We’re always chasing something—be it a promotion, a new car, or a significant other. This leads to the belief that, “When (blank) happens, I’ll finally be happy.”

While these major events do make us happy at first, research shows this happiness doesn’t last. A study from Northwestern University measured the happiness levels of regular people against those who had won large lottery prizes the year prior. The researchers were surprised to discover that the happiness ratings of both groups were practically identical.

The mistaken notion that major life events dictate your happiness and sadness is so prevalent that psychologists have a name for it: impact bias. The reality is, event-based happiness is fleeting.

Happiness is synthetic—you either create it, or you don’t. Happiness that lasts is earned through your habits. Supremely happy people have honed habits that maintain their happiness day in, day out. Try out their habits, and see what they do for you:

They slow down to appreciate life’s little pleasures. By nature, we fall into routines. In some ways, this is a good thing. It saves precious brainpower and creates comfort. However, sometimes you get so caught up in your routine that you fail to appreciate the little things in life. Happy people know how important it is to savor the taste of their meal, revel in the amazing conversation they just had, or even just step outside to take a deep breath of fresh air.

They exercise. Getting your body moving for as little as 10 minutes releases GABA, a neurotransmitter that makes your brain feel soothed and keeps you in control of your impulses. Happy people schedule regular exercise and follow through on it because they know it pays huge dividends for their mood.

They spend money on other people. Research shows that spending money on other people makes you much happier than spending it on yourself. This is especially true of small things that demonstrate effort, such as going out of your way to buy your friend a book that you know they will like.

They surround themselves with the right people. Happiness spreads through people. Surrounding yourself with happy people builds confidence, stimulates creativity, and it’s flat-out fun. Hanging around negative people has the opposite effect. They want people to join their pity party so that they can feel better about themselves. Think of it this way: If a person were smoking, would you sit there all afternoon inhaling the second-hand smoke? You’d distance yourself, and you should do the same with negative people.

They stay positive. Bad things happen to everyone, including happy people. Instead of complaining about how things could have been or should have been, happy people reflect on everything they’re grateful for. Then they find the best solution available to the problem, tackle it, and move on. Nothing fuels unhappiness quite like pessimism. The problem with a pessimistic attitude, apart from the damage it does to your mood, is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: if you expect bad things, you’re more likely to experience negative events. Pessimistic thoughts are hard to shake off until you recognize how illogical they are. Force yourself to look at the facts, and you’ll see that things are not nearly as bad as they seem.

They get enough sleep. I’ve beaten this one to death over the years and can’t say enough about the importance of sleep to improving your mood, focus, and self-control. When you sleep, your brain literally recharges, removing toxic proteins that accumulate during the day as byproducts of normal neuronal activity. This ensures that you wake up alert and clear-headed. Your energy, attention, and memory are all reduced when you don’t get enough quality sleep. Sleep deprivation also raises stress hormone levels on its own, even without a stressor present. Happy people make sleep a priority, because it makes them feel great and they know how lousy they feel when they’re sleep deprived.

They have deep conversations. Happy people know that happiness and substance go hand-in-hand. They avoid gossip, small talk, and judging others. Instead they focus on meaningful interactions. They engage with other people on a deeper level, because they know that doing so feels good, builds an emotional connection, and is an interesting way to learn.

They help others. Taking the time to help people not only makes them happy, but it also makes you happy. Helping other people gives you a surge of oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine, all of which create good feelings. In a Harvard study, employees who helped others were 10 times more likely to be focused at work and 40% more likely to get a promotion. The same study showed that people who consistently provided social support were the most likely to be happy during times of high stress. As long as you make certain that you aren’t overcommitting yourself, helping others is sure to have a positive influence on your mood.

They make an effort to be happy. No one wakes up feeling happy every day and supremely happy people are no exception. They just work at it harder than everyone else. They know how easy it is to get sucked into a routine where you don’t monitor your emotions or actively try to be happy and positive. Happy people constantly evaluate their moods and make decisions with their happiness in mind.

They do things in-person. Happy people only let technology do their talking when absolutely necessary. The human brain is wired for in-person interaction, so happy people will jump at the chance to drive across town to see a friend or meet face-to-face because it makes them feel good.

They have a growth mindset. People’s core attitudes fall into one of two categories: a fixed mindset or a growth mindset. With a fixed mindset, you believe you are who you are and you cannot change. This creates problems when you’re challenged, because anything that appears to be more than you can handle is bound to make you feel hopeless and overwhelmed. People with a growth mindset believe that they can improve with effort. This makes them happier because they are better at handling difficulties. They also outperform those with a fixed mindset because they embrace challenges, treating them as opportunities to learn something new.

Happiness can be tough to maintain, but investing in the right habits pays off. Adopting even a few of the habits from this list will make a big difference in your mood.

Have you ever felt like your boss’s boss is somewhat of an enigma? After all, this person is more senior, and usually less visible than your boss, and as such it can be trickier to build a rapport with them. Yet your boss’s boss could be a valuable person to have on side throughout your career, if you get this relationship right.

As an experienced senior leader, your boss’s boss could teach you some valuable lessons about their own journey to career success. From a more practical perspective, they will also often have the final say on the decisions which could propel your career forward, from approving your attendance on a training course, to granting you more responsibility within your role or getting that well-deserved promotion.    

