“As a leader in your company, and every employee is a leader, it is your job to set the energetic tone of the workplace when you enter every morning,” says author Cathy Hawk.

Cathy Hawk and husband Gary Hawk are experts in positive energy in the workplace. They are three-time award-winning authors of Get Clarity, The Lights-On Guide to Manifesting Success in Life and Work, and SHIFT, A Guidebook to Above-the-Line, Positive Thinking.

Once when I was COO of a big advertising agency, a client fired us for what I felt was unfair reasons. I was a little down, and the president sent me home and told me not to return until I was in a positive mood.

She was right. As a leader, your staff and prospects take a cue from your demeanor.

That was before I met the Hawks and learned that adopting a positive outlook is not only good for business, it is good for your health.

Many research studies bear this out. Having a positive outlook on life — a general optimistic expectation that good things will happen — may help people live longer, according to study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, reported a December 2016 issue of The Harvard Gazette.

“Our new findings suggest that we should make efforts to boost optimism, which has been shown to be associated with healthier behaviors and healthier ways of coping with life challenges,” said Eric Kim, research fellow in the Harvard Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences and co-lead author of the study.

One possibility is that higher optimism directly impacts our biological systems, Kim reported in the American Journal of Epidemiology.

According to Cathy and Gary Hawk, the choice is yours.

“You can enter the door each morning feeling harried, grumpy or pressured, or you can choose to enter with a bounce in your step, fully engaged and excited to meet the day,” says Gary Hawk. “It is your choice.”

“It’s a well-known fact that the energy you send out to the world is the energy you attract from the world,” says Cathy Hawk. “However, many times in the heat of complicated life and work schedules, this well-established truth could be forgotten or ignored.”

The Hawks say life is complicated; schedules are demanding and things will always happen to interfere with your schedules.

“If you are late because the kids wouldn’t eat their breakfast; or the one-hour meeting became a two-hour meeting because the boss talked too long, it can ruin the whole day if you let it,” says Gary Hawk.

Or, as they point out, you can get intentional about the next meeting or the next interaction and not take your anxiety with you. Again, the choice is yours.

The Hawks offer the following power of positive thinking tips:

1. “Choose positivity over productivity.”
2. “It’s your choice to set an energetic tone for your day.”
3. “Take time to affirm the genuine moments of joy in your day before rushing unconsciously into the next meeting.”
4. “When your schedule is negatively impacted by anyone or anything, shift your thinking to express more effective thoughts, and be intentional about the energy you want to take into your next interaction.”
5. “Be intentional with your thoughts and energy throughout your day.”
6. “A good way to shift to more effective thoughts is to take a moment to express gratitude about the things in your life.”

“Expressing gratitude for the blessings in your life is one of the easiest ways to shift and energize your thinking, says Cathy Hawk. “With this renewed energy, consciously set your intention for the rest of day.”