Sometimes it is hard to keep your chin up.

Customer demands, vendor delivery concerns, employee issues and the stress of keeping score with the IRS can (and often do) wear anyone out. Nevermind the constant pressure of worrying about whether your existing customers plan on paying you in a timely manner. Business is tough for everyone, and it does not seem to be getting any easier. Throw in some bad news headlines and a one-way flight to a distant vacation getaway starts sounding like a reasonable reaction to it all. In most cases, knee-jerk escapism simply delays the inevitable.

What can a business person do to ease stress and start having fun?

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How about the personal decision to have a positive attitude?

I know, it sounds laughable within the context of the pressure cooker you call a career.

How can a positive attitude change anything?

I have seen the decision to face the day with a positive attitude do wonders for my personal productivity. I am not a licensed or practicing psychologist, but I have seen what happens to me when I take time out of my day to fathom everything that could go wrong. My productivity goes right out the window. I stop working because I am consumed with thoughts of failure. Once the demons of self-doubt or self-pity take over, I feel my attitude change from a "can-do" mentality to a "to-hell-with-this" approach to viewing the world and my circumstances in it. Often, a 20-minute break turns into a 90-minute emotional "time-out" that does absolutely nothing to change my circumstances. It is a complete and utter waste of time.

Several years ago, when taking a hard look at my personal productivity, I noticed a disturbing trend of pockets of time evaporating into thin air. When I looked at the source of this phenomenon, I was able to trace each empty pocket to these wasteful emotional episodes. When I asked myself what caused these events, I remembered they always started with an incident of misfortune (large or small) followed by a curious change of attitude (from good to bad).

Could I solve this productivity problem with the simple decision to carry a positive attitude throughout the duration of my work day? I elected to experiment with this theory, and much to my surprise, these wasteful emotional episodes disappeared.

Are you ready to commit yourself to a positive attitude?

Make a conscious effort to start each day with a positive attitude. This can be accomplished by looking for the "silver lining" to every problem you encounter. Further commit yourself to keep that positive attitude throughout the day.

Remind yourself that you are in the problem business; your customers come to you because they have problems or obstacles they believe you can help them solve.

Relish the opportunity to solve someone else's problem; there is no better feeling than providing something to someone who needs your help.

As you focus on identifying and solving problems for your customers, a funny thing happens: Many of your problems disappear! They disappear because you have taken the focus off what you need and refocused on some else's need. Suddenly, your work is completed with higher quality and delivered in a timelier manner; in turn, your customers pay you sooner, and your capacity to make more money dramatically increases with each successful project.

Attitude really is everything; make sure your attitude is ALWAYS positive.

Frank P. Costabilo Jr. owns and operates a full-service public-relations firm and has worked with small and medium-sized businesses for the past 17 years. He can be reached via news@thebizpress.com