by Lori Hardesty

Not a natural optimist? Use these simple exercises to train your brain to more easily pick out the positive.

You know how when you play Tetris for awhile, even after you stop, you can still see those little falling blocks in your mind's eye?

The persistence of Tetris isn't simply an annoying effect of a cleverly designed game, according to scientists. Instead it's a reflection of something deeply positive about our brains--their plasticity.

That's a according to a recent post by iDoneThis founder Walter Chen on productivity blog buffer. He cites studies on Tetris (yes, there is such a thing, and yes, this is going somewhere helpful to non-video game addicted entrepreneurs), which found that playing the game for a few hours a week over a period of months, actually changed the brains of players.

"Every time you reactivate a circuit, synaptic efficiency increases, and connections become more durable and easier to reactivate," Chen writes, before summarizing the importance of the findings: "Whenever you do specific tasks over and over again, they take up less of your brain power over time."

That's probably not a shock to anyone who has learned to play the piano, speak a foreign language or even hit a tennis ball roughly where you want it to go. So what's the big deal? This same brain plasticity allows you to master simple skills or sports, also allows you to train yourself to be more positive.

Chen quotes Shawn Achor, the author of The Happiness Advantage who has previously spoken about his work on the brain and happiness to Inc. Just like we can train our brains to more easily recognize the patterns of Tetris, “we can retrain the brain to scan for the good things in life—to help us see more possibility, to feel more energy, and to succeed at higher levels,” Achor says, dubbing this ability "the positive Tetris effect."

So how do you do this? Chen offers four very simple interventions that can, over time, actually rewire your brain to see things more positively:

• Scan for the 3 daily positives. At the end of each day, make a list of three specific good things that happened that day and reflect on what caused them to happen. The good things could be anything — bumping into an old friend, a positive remark from someone at work, a pretty sunset. Celebrating small wins also has a proven effect of powering motivation and igniting joy. As you record your good things daily, the better you will get and feel.
• Give one shout-out to someone (daily). I love this technique. Take the positive things you’re getting better at recognizing and let people know you’ve noticed. Take a minute to say thanks or recognize someone for their efforts, from friends and family to people at work. A great way to go about this is by sending 1 daily email to someone. It can be your old school teacher, whose advice you are now appreciating every day. A co-worker or someone you’ve only met. Show courage and say thanks.
• Do something nice. Acts of kindness boost happiness levels. Something as small and simple as making someone smile works. Pausing to do something thoughtful has the power to get you out of that negativity loop. Do something nice that is small and concrete like buying someone a coffee.
• Mind your mind. Mindfulness is paying attention to the present moment without judgment. Opening our awareness beyond the narrowness of negativity can help bring back more balance and positivity into the picture.

Looking for more details? Chen's post has much more on the science and what actually happens physically in your brain. You can also check out Achor's interview about how happiness affects brain function (hint: it doesn't make it worse), or get tips on how to reframe situations more positively in the moment from my colleague Geoffrey James. Finally, if you're looking to add more mindfulness to your day, check out this post on how many entrepreneurs incorporate meditation into their lives.

Do you agree that it's possible to alter you basic orientation towards the world and become more positive?

Forget your best friend. Working with someone who drives you crazy is more likely to help you achieve your dreams.

When you think about founding your dream business, you might imagine working side-by-side with your best friend, or your spouse, or your sibling. You love spending time with this person. You feed off each other and have such great ideas. It will be awesome.

Or maybe not. Maybe what you should do is work with someone who drives you insane.

It works for Discovery Channel Mythbusters Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman. They do, by all accounts, great work. But, they are not friends. They do not hang out together and, according to Adam, they drive each other crazy.

So, why does the relationship work? Because they respect each other. And that is the critical piece. If you respect someone you don't need to like them in order to have a successful working relationship. It can even be a benefit. Here's why.

You like different things, so you see different things. When your business interests and your outside interests are similar, you'll both focus on the same things. You'll see the same side of every problem. While this makes for pleasantries and warm and fuzzy feelings, it can also cause you to miss things--big things.

A partner, or an employee, whose viewpoint is different from yours will see things you cannot. She will see areas that you are weak in and you will see areas where she is weak. You will see different things and this is beneficial.

You're not distracted by social lures. You don't stop working on a project to plan your weekend activities. Your relationship will be built around the business and the business only.

It's easier to terminate a relationship. I have received numerous emails from people who desperately want to leave the family business, or who no longer want to work for their best friend, but cannot because they are terrified of damaging the relationship. Likewise, I've received emails from people whose best friend is not doing a good job, and they want to fire and replace that person, but won't go through with it.

If your relationship is purely business, if it's not working out, it's easier to part ways. If your partner wants to take on a new job, you say, "Great idea! I wish you the best of luck!" and there is no angst over it.

While this may seem like a silly, little, thing, the stress reduction from having purely business relationships is tremendous.

Smart is better than yes. You need to surround yourself with smart people. People with great ideas. Not necessarily with people who you'd like to go to lunch with. Great ideas can come from all sorts of people. Someone who challenges you makes you think harder. Someone who will say, "But..." and will point out the flaws that you'd otherwise overlook.

Respect is key. If you are so annoyed by this person that you are yelling, the business relationship won't work out. You must respect each other. You must be polite. You must listen to what the other person has to say. But, you don't need to be friends.

The next time you are looking to hire someone, or partner with someone, look for someone who has great ideas and thinks differently than you do. In fact, you may wish to look for someone who, like Jamie Hyneman does to Adam Savage, drives you nuts. If you are as successful as they are, you'll be off to a great start.