For a number of years now, I have been using a book called "How to be Happy, Dammit" with my employee development clients. It is not new: Karen Salmansohn wrote it way back in 2001. And some of the "new-age-iness" hasn't worn well.

The basic tenets of the book are timeless, however, in getting people at all levels of an organization to focus on what can make a positive difference. We wrote about this in some detail on our company blog recently, but here is the key point that I wanted to share:

---You have a choice about how you want your next hour/day/week/life go. You can spend a lot of energy fussing and fretting, or you can take that same energy and focus it forward in a positive way to transform your workplace into one of heightened productivity and innovation.
---Leadership all starts within each of us. We make conscious decisions to adopt positive or negative mindsets that drive how well we succeed. Our own modeling of forward-looking, action-oriented behavior rubs off on others just as a negative attitude can bring others down.

Carlos Castaneda had a nice quote that sums this choice of ours up:

"We either make ourselves happy or miserable. The amount of work is the same."

Why invest such energy if you don't get a great result from it?

Here is a matrix of comparative approaches that you might use, and share with others who may need a little help adopting the right "engagement" mindset: 

Click over to the Bovo-Tighe blog for more, but starting with these simple shifts in mindset each day will do wonders for your outlook and productivity. 

And you can compound the gains by roping in others to join you in this positive mindset movement!