A recent survey ranked the happiest nations in the world. The U.S. was nowhere near the top. Why? I think that we too often get caught up on the small detail and stress over those things that are beyond our control. This along with not having a better perspective of the things we’re doing and where we’re going in life contributes to our inability to truly live life to its fullest.

in the survey, certain questions were asked that we should be asking ourselves each day. It’s crutial to our ability to feel happy and fulfilled at work each day.

Did you enjoy something you did yesterday?

Were you proud of something you did yesterday?

Did you learn something yesterday?

Was my work effort worthy of respect yesterday?

Plan each day and work each day so that you can answer yes to each of these questions. Being able to answer yes to these questions will help us feel fulfilled in our careers and will contribute to allowing us to become even more successful, efficient, and productive.

In our efforts to be able to answer “yes” to these questions, here are seven things to remember, according to a recent article in Harvard Business:

1. Smile. Turns out, smiling is directly linked to happiness. It may have started as a correlation but, over time, the brain linked the two. Don’t believe me? Try this: smile (a nice big smile) and attempt to think of something negative.

2. Stop worrying. Worrying happens to be one of humanity’s best traits. It is the underlying emotion behind foresight, planning, and forecasting. We worry because some future event is uncertain and that feeling is a cue for us to start thinking about how to address it. The problem is, we worry too much about things that are out of our control (like the economy, stupid). Stop sweating the small stuff.

3. Take a break. The US is one of the most overworked industrialized nations. But this is counterproductive for a nation of “knowledge workers.” Overworking people to exhaustion is a horrible way to extract knowledge from people. Taking a break provides an opportunity to reflect and often it is during such times when the best ideas, our deepest insights, emerge.

4. Do things differently. Part of the problem at work for many people is boredom. Get your enthusiasm back by doing things differently. Make every effort to learn, to grow, and to challenge yourself. Take on more responsibility or attempt something you never thought you were capable of doing.

5. Stop managing and start leading. If you’re in management, you need to find ways to motivate and stimulate your employees. How? Stretch their minds. Empower your team by giving them more responsibility, more decision-making power, more autonomy.

6. Delegate. One of the most destructive and counterproductive byproducts of the downsizing era is fear — many managers are scared to let go of control for fear that doing so will make them obsolete. The best leaders always look for people better, smarter, and more capable than themselves.

7. Have fun. Here is some tough advice: If you don’t like what you are doing, stop doing it. Life is too short to not have fun. I love what I do and when I stop loving it, I do something else. Even in this economy, you will be in high demand if you are good at what you do — and can do it with a smile on your face.

Next Monday, when you awake and would normally begin dreading the day to come, think of the seven keys to being happier at work. Focusing on these, along with arranging your day so that you can positively answer the questions, will ensure that your day will be a little better than yesterday.

Did you enjoy something you did today?

Were you proud of something you did today?

Did you learn something today?

Have I worked to bring myself respect today?

“Grammar truly is one of life’s greatest joys.”

This is one of my all-time favorite movie lines. Can you name the movie? Forget the score on the last Facebook quiz you took, I see people take quizzes on this and get 100% but then go back to making the same mistake over and over again. The holy trinity of grammar mistakes is like fingernails on a chalkboard, so please don’t make these mistakes. These common mistakes will lead to loss of job opportunities, missing out on promotions, and can lead to loss of respect.

1. Your vs. You’re

This one drives me insane, and is the most common. All it takes to avoid this error is to take a second and think about what you’re trying to say.

“Your” is a possessive pronoun, as in “your car” or “your house.” “You’re” is a contraction for “you are,” as in “you’re screwing up your writing by using your when you really mean you are.”

Lesson: Don’t say “your going to the store?” <SCREEEEECH>

2. It’s vs. Its

This is another common mistake. It’s also easily avoided by thinking through what you’re trying to say.

“It’s” is a contraction of “it is” or “it has.” “Its” is a possessive pronoun, as in “this blog has lost its mojo.” Here’s an easy rule of thumb—repeat your sentence out loud using “it is” instead. If that sounds goofy, “its” is likely the correct choice.

Lesson: Don’t say “its really hot here.” <SCREEEECH>

3. There vs. Their

This one seems to trip up everyone occasionally, often as a pure typo. Make sure to watch for it when you proofread.

“There” is used many ways, including as a reference to a place (“let’s go there”) or as a pronoun (“there is no hope”). “Their” is a plural possessive pronoun, as in “their bags” or “their opinions.” Always do the “that’s ours!” test—are you talking about more than one person and something that they possess? If so, “their” will get you there.

Lesson: Don’t say “there coming over to my house.” <WHAT DOES THAT EVEN MEAN? I DON’T KNOW…..SCREEEECH>

I read this article a while back on how to be like Jason Bourne, the lead character from the Bourne movies. This is a great article that discussed “dropping off the grid”, and being able to travel country-to-country, using multiple identities. It also discussed asset protection through shell corporations, trusts, and LLCs.

You can see the full article here: http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/03/03/how-to-be-jason-bourne-multiple-passports-swiss-banking-and-crossing-borders/