Can this ‘boring' country teach us how to be happier at work?
Finland is a country that bats well above its weight. The northern European nation is less than half the size of New South Wales, has a population of just 5.6 million people, and surprised the world – including many of its citizens – when it was first named the happiest country on Earth in 2019.
Last month, Finland held onto the title for an unprecedented eighth year in a row, according to the World Happiness Report – a list published annually by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network, an initiative of the United Nations and Gallup research.
Every year, 100,000 people are asked how satisfied they are with their lives to compare differences in personal and national happiness. This year, Australia fell one place to be ranked 11th in the world.
As part of research for my latest book, Work Backwards, I spent almost a month travelling around Finland to try to get to the bottom of why they've risen to the top of the happiness charts and stayed there.
I discovered that one of the main reasons is how they think about their jobs and what they do. A lecturer at Helsinki's Aalto University, Frank Martela, an expert on the intersection between Finnish culture and happiness, helped me understand this better.
Sitting in his office, surrounded by folders of his own research on the topic, Martela explains that many of his compatriots have 'a bit of a melancholic self-image' and view themselves as introverted and quiet. Another word to describe this that I kept hearing repeated around Finland?
It's easy to get caught up in a culture that always pushes for more, which is why the Finnish approach to satisfaction is so refreshing.
Many of them openly describe themselves as being a little bit boring, and they are perfectly OK with that.
I wrote recently in defence of 'boring' jobs, and the underrated value that can bring to how you approach work. In a similar vein, living a simple life where you know what's important to you, and have regularly access to that, can help increase your satisfaction levels.
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