In my leadership development class, students were sent daily mood surveys from September 5 through September 19. Recall that students in the PT MBA program are not just students, most of us hold full time jobs too.

The purpose of the mood survey was to map out how exactly we are feeling at work on a daily basis. The surveys were sent electronically and, of course, sent during working hours. Upon completion of 14 days of survey taking, we would have data comparing our score to the class average score.

The day we received our scores, I noticed my scores in all of the positive categories were way above the class average, while my scores in the negative categories were all below the class average. Essentially, this meant I was feeling much happier, but also much less anxiety and negativity than the average student/working professional in my class (there are about 42 of us in class).

So, how did I do it? I definitley focus on perspective. To me, perspective is your attitude toward a circumstance or how you choose to view a situation in light of whatever positive and negatives may exist. Below are 3 ideas on how to design your perspective to create a happy work, home, school environment:

• Grattitude – This is the most significant feeling that shapes my perspective. Many times, we take small blessings for granted. We live a life of entitlement. For example, we expect to have a functioning car to take us to work everyday or we expect our loved ones to be present for us eternally. We should understand that nothing is promised to us. We should be looking at our lives through a lense of gratitude, especially for things we take for granted on a daily basis.
  • How to: Write down 3 things you are grateful for and 3 things you look forward to in the coming week, list things you take for granted and put more effort into appreciating small wins
• Consider the Circumstances – A lot of times we are hard on ourselves without considering the circumstances we are facing. Considering your circumstances isn’t a means to excuse negative behavior, but instead understand the context under which something happens or exists. If we consider our circumstances, we can then be more realistic about ourselves.
  • How to: Think about what influences your decisions, be aware of the real circumstances by facing real truths. Sometimes, we create false truths for ourselves, and we need a friend or colleague to open our eyes to the real facts in the matter.
• Every experience is a learning experience – No matter good or bad, every experience we live is an experience we can learn something from. If we view life in this lense, then we always gain something worth noting in our day-to-day lives.
  • How to: Think about prior work or school experience and reflect on major takeaways from those times. Try to apply this same thinking in the present moment.