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The Happy Worker

How to find a job you love and love the job you have

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About The Author

I have always been a very happy worker. I was a cheerful and enthusiastic student who knew exactly what I wanted, and I was determined to get it. Originally from The Netherlands, with my parents running their own business, I knew I wanted to be in business and be an Export Manager. After finishing my degree in Economics & Linguistics, I was ready to start my career in International Business. My first job was as an Export Office Assistant for a sticker company in Holland, and after moving to the UK in 1995 I realised my dream of becoming an Export Sales Manager for a small engineering company. I travelled the world to set up worldwide distribution channels and loved building long term relationships with distributors.

Although I loved my work, I knew even at the time that I didn't always want to travel that much all the time. When my marriage ended in 2002 and I found myself footloose and fancy free, I decided to take some time off to go travelling and have an adventure. Over the course of two years I went to Italy to learn Italian, drove around Europe to visit friends and family and went to Thailand to hike in the mountains of Chiang Mai. Eventually I ended up in Mexico for a year, where I taught English to the Mayans, and enjoyed life without too much pressure.

When I came back to the UK in 2006, I knew I wanted to combine my love for helping people, with my love for business, and Business & Career Coaching was perfect for that.

Never one to take half measures, I signed up as a protégé student with the Coaching Academy and qualified in Personal Coaching, Corporate & Executive Coaching and Small Business Coaching. I also became an accredited DISC profiler and an NLP Practitioner and in 2008 started my Business and Career Coaching Practice Inge Dowden Coaching. Since then I have helped hundreds of people find happiness and success in their work. From solicitors to TV producers, architects to graphic designers, copy writers to stock brokers and many more. They all came to me feeling unhappy and unfulfilled in their jobs, and they left feeling energised, motivated and full of purpose. Sometimes because they had changed their careers, but sometimes because they had rediscovered the enthusiasm for their existing job.

Regularly described as ‘The Queen of Happiness’, I believe that everyone deserves to be happy every single day, and above all, that happiness is a state of mind that is entirely within everyone's control - you just need to know how to access it. I realised that many people have no idea how to do this, and that's why I decided to write The Happy Worker.

I live in Bristol with my husband Nick and our three cats Snoepie, Bonnie and Coco. I still love to travel for holiday and make good use of my call answering service and the out-of-office reply. I play badminton, do the odd Swimathon and go Nordic Walking with her 'BorrowMyDoggy' Millie.