Unlock Greater Fulfillment In Your Career With One Powerful Insight

When considering how to improve our careers, few of us put pen to paper and say, “I’d like to live in the moment.” Instead, we usually focus our attention to achieving big goals and pursuing life-changing opportunities.

Equally important to where we’re going is how we get there. If we want to have greater satisfaction at work, it’s important that our jobs are enriching right now.

Of course, making a living is never going to be all sunshine and roses; there’s a reason they call it work. But being able to find moments of enrichment and reasons for gratitude each day indicate that we are on a path that is right for us.

Without realizing it, we might already be experiencing a dozen such moments each day, but we might miss their potential impact. The secret to finding greater meaning is to stop, reflect, and spend time acknowledging daily wins. As poet Mary Oliver wrote in her “Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it.” By following this advice, we may eventually stop seeing big goals as the only way to happiness and meaning.

When satisfaction is derived only from big achievements—a promotion or raise or bonus, for instance—our intrinsic reward system might only be activated a few times a year. If, however, we let small moments bring us enrichment and joy, then we are rewarding ourselves every day.

Thus, learning a new skill, having a positive interaction with a customer, or making a wise comment in a meeting might all be reasons to feel good about our progress. Research published in the Journal of Happiness Studies indicates that noting such small achievements contributes significantly to overall life satisfaction. And a separate study published in Psychological Science found that people who recognize their successes each day reported higher levels of well-being.

Oprah Winfrey is a proponent of living in the moment. She writes: “I feel blessed to have the life I’m living. Several times a day I look around in awe of how someone like me got to where I am. Each day I enhance and expand the material goodness and grace I’ve received by connecting to the deeper Presence within everything that’s alive.”

When you are aware of what’s going on around you, Winfrey says, “you are tuned in to the present moment instead of the jumble of thoughts in your head. You begin to understand that you are not your thoughts. You know that no matter what circumstances you find yourself in, you will be okay.”

Research has shown this isn’t touch-feely advice; focusing on the moment can produce tangible results in our health and overall success. Recognizing small achievements has been found to encourage mindfulness, combatting negative thought patterns by keeping us more focused on the present. Also, daily gratitude has been shown to release dopamine and serotonin neurotransmitters that can improve our mood and reduce stress. And acknowledging small successes can create a positive feedback loop, helping us foster a growth mindset and greater confidence in our abilities.

Finally, there is a long-term payoff too. In All In—our book on leadership and culture—my co-author Chester Elton and I wrote, “Celebrate small wins; they provide the energy and momentum to achieve larger goals.” While our happiness can’t be based on only completing big things in life, being grateful for small successes can inevitably fuel our overall motivation and encourage us toward even bigger achievements in the future. And that’s not a bad thing either.