Business and Money Tips

How to Be Happy at Work — The YAS Way Have you noticed that most people are not truly happy at work? If they run their own business — whether family-owned or self-made — they often struggle with money or time. If they work in big organizations, they face endless stress, rules, and restrictions. And if they’re in small companies or semi-retired, they have freedom — but little money. So, what’s the solution? How can we make people less unhappy at work — and slowly turn them into people who love their work again? The answer lies in YAS — Yijing, the Art of War, and SuperME. 1️⃣ Yijing — The Wisdom of Balance Yijing tells us that everything has two sides: Yin and Yang, light and shadow, gain and loss. When you are unhappy at work, it’s because your focus is stuck on one side — the negative. For example, in a family business, you might say: “No freedom, always have to please people.” But you forget the other side — stability, belonging, and no fear of retrenchment. The moment you see both s...

Surveys after surveys showed that more than half of people at work are unhappy.  Just look at the many gloomy faces on the morning MRTs and it's obvious what I'm talking about.  Many people work just for money, and some work to support their mortgage, families and the ever rising expenses.  To me, people are unhappy due to 3 mis-understandings: 1.  Conditional Happiness   "I'll be happy if I get promoted or I get the job at Google".  In this thinking, the grass is always greener on the other side. People will, instead of making the best of what they have in their current career and enjoying every moment of it, look for the next happiness.  Because of this, they are distracted from the present and thus cannot do their best.  Without doing the best, how can they produce good work and have a rewarding job?   We know that such pursuit is futile because the perfect job does not exist.  Even if it does exist, it cannot last.  The S...

Happy employees make things happen and most importantly they do these things at work: 1. See Work as an Extension to their life experience Happy employees see work relationships as the awesome extension of their lives. They are generally happy in life, and they extend such happiness to the workplace in their daily cheerfulness 2. Celebrate rather than compare themselves to the accomplishments of others Jealousy is a killer. At work we are all capable of doing more, so when we find other employees doing better than us, our first reaction is to be jealous. Rather than compare to those who have accomplished, happy employees celebrate other peoples' success and use it as a motivation for themselves to accomplish the same or more successes 3. Work in the Present Instead of reminiscing about the past or fantaziaing about the future, happy employees work on step-by-step to work success. In addition to being present, they are also capable of not disturbed by future concerns ...

Since we spend over two-thirds of our waking hours working and living around work, it is more important to be happy at work than happy after work.  Although many consider work to be a necessary evil, work is actually a necessary happiness, only if you know how to be happy at work. The 7 most Frequently Asked Questions on  how to be happy at work: 1.  Will higher salary make one happier at work? Unless you are trying to make ends meet, money will not be a great motivator. Once you have enough to live a life that you are used to, unless you have some new expenditure, more money will give you a disproportionate amount of happiness.  For example, if you get at 10% salary raise, you will be happier by less than 10%. 2. Does Achieving Progress at Work Make Me Happier? Definitely.  Achievement is a sense of self-worth and all progress, no matter how small, will make your work happier.  Note that the same principle for money applies: once you ac...

We all work primarily to earn income. Other than that, work fulfils additional needs like give us status, identity, power, approval of others, social interaction and the simple satisfaction of keeping busy.   The problem is that while we work to accomplish our goals, we seldom find value in the process of working itself.  In our training courses like How to Be a Better Manager, How to Be a Great Boss and Effective Selling Skills, many people have come to the point where they question the value of what they have been doing.  They asked if work has deepened their sense of meaning and purpose.   Even for people who work for a cause they believe in, or they are working on their passions, ultimately the same pattern persists.  Although we may work with much more energy and commitment, we look past the actual activity of working to its results.  Although we believe in what we do, we are focused on the results, hitting KPIs and earning a living.  In oth...

Be Happy at work, not happy after work. If you are not happy at work, why work?  If you are happy to be unhappy at work, you will not work happily.   If work tires you out, you are not happy at work.  Happy people produces higher profits.  More happiness means higher profits.   Being happy at work has little to do with how much you are paid at work, but what attention you pay to at work.  Do you pay attention to the problems or the solutions?  Do you pay attention to working with your colleagues or teamwork with your colleagues? Remember, the law of cause and effect (or Karma) is at work and whatever you focus on grows.  You are the creator of your own happiness at work.  The fastest way to be happy at work is to focus on the positives at work.  Be grateful that you have a job, and your employer does not take 30 days credit to pay you!  Climb your own higher mountain in the next 30 days at here . Now you can be happy...

Everyone spends two-thirds of their waking hours working, including commuting to work and talking and thinking about work issues even if they are off work.  It's thus paramount that people must be happy at work or life would be so miserable.   The sad truth is that  happiness , like all phenomena,  is impermanent. It lasts for only one moment : if the next moment doesn't have peace of mind, concentration and mindfulness, happiness will disappear.  Just talk to the man who was happily drinking and driving until an accident happen and you'll know what I'm talking about.   The happy truth is that since  happiness  is impermanent, it  can be renewed . And it can be r enewed by anyone, at any time, at any where and everywhere .  Most of the time, renewal is costless.   All you need is to have the right thought.  The secret to happiness at work is to have  renewals of happiness . Everyone has plenty of ideas how to...

