Today is International Happiness Day (press release). The goal is one million people celebrating happiness today.

Positive Psychology News Daily recently ran this article which talks about one of the more useful theories to come out of psychology, Wrzesniewski's ways to think about work.  It's very intuitive and almost too obviously true, but it's a distinction that can have real meaning for a person to consciously think about.  Perhaps you really want a calling and all you have is a career?  Some people might go their whole lives without thinking about it. My only comment on this article, which places her research in the context of meaning, would be to place work and meaning in the context of psychological needs as described by Deci & Ryan in Self Determination Theory.  Meaning is only one need that one can get from a job (ie. a job might give you relationships and make you feel competent) and one can get meaning from other sources in one's life as well ( ie.  your job lets you take care of your family).

During working years, life satisfaction can be affected by the level of meaning people find in their work. Amy Wrzesniewski (2003) describes three different work orientations that affect disposition to find meaningfulness in work.

• Job: Work as source of material benefits that enable other parts of life. Major satisfaction comes from hobbies and relationships outside work. The meaning of work is primarily what it contributes to outside domains of life.
• Career: Work as a source of advancement, prestige, and status. People with a career calling often have a willingness to make sacrifices for work advancement that others would not make.
• Calling: Work as an end in itself with a belief that it contributes to the greater good. A garbage collector who sees the work as making the world a cleaner, healthier place could have a Calling orientation. People with this orientation tend to experience more meaning from working.

In surveys, people are remarkably unambiguous about their work orientation. All three orientations are found at all levels in a given hierarchy.

Positive Psychology News Daily recently ran this article recommending the Happiness Hypothesis, which happens to be one of our favorite happiness related books as well.  I find the metaphor of the elephant and the rider useful as well, though for different reasons as this author.  Specifically, I find that it's useful to be aware that our minds are like trainable animals that we can only control indirectly.

If you have not read it, I highly recommend Jonathan Haidt’s The Happiness Hypothesis. One of Haidt’s metaphors, more thoroughly explained in the book, is the very accessible image of the rider (conscious reasoning self) and the elephant (automatic and unconscious self).