Of course, when developing a relationship with your boss’ boss, there’s a fine line to tread, and you have to be tactful. After all, you don’t want to undermine your immediate boss and damage this important relationship. At the same time, if you want to progress your career within this organisation, you really need their boss to have a positive opinion of you and your abilities.

I believe the below advice serves as best practice for getting noticed by your boss’s boss. 

Build a strong relationship with your current boss and team

Your current boss has a closer connection with their boss, and from time to time, the two of them will discuss your performance, a discussion which will rely heavily on your boss’s input. Therefore make sure the two of you have a good relationship, whereby you strive to meet their expectations and ask for constructive feedback on where you could improve in your role.

When considering your performance your boss will also factor in how much you collaborate with your team. If you work in isolation of everyone else, you will harm the productivity and dynamic of the team, and your boss is sure to notice. As such, you need to maintain an open and communicative relationship with your colleagues, helping them when needed and also asking for their insights and expertise.

On the whole, make sure your boss identifies you as being a conscientious, self-improving team player. Your boss’s opinion of you, and thus their boss’s opinion of you, won’t often be worlds apart, so it is important to get the former relationship right first and foremost.

Increase the dialogue with your boss’s boss

Understandably, you may be feeling slightly intimidated by your boss’s boss, especially if you haven’t spoken to them much in the past. Start off by looking out for openings to make small polite exchanges, such as a cursory “hello, how are you” as you pass in the corridor, or offering to make them a tea or coffee if you are both working late in the office.

As your confidence builds, share your ideas or questions with them at opportune moments, for instance if they are giving a departmental update and open the floor for questions at the end. The key here is to keep an eye out for chances to start building a professional rapport. Stay mindful of their seniority and be aware that any overly familiar exchanges may just harm your progress, for instance calling them a nickname that only other more senior colleagues call them. Use your common sense to judge where the boundaries are, and strike the right balance between friendly and professional.

Self-promote your expertise

Build your expert reputation within your organisation through some tactful self-promotion.

Talk to your current boss about the opportunities available for sharing your expertise, for instance; starting a blog, offering to speak at events, or presenting to their boss at company meetings and so forth. You can also build your reputation by offering internal training sessions or offering to train new starters. In doing so, you will be able to establish yourself as the “go-to” person for a certain area of expertise within your organisation, an accolade which should get fed back to your boss’s boss.

Think bigger picture

Whilst being known as an expert in a specific area is important when getting noticed by your boss’s boss, remember to think beyond the demands of your immediate role and towards the strategic direction of the team and business.

As Hays CEO Alistair Cox states in one of his blogs: “Thinking big means breaking out of silos”. Therefore, show an interest in other areas of the business, don’t be afraid to ask questions about the current objectives and challenges to the business as a whole, and be proactive in suggesting your own ideas. Your boss’s boss will notice somebody who understands that they are part of a wider business strategy, and can break out of the confines of their role to contribute to this strategy using their bigger picture thinking.

Getting noticed by your boss’s boss is, for the most part, about building your relationship with your current boss and team, whilst developing a reputation as an expert but also as a big picture thinker within your organisation. It is a delicate situation to navigate and it will take time, tact and patience. However, once you have this key person on side, then they, alongside your current boss, can support you as you progress your career within this organisation.

Referred Link - https://www.girlsguidetopm.com/10-things-new-project-managers-should-know/



It would be nice to think that every company has a formal mentoring scheme, and that you can tap into the experience of other project managers through this. However, that isn’t always the case. As a result, people managing projects for the first time often find themselves making mistakes. That’s normal – we all make mistakes from time to time, especially in a new job.

1. Manage Scope

2. Learn the Vocab

3. Review Success Continually

4. Create a Common Goal

5. Use Short Tasks

6. Learn What’s A Showstopper

7. Manage Risk

9. Understand the Benefits

10. Accept the Fact That Your Job is a Mystery

Referred Link - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ten-simple-exercises-improve-your-own-creativity-don-peppers/

Innovation occurs when ideas get together and “have sex” with each other.

1. When meeting people you don’t know at a party, pick a point of view you vehemently disagree with and argue in favor of it instead. Be convincing.
2. Or find the person you have least in common with and spend an hour in conversation with them.
3. Read a magazine you would never ordinarily have the least interest in.
4. At a restaurant, order a food you normally can’t stand, and eat it.
5. Move to a different apartment, or a different office location, a different job, or even a different city. Change your environment for no reason other than to make the change.
6. Drive a different route to work or school, or to church, or to the club. Take a long cut, on purpose.
7. Spend 30 minutes a day with a language course from Pimsleur or Rosetta Stone to learn how to ask directions and order food in a new language. 
8. Put your clothes on in a different order every day (i.e., shirt first one day, socks first the next, right then left instead of left then right, and so forth).
9. Brainstorm different ways to use a common tool (like a hammer, or a Phillips screwdriver).
10. Meet one new person a day for a whole month. Talk to them, converse with them, get to know them a bit more. You can easily do this online.

Referred Link - https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/finding-inspiration-when-you-dont-feel-inspired-paul-wilson