The #1 joykiller and how to avoid it

This article is part of the Contemporary leadership series

If you don't ask yourself the tough personal questions, you'll never change. If you do, you will. Learn what those questions are and how to ask them in just two minutes a day!

In my travels, I run across thousands of people all over the world who aren’t happy. In fact, some of them are downright miserable. It’s hard to be an engaged, productive person at work if you’re not happy. And, it can be even harder at home.

So, what is the #1 joy killer today? What is killing our happiness and engagement on such a wide-scale? It’s that series of little things that we put on our plates, that pile up over time, compounding to the point of being way too much for any one person to handle.

Dr. Marshall Goldsmith was selected as the #1 Executive Coach in the World by GlobalGurus.org, and one of the 10 Most Influential Management Thinkers in the World by Thinkers50 in both 2011 and 2013. He was also selected as the World’s Most Influential Leadership Thinker in 2011. Marshall was the highest rated executive coach on the Thinkers50 List in both 2011 and 2013. What Got You Here Won’t Get You There was listed as a top ten business bestseller for 2013 by INC Magazine / 800 CEO Read (for the seventh consecutive year). Marshall’s exciting new research on engagement is published in his newest book Triggers (Crown, 2015).