We've all struggled with being pleased at work at some point in our lives. Work is stressful, difficult, and something we do just to make a living for many of us.

Do you realise how much time you spend at work over the course of your life? Work takes up at least a third of your time. Except for sleeping, you spend more time at work as an adult than doing anything else.

A new year begins, and you have around 235 new days at work ahead of you...

It's a perfect moment to assess your professional life and consider what makes you happy and what you'd like to change.

To aid your reflection, I'd like to share six ingredients that I've discovered over the course of my 11 years of teaching and coaching managers and teams all around the world. These pointers are essential for establishing and maintaining a positive work environment.

These tips are key for building and foster happiness at work. 

• . Know yourself

Know "why" and "what" you're doing. This will assist you in determining which path is best for you. We can more easily investigate the options available to us and make better decisions if we enhance our self-awareness. Understanding your talents, strengths, and motivations, as well as clarifying your career aspirations, are equally essential.

• . Focus on positive everyday progress

Don’t get bogged down in your to-do lists, action plans and the tasks you haven’t yet completed. Instead, focus on what you have achieved, however small these steps forward may be. By focusing on and celebrating our positive outcomes and contributions, we can feel more fulfilled every day.

• Build great relationships

Strong, supportive relationships have a positive impact on our health and happiness. We all know that people “join a company, but leave a boss and/or colleagues”. Trusting, meaningful relationships are crucial for us to be happy.

• Develop self-management skills

The challenge in today’s ever-changing environment and fast-paced world is to stay grounded and resilient and know how to manage stress and emotions. To do this, we must cultivate our “personal sustainability”. It’s a marathon, not a sprint…

• Choose to be happy and positive

An important step for happiness and well-being at work is a choice to make. Who is responsible for your happiness at work? As long as you sit and wait for your manager, company or colleagues to make you happy, not very much will happen. Things will start to move and improve only when you choose to act. Concretely, it can simply mean being proactive and seeing where and when you can use your influence to improve your situation at work.

• Make a happy action plan

For any good plan to succeed the first step is clarifying your goals. Don’t automatically assume that your goals have to be about doing enormous and difficult things. It might just as simply be about getting on better with your co-workers, working on a specific project… Make a plan that’s fun rather than ambitious. Do one small thing every day. Follow up without stress and pressure.

Remember: Making even the smallest change to your work life can make a big difference to your happiness!