplishment can be very rewarding. It’s a step-by-step process to achieve anything over time, so give yourself the roadmap, even if there will be dead ends, false starts and plenty of needing to course correct along the way.
Create a sense of purpose and meaning in your work: knowing your ‘WHY’ is the fuel to aid you to feel that what you are doing is bigger than you, the day-to-day. Feeling content and happy about our work is when we know how it links to our bigger values in life like growth, contribution, service, or stewardship
Having a sense of creative control over your work: feeling that you have agency and autonomy in your work can be empowering and lead to greater satisfaction. if you notice this is not the case currently how could you start to put into place more control day to day? Who would you need to enrol to make this a reality?
Aim to co-create good relationships with colleagues and clients: having supportive and collaborative relationships with your peers can create a positive work environment and contribute to overall happiness. This is true for any status you have in your work whether staff, freelance or founder having rapport, trust and respect in our working life has huge well-being benefits for more contentment and growth.
SMART Goals
Specific - detailed, visualise, hear it, smell it, feel it
Measurable or the milestone - to show you it’s complete
Accessible or achievable - do you or anyone around you have access to what you need to achieve your goal and can you picture yourself achieving it?
Realistic i.e. if I don’t run is it realistic to have a goal to run a marathon?
Time based - a date and time when the goal or series of actions towards the goal will be complete
Does any of this resonate with you?
BOOK a call with me to find out how creative coaching, business mentoring or solution-focused hypnotherapy could support your happiness goals
Anna B. Sexton 07484 184 2922
Image by https://unsplash.com/@_javardh_001