Smiling's My Favorite
Welcome to December! This time of year you’ll usually find me making recipes in the kitchen or watching certain holiday movies. I’m a sucker for the Muppet Christmas Carol, Love Actually, even Die Hard. And of course, one of my all-time favorites, Elf.
I am endlessly entertained by Will Farrell in this holiday classic. I quote the movie year round. I also see no reason not to wear my “Smiling’s my favorite” t-shirt EVERY month of the year.
There are a lot of lessons to be taken from Elf too, so for the rest of December, I want to share them with you. And we’ll start with the quote from my fave shirt.
Buddy the Elf: I just like to smile. Smiling’s my favorite.
Gimbel’s Manager (aka his boss): Make work your favorite.
Make Work Your Favorite
That conversation between Buddy and his manager makes me laugh every time I see Elf.
But here’s something I like to ask my clients: What if work really was your favorite? What if you truly enjoyed the key elements of your job while sharing your strengths with the world?
Anyone who’s been around here for even a little while knows I talk a lot about the importance of money, meaning, and impact because those are the reasons we all go to work. And when there’s a misalignment in any one of those things, it’s impossible for work to be your favorite.
If you’re having a hard time imagining work being your favorite (trust me, I’ve been there!), here’s a collection of articles and blog posts I’ve written around money, meaning, and impact that just might help you figure out what to do next.
And since we’re in the season of making a list and checking it twice, here’s my other suggestion: Start a list of your favorite things at work.
Before we can make any changes to something, it’s important to know where we’re at. The easiest way to create your list is to pay attention to your activities for the next week and to write down any that you loved or got big energy from doing.
When you know your favorite parts about work, you can start to intentionally incorporate more of them into your everyday.
Need help? Tell me about the ways work isn’t your favorite and I’ll get back to you. Yup. My work is my favorite and I love reading and replying to your questions and comments!
And finally: Not familiar with Elf (*gasp*) or want to watch it for the kajillionth time like me? Check out the clip here.