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These 33 points offer you an engaging perspective on wellbeing at work.

Well-being cannot exist just in your own head. Well-being is a combination of feeling good as well as actually having meaning, good relationships and accomplishment. - Martin Seligman

A Wellbeing Manifesto

Eleven years ago I composed a 33-point manifesto and guide to better well being at work. I thought about revising it for 2023 but I decided to republish the original because it is not my revision that matters - it is how you would revise it or write you own guide to well being. I believe it is helpful for you to know I now see this as incomplete, biased, and in need of revision.

These points are directions not commandments. Let me know what you think in the comments. Thank you.

Introduction

We need to create wellbeing inside of work. There are things we can do outside of work but how we promote and enhance well-being within work is becoming increasingly important as mobile devices makes work portable and 24/7. We must eliminate toxic workplaces poisoned with a lack of respect or mutuality. We must create a profound wellbeing where people leave work enlivened and enriched rather than depleted and deadened.

David Zinger's Heretical 33-Point Manifesto and Guide to Better Well Being at Work:

1. We must find wellbeing inside of work and not wait until we are outside of work, at the end of our day or in retirement.
2. Hope is a misguided future perspective taking us away from where we can really make a difference, right here – right now.
3. There is no stress in the present moment so be where you are.
4. Self-esteem is an evaluative trap that snares you like cheese snares a mouse with the snap of the trap. Accept yourself --- don’t evaluate yourself.
5. Life comes before work and work/life balance and any balance is dynamic like a teeter totter.
6. Well being is only a concept until we engage in well doing.
7. Ignorance is more important than knowledge in fostering and enhancing well being. We begin by not knowing.
8. People don’t actually hear most interpersonal feedback unless they feel safe and safety is the only way to overcome most of our problems.
9. Genuine caring trumps professional competence in almost every relationship.
10. Achieving happiness is a shallow and insignificant approach to living.
11. Structure trumps willpower in promoting and fostering well being.
12. Powerful questions we ask ourself are the ideal WD40 for a brain clogged by an amygdala seizure.
13. Wellbeing is strong stuff. We must know, live, and leverage our strengths in the service of others.
14. It take energy directed towards well being to get energy and when you are depleted this is a real hindrance to experiencing well being.
15. Relaxation is the anemic aspirin of stress management and can actually cause stress.
16. What lessens your stress today could be a major contributor of stress tomorrow.
17. There are no algorithmic certainties of well being only heuristic probabilities of success.
18. In life and work you are going to fart, fumble, and fall. You are human. It is not about avoiding falling down it is about how you pick yourself back up again. Everyone is screwed up: I am not okay, you are not okay and that is okay.
19. Placebos are examples of caring made tangible.
20. Employee wellbeing is not a soft skill just as accounting is not a hard skill. Wellbeing embraces fluid skills when the fixed parts of our life are in need of repair.
21. Reality is overrated, living through positive illusion, not delusion, is powerful and practical.
22. Wellbeing is more than a personal endeavour it is a social phenomenon.
23. Only you are responsible for your own well being but others are accountable for your well being just as you are accountable for their well being.
24. No one can upset you after 90 seconds.
25. Compliance is the anemic byproduct of power.
26. We do not resist change we resist coercion and the gravity of the familiar is what holds us in place.
27. If life throws you a lemon, stop trying to make lemonade, rather duck, determine where it came from, think about what you can do about it.
28. Positive thinking must be changed into a more authentic constructive thinking. Lots of bad things do happen and positive thinking may be a disrespectful glossing offer the richness, albeit ruggedness, of human experience.
29. Bad is at least twice as salient as good in most situations so we must tip the scales of good for good.
30. Most of what we know really isn’t so.
31. Wellness tips like this without personal evaluation and experimentation can create a misguided tyranny of tips leading towards more stress. The Buddha cautioned, “we must be a lamp unto ourselves.”
32. Contradiction is only troublesome if you are locked into rigid thinking and a fixed mindset.
33. Take a long shot, Charlie Chaplin once said, “life is a tragedy in close up and a comedy in long shot.” How long does it take you to get a long shot on things?

What stands our for you after reading this or what point would you add?

Hey Shrink: Psychological Zingers for Better Living, Working, and Wellbeing is a weekly newsletter offering perspectives, nuggets, nudges, considerations, or ideas to enhance your wellbeing. I bring 25 years of my counselling knowledge, experience, and perspective to help you and others improve their living, working, and wellbeing. I am available for online and in-person workshops, coaching, and caring conversations. If you want more zing in your life and work message me directly though LinkedIn or email me at: david@davidzinger.com.

Next week's issue: Hey Shrink # 9: The Unlocking Power of One 3-Letter Word.

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