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The majority of the American workforce is currently unhappy at work. Surprisingly, this situation seems to be not even directly related to the recession. There has been a 4% drop in job satisfaction just between 2008 and 2009, but annual surveys by the Conference board research group  have shown a steady downward trend: 20 years ago more than 60 % of workers were satisfied with their jobs, today only about 45% of those surveyed expressed satisfaction.

The youngest workers are particularly unhappy: Only about 36% are satisfied with their job.

There are several reasons for the growing dissatisfaction:

According to the survey, workers find the work itself less interesting. Further, the satisfaction with job security is down – no wonder with an unemployment rate of about 10 %. Rising costs of living and health care are also to blame as many workers had to accept a cut in income when companies downsized production and work hours.

Christiane Turnheim is psychologist, college teacher and Life & Career coach. Contact her at christiane@coach4u.net

What would be your perfect day? Who would be in it? What would you do? What makes a day the “perfect day”? Read more: http://blog.coach4u.net

This weekend, we finally made it to the movie theatre and watched “The Bucket List”. This is an outstanding movie about two elderly men from very different backgrounds, who - in the face of death after diagnosed with incurable cancer - go out into the world to do in the last months of their lives all the things they always wanted to do.
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How is it going with the New Year’s resolutions? Still trying to stick to the resolutions? How about participating at a psychological research study?

Prof. Richard Wiseman, the lead researcher of this online research project, says that according to previous research the success rate for New Year’s resolutions is only about 12 %.  Wiseman and his team tracked the resolutions of more than 3000 people from the US and the UK. Resolutions with the highest success rate (between 24 and 32 %) have been: “enjoy life more”, lose weight, improve fitness, and limit or stop drinking alcohol and/or smoking.

Wiseman says that the sexes should follow different strategies to make success more likely.

Men should follow the rules for SMART goals (see previous blog entry) and divide the” big goal” into easier achievable sub goals. It also helps them to remind themselves frequently of the benefits for their life if they achieve their goals. A helpful structure for men would therefore be to write down a lift of benefits and put it at a place where they see it often.

Women increase their chances of sticking to their resolutions by telling others about them. Therefore Wiseman advises women to go public with their pledges by telling friends and relatives.  In addition, women need reminders that slipping up once in a while is no reason for giving up altogether.

As I said in a previous posting, breaking old habits and adopting a new lifestyle needs time. Therefore, be gentle with yourself and take your time. View “failures” to stick to your resolutions as temporary setbacks and try it again.   

An Australian/ New Zealand study about sleep in seven year old school kids found a link between too little sleep and obesity. The 519 children in the study slept an average of 10 hours per night. Those, who got less than 9 hours of sleep, were significantly more likely than the others to be overweight or obese. They were also at a higher risk for mood swings.The study is published in the Journal Sleep. (www.sleepjournal.org)

Another study published several months ago found a similar link between sleep duration and body weight for adults. It seems that more time being awake translates to more time spent eating.

So, for those of us with a New Year resolution to sleep more, there is a new pro argument: sleep instead of diet. Works for me!

New Years resolutions - who doesn’t make them? It’s an old game, almost a ritual - we start every year fiercely determined to make important changes in our life, from losing weight to exercising more, or sleeping more…..and then, after two weeks, it’s over and we are back to square one. The problem:  we don’t do it right with the resolutions. Psychologists say that setting SMART goals will increase success rates.

Here is what the acronym SMART stands for with respect to resolutions and goals:

S= Specific: Make a specific resolution. Instead of “eating healthier” , “I will eat two apples per day”

M= Measurable:  Make your progress measurable. Example: if you want to lose 10 pounds overall, then losing one pound per week is measurable.

A= Attainable: Be realistic. Don’t hope  to lose 20 pounds in two months and then keeping the pounds off.  For permanent weight loss you must take it slow. The same applies to all major lifestyle changes. If you didn’t exercise at all before, don’t expect to do it suddenly one hour per day. Unrealistic expectations are the main reason that people give up on their resolutions.

R= Relevant:  Is your health relevant to you? If not, why a resolution concerning a healthy lifestyle? Don’t do it, just because your friends want to improve their health. You won’t stick to health related resolutions anyway and it would be just a waste of time. Don’t make more thean 2 or 3 resolutions and stick to things you are passionate about.

T= Time-bound: Set a time frame within which you will realize your resolutions. As I said before, drastic lifestyle changes are not happening in one minute.