The last few years have taught me a number of valuable lessons, a lot of them were taught at work. I pride myself on being a pretty positive person, but these years have been a kind of baptism of fire for me, from which I do feel I’ve come out stronger, wiser and more compassionate.

The biggest lesson I learned was how to stay positive in the face of seemingly helpless – or frustrating – work situations. I can’t even count the number of times I told myself I couldn’t take another day. However, I believe it was Gandhi that said it best: be the change you wish to see in the world. It meant that I needed to change myself and my response to what was going on around me in order to see the results that I wanted to achieve. Sometimes it meant doggedly persevering until I achieved the desired result. Whatever the case, it always meant not giving up.

Positivity at work is such a key ingredient to success because it’s how solutions are found. If you’re having trouble with staying positive at work, or if you’ve never quite been positive where you work in the first place, here are a few tips that I hope might change that for you. They’ve been really useful for me.

1. Keep learning and be willing to teach others what you know
2. Take your lunch time and use it get a break from work
3. Leave work at work (i.e. try not to work at home)
4. Get to know your co-workers and build relationships with them
5. Set attainable goals and done be afraid to speak up when you think a target is not realistic (just make sure you have a solid reason why)
6. If you make a mistake, own up to it and commit to doing better.