Can you be happy for 100 days in a row, even at work?

3 min read

I recently took the 100 Happy Days challenge and was successful but it turns out that I am in the minority; the challenge has a fail rate of 71%, with lack of time quoted as the main reason for giving up.

The challenge is to take a picture of something that makes you happy and post it via social media for 100 consecutive days. It can be anything from eating your favourite food, to catching up with a friend, or just seeing your bed at the end of a long day.

Luckily, I had a few fun weekends away planned during my 100 days, including quad-biking in the Scottish mountains and a trip to Paris, which made it all the more easy to capture those smiley moments, but the majority of those days were just normal everyday life. In fact, around 70 of those days were spent at work, which got me thinking about the connection between work and happiness.

I’m really fortunate to be part of a company where ‘making the world a happier place to work’ is our mission and, of course, we practice what we preach.

Everyone at Reward Gateway is driven and really passionate about our product which helps preserve the positive and vibrant culture.

I’m lucky to count most of my colleagues as friends and there have been a few occasions where I have ended up crying with laughter in the office. Sometimes I wonder if we should be allowed to have this much fun at work (or rather, if we should admit it?)

Around 28 of my 100 Happy Days photos were directly related to work or colleagues which shows the important role that work can play in your life. If you aren’t happy in a place where you spend the majority of your time, is it any wonder that you would struggle to find time to capture one happy photo per day?

With one third of UK employees struggling to cope at work due to depression, stress or burn-out, health and wellbeing is creeping up the agenda for a lot of employers and creating an enjoyable and positive working environment has never been more important.

Often it’s as simple as taking a step back and having a conversation with the person next to you, it’s easy to get lost in the midst of business and forget that we are all human, each one of us fighting our own battles. Creating a strong team culture is a great way to combat the isolation that employees can experience during difficult times.

Happy and engaged employees are more productive and build better businesses. It’s just common sense.

How would your 100 Happy Day challenge stand up? If you are more likely to be in the 71% fail group, think about what you can do to improve your day to day experience and inject some fun into the workplace.

As our email signatures state ‘you’re at work for an awful lot of your life. If you don’t love it, leave it’.