Tuesday, November 27, 2007

How to make oneself happy at work?

Two weeks ago I had a day that I was NOT looking forward to. I had two speaking gigs on a Saturday (which is great!) but they were in opposite ends of Denmark. I had to get up disgustingly early to make the drive to the first one and then there was barely enough time to finish that and drive 350 km to the next one. After that, it was another 300 km drive home.

It is starting to get cold here, so there was no way I could ride my motorcycle that day. That meant renting a car, and I was not looking forward to driving that far in some anonymous Ford or Toyota.

Which made me think of a question I often get: “So Alex - you make other people happy at work. What do you do if you have a bad day?”

And of course I have bad days too - everyone does. Happiness at work does not mean being utterly ecstatic every moment of every day. As Emma Thompson says in my favorite movie: “There was always going to be a totally shit moment.”

But in this particular case, I found the perfect solution. One that transformed the long drive from a chore to a pleasure. To something I almost couldn’t wait to do.

Here’s my trick:

Yes - I went and rented myself a Mini Cooper. There is a rental car company in Copenhagen called Rent A Mini where you can rent only two different kinds of car: Minis and Mini convertibles.

And let me tell you, those things are a blast to drive. I do not own a car, and I do not want to own one, but if I did, I would get myself one of these. It feels fairly comfortable, but it drives more like a go-cart! Plus it looks really spiffy :o)

Renting one of these is no more expensive than renting any run-of-the-mill anonymobile, but it made my Saturday a lot of fun. Oh, and I had two great gigs too :o)

Courtsey:Alexander Kjerulf

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