The Thriving Worker is a Whole Life Statement

The Thriving Worker is a Whole Life Statement because thriving at work is just half of the equation. Workers evaluate their lives considering both their work and personal lives. One or the other in despair adversely affects the other.

Employers can’t always affect the workers personal life. They can’t always influence the workers relationships, health, finances, personal history, personal time, or aspirations. The worker is a complicated mechanism that only spends part of his time at work and only looks at work for a partial solution to life goals.

Starting the Path Toward Worker Employer Congruity

The employer could support the workers education in learning how to evaluate and strive for his goals. He could educate the worker in a process that helps the worker determine how work can support his life goals. The employer could be a partner with the worker in which both strive to reach their individual goals with some exchange of ideas and efforts.

Life is complicated. There are a million daily influences working together to create patterns and effects. They cross paths and sometimes we don’t know what the results will be. There are economics, Nature’s forces, politics, global relationships, family dynamics, and personal issues. Some days some forces are stronger than others.

Where educational support can assist the worker is helping him evaluate his own needs and desires understanding how Nature has programmed him to find happiness, fulfillment, purpose, and meaning. it is a discovery process of who we are and what is important in our lives.

Helping the Worker Self-Actualize

A great starting point and guide is Maslow’s pyramid of ascension in which self-actualization is at the top. This is also a guide that correlates with what Nature wants for us and how she has programmed our DNA. Understanding these two is an insight in how to make our life meaningful and adapt the behaviors that will help us thrive.

Workers want more than survival these days. They want to thrive. Maslow’s pyramid says the state of self-actualization redirects our thoughts, intentions, and behaviors to goals that are different than surviving. Nature blesses us with happiness hormones and neurotransmitters for these exact behaviors.

Nature’s goal is that we become improved to build our gene pool and help future generations adapt at a higher level. Learning, creating, contributing, caring, protecting, and exercising are all behaviors that both stimulate happiness brain chemicals and help us self-actualize.

Self-Actualization Defines a Life

A worker in the process of self-actualizing looks at work through a lens of how work contributes to this goal. He is looking for the challenge and risk that will help him grow, flourish, and contribute more. How do employers provide this path for its workers?

First, they have to be on the same page. The worker has to understand what he wants and how the employer can help. The employer has to be listening and have the flexibility to support the worker on his path. The employer has to have the mind set that having thriving workers is important to the Mission .

Workshops are one way to help the worker find his own Mission and understand how his choices determine if he thrives. Workshops can be live or through Zoom meetings and webinars. They help the worker evaluate his personal situation and how he can improve his life with self-actualizing behaviors. The employer can support this effort allowing time blocks for the worker to engage in meaningful work with both challenges and risks.

Getting to the Passions in Life

Passions are certainly one element of thriving. A worker that has passions or is allowed to pursue passions is going to feel more fulfilled. Getting into flow is a blissful state that is the result of both competence and passion that leads to peak performances. Stephen Kotler who runs an institute on flow says people with flow are the happiest people in the world.

Helping and supporting the worker in finding his Mission (s) in life can create higher productivity, loyalty, and longevity for good workers. The employer and the worker are enriched with their mutual goals of both greater life satisfaction and the organization creating a competitive edge in the marketplace.

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Great practices for daily living can be learned with the Markap Series of Books. If your organization would like live presentations or Zoom meetings, they can be arranged for small to large groups.

The Markap Books:

Self-Leadership, Gratitude, Happiness, and Start Now

See Books on the Home Page

Contact me at Mark@markap1.com