I'm in a halfway crowded library observing the environment when my eye catches a mother with two young toddlers. One toddler is a young baby looking only weeks old, while the other looks to be about three years old. The three year old is a happy, yet observant child. She scans the area looking for entertainment, or excitement while snacking on some protein that her mother gave her. Soon, she is unable to look away from me... Why? Because I'm making eye contact with her, I'm smiling and making happy face gestures that keep her enticed to what I'm going to do next. This is when I realized that we learn attitudes at a very young age and will bring in the exercises to help you as a reader to help adjust from a negative attitude to a positive attitude.

Exercise: Learn from a child: This may be easier if you have a child of your own, but if you don't make sure you vist friends or relatives that have kids. Look to be around kids ages 2-5 just before kindergarten starts. This exercise should take 30 minutes of actions, then a little longer to write down your observations.

First five minutes: Put on that happy face! This exercise should be easy for those of you that do not have kids, for those of you that are parents of those little toddlers; this could be somewhat of a challenge. With this exercise, you want to use your happiness both verbally and non-verbally. With your actions, you should only talk with a smile on your face, laugh with them, play games, and keep a positive attitude for the whole time. Keep a timer with you so you know how long you need to go. After the five minutes are up, immediately stop. You may need to leave the room or go somewhere else because most likely the child is very much engaged into the playtime. What was your observation? Did the kid smile and play along with you, were they happy too? Did they get a little bit too excited with your happy attitude? Basically, observe all attitudes that you witnessed during the first five minutes, and see just how much they acted just like you did to them

Next five minutes: Practice being sad. Five minutes after that, practice being angry, then brave, and finally practice the calm attitude. Of course, if you do not have children, you may want the parents’ permission to perform these tasks and let them know that you are doing this for research purposes. Children at these young ages have a short-term memory therefore can be easily convinced to change their attitude along with yours, even if you are practicing the emotions of happy and angry within a span of fifteen minutes.

Once you practice all different types of emotions and have written down all of your observations. Note which emotion made you feel the best. Which emotion did you think they liked the best. Now turn this observation and practice these two favorite emotions and attitudes in the workplace or amongst your friends, or even amongst strangers at a gym or supermarket. What are the typical responses back to you once you practice these emotions?

Most likely the two favorite emotions that are practiced and observed are happiness and calm with brave coming in with a close third. You will most likely also see this in your observation with a child too. Remember the saying that "the children are our future". They learn and observe our best and worst habits, yet we learn so much from them as well. Take this moment to learn to adjust an attitude by observing emotions from kids; it truly could help change a negative attitude into a positive one!