Work can be happy too if you know how.  You don't have to be promoted, earn a big pay check or get what you want to be happy at work.  Being happy at work has nothing to do with your work effectiveness, it has everything to do with your life's effectiveness.  If you're not happy at work, why work?  Working for money alone will only make you more unhappy, for work can only bring you limited money.   To be happy at work, try the following 5 things: Focus on Growth, not just Achievement .  For when you're growing, you are getting a high sense of satisfaction, and that alone is happiness. Look for the good in any situation, be on guard for any negative situation .  In this way you're protected either ways When in doubt, always ask for help , don't shoulder everything at your tiny back Make your work not hard but easy, which means having the right skills, attitudes and knowledge to do your job well . Make sure you attend at least 4 hours of trainin...

It sounds funny, right?  How can one be happy when stressed?  What is stress?  Whenever you're not getting what you want, you have stress.  Note that it is negative stress that makes us suffer, positive stress gives us energy and impetus to do more.   The next time you are stressed, you are doing this thing called Focus on What Went Wrong .  The simple way to de-stress immediately and be instantly happy is to Focus on What Went Right .   It is not what happens to us that makes us suffer, but what we do to what happened that makes us suffer .   For example, your team members are not demonstrating the teamwork and responsibility you want.  As a result, work gets piled up and you're now stressed.  Instead of scolding your team members for being irresponsible and upset everyone, why not focus on what's right?  What are right could be: you have a team, your team is intact and not broken, your team's turnover is low, your team hav...

Mention 'work hard' and many equate it to be toil, suffer, to be on tenterhooks, sweat, labour, fret, tolerate and even slog.  Truth be told, working hard is a virtue that all successful people have.  I have yet to see a self-made man that has never work hard.  If you want to get rich, you need to work hard.  In fact, working hard is not the same as hardworking, as when you are working hard, you may not realize that you are working hard.  For work has become a joy , and working hard is second nature as you are just fulfilling your calling. If you enjoy your work and work your enjoyment, work is never hard at all and you'll never need to retire.   Understand that work hard is not hard if you work with your hearts. If you find that your work is hard, it's hard for you to work hard. Hard words make work hard (read here for full article).  Heart words make hard work not hard.  A manager's job is to make people work hard, not make pe...

A good manager or leader is one that makes people work hard, not make people's work hard .  Working hard is indeed a virtue, but in today's world of smartphones and smartness, many equate working hard to be not working smart.  This mistaken belief arises because most people treat work as drudgery and an necessary evil.  If you treat work as enjoyment and play, you would work hard because working is playing .  Understand that working hard is actually diligence, but it is not blind diligence, which is simply being a workaholic and work hard until work becomes very hard.  Those who know will tell you that if you really work hard, work is not hard at all but very easy .  Those that find work hard are those that are not working hard enough to find the joy in their work. There are 7 situations that you too can work hard and yet have an joyous time: You work on your Passions , whereby every working minute is actually passionate and full of positive em...

Surveys after surveys showed that more than half of people at work are unhappy.  Just look at the many gloomy faces on the morning MRTs and it's obvious what I'm talking about.  Many people work just for money, and some work to support their mortgage, families and the ever rising expenses.  To me, people are unhappy due to 3 mis-understandings: 1.  Conditional Happiness   "I'll be happy if I get promoted or I get the job at Google".  In this thinking, the grass is always greener on the other side. People will, instead of making the best of what they have in their current career and enjoying every moment of it, is looking for the next happiness.  Because of this, they are distracted from the present and thus cannot do their best.  Without doing the best, how can they produce good work and have a rewarding job?   We know that such pursuit is futile because the perfect job does not exist.  Even if it does exist, it cannot last....

Yes, everybody work for a living but we need to be happy at work or we will be working like slaves.  Whether you are working for a large MNC, local SME or medium-sized company, if you too want to get ahead and get the promotion and bonus that you desire, you need to have high work satisfaction. You'll know that you have work satisfaction when you can keep on working and never feel tired.  If not, you are having work frustration and not work satisfaction.  The following are the 5 Cs ways to have high work satisfaction: Competency . Make sure that you have the capability to do your work well. If you find that you always struggle at work and have to be reprimanded frequently by customers or bosses, it means that your competency is below the passing mark. Get trained by your company or sign up for external courses .  The 3 most common courses are communication , management and sales . Create Value.  You must not just work but really create value in your wor...

As we know, a person spends 2/3 of his waking hours working and commuting to/from work. Also, all our education is to prepare us for a better working life.  Because of work, we are able to enjoy the lifestyles that we want.   Yet many people feel unhappy when they are at work.  They only look forward to Friday.  It doesn't have to be this way.  In our training, we teach about these 4 Ps to be Happy at Work: Perceive, Pick-up, Prepare and Proceed. Perceive The first thing is to change the way you perceive your work.  Do not perceive it as work, for this will only bring you drudgery and misery.  Instead p erceive your work as an opportunity for you to learn the most important skill of all: dealing with people .  When you come across difficult people at work, perceive them to be your teachers teaching you the finer points about human relations.  By changing your perception from negative to positive, you will get enlightenment immediat...