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A recent column in the Wall Street Journal noted something that we have known before, but it's still nice to see it in print. Sue Shellenbarger wrote:

"In another example, a 2008 research survey found evidence that a positive mood and attitude can bring about more individual success on the job.

Happy people are more satisfied with their jobs and report having more autonomy, after controlling for other factors. They perform better on assigned tasks than less happy peers; they tend to be more cooperative, and they are less likely to be absent from work because of poor health of other problems, says the study published in the Journal of Career Assessment by researchers at the University of California, Riverside. While some researchers previously had concluded that doing well on the job can lead to happiness, these researchers found evidence that the positive attitude often came first, helping foster success."

We've always known this: the more positive you are, the more positive your contributions will be, and the happier you will be at work. Like begets like, and positive people are likely to create a positive mood or attitude in everything they do, with everyone they work with, and at any workplace they inhabit.

Positive people do more, love deeper, push society in new and better ways, and influence the people around them in a positive manner. Negative people influence, too -- but since their "aura" (if we can use such a new-age word in a humble little piece like this) is negative, the results they are likely to have will be negative. In real terms, if there's any movement, the negative people tend to take an organization backwards, not forwards.

I don't believe that any of us were born to be negative people. We learn negative habits, sometimes allow ourselves to move in negative ways, and let our lives be altered by negative-minded people. But deep down, we're still full of the hope and joy that we had as children -- if we allow ourselves to find it once more.

If you're on the negative side, it may take a little time to start developing habits and behaviors that will allow you to see things in a positive way. It may even take a change of job or scenery -- but if you want to make a difference for good in the world, plus if you want to be happy, it would seem from the evidence that you've only got one real choice -- be positive.

Copyright, 2011, by Daryl R. Gibson. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the non-commercial redistribution of this document as long as it remains intact with this copyright and all other lines. This license does not extend to the use of this material in a compilation, whether for profit or non-profit use. Join us at http://www.Weekdaywisdom.com.