This week’s blog theme has been happiness; where do you deserve more and how can you get it? I’ve discussed how to deal with people who feel stuck in their position in work or school, how to abandon the idea of boredom, and questioned if Americans are spending enough time at one job to master it. When you’ve been searching for a job in your career for the last six months, it might be hard to have positive thoughts about your career choice. When you’ve been doing the same monotonous task for the last 3 years or have been struggling in a new job since your first day, it might be hard to feel happy about what you do for a living.

So, when do you know when you need to demand something more from your job and how do you move forward?

• Expand: If you’ve been at the same job for a long time or are unhappy with the job you just entered, you can enhance your work life by choosing a second career. In the article, “Earnings and Yearnings: Meet the Slashers,” “slashers” share their insights on having a work life that’s split between two careers, like computer geek/comedian, corporate recruiter/water aerobics instructor, or PR coordinator/horror writer. Slashers have two careers so they can transition easily into another job, have a job to fall back on, and have a “diversified” portfolio.

• Reinvent: What makes you happy? What doesn’t make you happy? How can you balance these out? Write down one goal you have to increase your happiness quotient and make one step toward making it a reality today.

The state of our economy may make you feel like you have more restraints than you’ve ever experienced. But there are still many options that can make you money and keep you happy. What can you do to have a happier outlook on your career? What is something you enjoy doing? Is there an opportunity for it to become a second career?

Many employees enter an entry level job with the intention of leaving the minute something better comes along and with an unrealistic idea of how long it will take for them to advance in their field. In the book “This is Your Brain on Music,” Daniel Levitin writes:

… ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert — in anything. In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again. Ten thousand hours is the equivalent to roughly three hours per day, or twenty hours per week, of practice over ten years. Of course, this doesn’t address why some people don’t seem to get anywhere when they practice, and why some people get more out of their practice sessions than others. But no one has yet found a case in which true world-class expertise was accomplished in less time. It seems that it takes the brain this long to assimilate all that it needs to know to achieve true mastery.

Entry-level employees and interns should be encouraged to develop mastery of their job before expecting to advance to something that holds more responsibility, commitment, and skill. An employee working 40 hour work days could master their job in 5 years, according to Levitin’s calculations. In these five years, as the employee learns the ropes they might be promoted or change companies, but they will be on a learning continuum that allows them to master every step before moving on.

Too many interns enter their internships with an unrealistic timeframe of how long it will take them to be in their dream position. Employees who set out to master their skill instead of set out to make money as fast as they can, not only have a more realistic perception of how the world works, but arguably gain more from their life experiences.