Having a sunny disposition is as beneficial to your health, in terms of the number of years you clock up, as not smoking. Since so much of your life is spent working, it doesn鈥檛 take a rocket scientist to realise that being happy in your job is pretty important. Over a series of articles, 快猫短视频 digs deep into the science of happiness to show you how to become a more satisfied, and ultimately more successful, scientist.
Burning ambition
You need some fire in your belly to make it to the top in science. But could too much drive end up driving you round the bend? Or worse, will the stress of over-ambition send you to an early grave? Not according to economists Andrew Oswald and Matthew Rablen, from the University of Warwick, UK, who looked at over 500 men up for a physics or chemistry Nobel prize and found that those who won lived on average than those who were (unbeknownst to them) merely nominated. The finding led the duo to conclude that a high social status grants you a longer life.
Extreme scientific success might give you a couple of extra years, but that doesn鈥檛 necessarily mean they鈥檒l be happy days. In order to find happiness in your work life, it is important to make sure your goals are achievable in the long term. If those goals are unrealistic, they are likely to become a source of frustration and unhappiness. 鈥淚f we always compare ourselves with the people who are publishing in the top journals then it can lead to low self-esteem,鈥� says Brendan Burchell, a sociologist at the University of Cambridge. So seek inspiration from Nobel prize-winners, 鈥渂ut don鈥檛 kid yourself that鈥檚 the norm and that if you don鈥檛 achieve that, you鈥檙e a failure鈥�.
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Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational health at Lancaster University, agrees that people who are overly driven are never going to be happy. 鈥淭ype A personalities are impatient, rushed, ambitious and aggressive,鈥� he says. In other words, they are workaholics. 鈥淩eal workaholics are never really content because once they achieve one goal, they move on to the next. And when they fail, the failure is much more profound.鈥� This is especially relevant to scientists because, more than in most professions, you are never going to have all the answers 鈥� there鈥檚 always something else out there that you could be working on, it鈥檚 just the nature of the beast.
Of course, there鈥檚 nothing wrong with being driven if you balance hard work with time off focusing on other things. But remember, pushing yourself too hard can be counter-productive. 鈥淐ontinual time pressure 鈥� that sense of never having enough time to do things as well as you鈥檇 like 鈥� is a major stressor,鈥� says Burchell.