How hard do you really work? Productivity guru Steve Pavlina once asserted that a regular person usually only does real work and hour a day and yet most of us complain about not having enough time to have a good time. Now this raises the question of the level of work that we really dish out every day. Still, whether it’s real work we’re doing or not, stress is still there ready to bite our butts. And with stress comes misery.

One way to address stress is to recognize how hard you really work. Sometimes, stress comes from the personal pressure of doing work and not really from the work itself. Now how about that? It’s you you’re stressing out! And you can’t just help it especially if you’re one of the regular folk who live in a world where you rely on that one job for your livelihood.

Living a stress-free professional life starts out with one very important question - “Are you happy?” Remember that happiness is quite different from the thought of stability. Satisfaction is also different from complacence. How do you go about your daily routine? Are you always agitated or do you always have a smile on your face? If you feel the former, then you may have to rethink your career plans.

However, realistically, you may not be able to easily just let go of your job just yet in the pursuit of happiness. You can always try to do things that you might love. It might be as simple as getting a hobby or something a bit trickier like getting a side job - a great way to try out things that you might really enjoy without having to risk your steady job.

If it’s not the job, then it must be the environment and/or the people. Every workplace has its own culture and politics. It’s a mucky thing, all right, but those you have to deal with. Having a positive outlook would always be your best safeguard in dealing with these issues. Avoid getting frustrated though, just be happy doing the work that you love.