How would you prefer to be paid for your work? Would you prefer cash or happiness? Remember, you can’t have both so you will have to make a choice here. And don’t delude yourself into thinking that when you get paid money for working, that happiness is a by-product. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The fact of the matter is that over a lifetime, employees have been sold a "bill of goods" from friends, family, society, the media and even their employers that when an employee finds the perfect job, then they will be happy. More and more organizations are doing what they can to provide a productive and positive working environment for their employees but not once has any company installed a happiness bar (think juice-bar). You don’t dispense happiness from a tap.

Whether in sales, customer service, management, a staff meeting or in safety, there are two choices that can be made on a daily basis with each and every human interaction: to be right or to be happy. But you can’t be both. Although for some, the thought of being right "makes" them very happy. That is not happiness. Happiness is not the end result of making someone else wrong and in order to be right, someone must be made wrong.

Admit it; there is little if no happiness in your job. Feel free to picture the vast majority of your co-workers to evidence that fact. Just look around at the long, tired, exhausted faces of your workmates to see the proof for yourself. Why would you think that happiness can be attained at work? It can’t be attained at work because it doesn’t exist at work. That’s because happiness is not a result. It’s a choice.

To explain that happiness is simply a choice, picture the following. You’re driving down a busy highway in the morning on your way to work when suddenly someone cuts you off in traffic. At this point you have a couple of choices don’t you? One is to let it all go. The other choice, unfortunately, is the one we see being made with increasing frequency: giving the finger, honking horns, or trying to cut them off. Then you get to work and tell eighteen people about the jerk on the road that cut you off today. Then you get home and say, "I had a bad day." And yes you did have a bad day – by choice. You have the choice to feel angry, mad, upset, disillusioned, devalued, taken advantage of and yes, even happy.

You see, like every simple choice in life, happiness is a choice too. Holding a door open for someone is a choice. Saying "good morning" to someone is a choice. Getting a cup of coffee for someone else is a choice and being happy is a choice. The truth is that if you bring happiness with you to work, then you are more likely to bring happiness home at the end of the day.

Happiness is not a result of anything you do. It is simply a choice. So never try to find happiness in your work. You won’t find it there. It’s not an end-result. You may find satisfaction. You may find joy. You may find comfort. You may find a peace of mind but that’s not happiness.

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