Summer came and summer went, in a blink of an eye. Where did the time go? I really dread going back to work fulltime. In recent years, work has become more like a chore than a career to me, because I have no interest in advancing it.  I admit that I am relatively satisfied with my job, however I don’t find much pleasure in it. So I ask myself: Can I do better? Can I imbue my work with more pleasure and meaning?

Bugged by the question, I reread a chapter of the book Happier - Happiness in the Workplace. One thing I learned from this book is that one can craft his or her work to make it more meaningful and pleasurable by introducing some small changes to the routine. So I started thinking about activities that I may be able to incorporate into my daily routine.

Indeed there are a lot of things I could do to make my work more fun as well as help my personal and professional development. Here are a couple of examples:

1.  I have done some reading on food and nutrition this summer and done a lot of thinking about healthy eating and living.  A balanced and healthy diet should consist of eating a variety of whole plants or plant products, such as fruits and vegetables. I am thinking about incorporating the nutritional aspects of plants into my Botany course to promote healthy eating and living. Doing this, I believe, will help students in my classes relate what they learn to their daily lives and well-being. I may also be about to write and publish an educational paper about it.

2.  I am still very much into accent reduction. I will treat every lecture as an opportunity to improve my pronunciation and intonation, and I will not let that opportunity slip by me.  I will ask my students and colleagues to critique on my pronunciation and intonation.

There are so many things I can do to make my work more enjoyable and more fulfilling. It is all about attitude. It is my (nobody else’s) responsibility to find pleasure and meaning at my work.