Recently I've been inspired by a video interview of Dan Buettner by Marie Forleo.

Dan has 3 world records for distance cycling and is an explorer, working with National Geographic to solve world mysteries. Since 2001 he's been studying longevity, and then happiness.

The interview is about measuring happiness, and since we spend most of our day at work, it's caught the attention of this career blogger!

I've said it before, but it's worth repeating - I think 'happy' is the whole point.

So we need to learn to adapt our environment at work, or move to a new one, if we're not feeling happy there.

Here are the 3 measures of happiness Dan has researched:
1) life satisfaction - think of life as a whole, where would you score your happiness on a scale of 1-10?
2) how we experience our life - in the last 24 hours, how much have you felt joy? How much have you laughed or smiled? This is called positive affect and is significantly impacted by how much time we're spending with people we like.
3) how often are we able to use our strengths - we're happiest when we're working on something we're great at - or in other words, have a sense of purpose and contribution.

These measures all correlate to happiness. If you measured this each day, over a period of time you'd get a view on how happy you are. Hopefully, it's a high number and we're all living our best lives :).

But if this e-mail has triggered you to think you're not happy at work, this is a great time of year to do something about it. Many businesses slow down over summer as people take time off to spend with their families and friends, so take advantage.

As usual, information on its own isn't going to change anything. Insights and flashes of inspiration need to be turned into action. Book some time slots in your diary to focus on you and your career over summer.

Reach out if you want help identifying the right actions for you. Have a happy week!