(CNN)—More than half of Americans find their job unsatisfactory, according to an annual survey released last month by the Conference Board research group. The nation has been hovering around the halfway mark of job dissatisfaction since at least 2000.

Think of the people you work with every day. Half of them do not like being there. Maybe you're one of them, living a life that Henry David Thoreau would have described as one of "quiet desperation."

Many of us also conflate our self-worth with our career, unhelpfully, and our job unhappiness becomes life unhappiness, which raises the stakes.

Wouldn't it be nice to stop being envious of those who love their jobs and become one of them?

There is a lot of career advice out there about how to ask for a raise, get a promotion, deal with a difficult boss, manage others and so on. But very little addresses the fundamental issue of your day-to-day happiness at work, which is a shame, since you don't need anyone else to give you that happiness.

The factors that can tip the scales one way or the other for job happiness can boil down to our innate desire for three things: control over our lives, positive daily connections, and joy and meaning in how we spend our waking time (half of which is at work, for most people).

The way to integrate our need for control, connection and meaning -- while on the clock -- is by "job crafting." That's the term used by Yale University psychologist Amy Wrzesniewski and University of Michigan professor of business administration and psychology Jane E. Dutton. It's about "taking control of, or reframing, some of these factors," they wrote in a study on the topic.

Read the full article "Fall in love with a job you don't even like, in three steps" at CNN.