Think about the last three times you became upset about something in your personal life.  It's almost a certainty that at least one of those situations was caused by the fact that your limits were crossed.  You probably didn't articulate those limits in advance.  For example, your neighbor comes over unannounced to chat.  You have only a few minutes to spare, but you fail to tell your visitor.  Out of kindness, you listen while your blood pressure rises as the neighbor talks for an hour.  

-Michael C. Donaldson, Negotiating for Dummies

Again, bad attitudes are contagious.  If the people closest to us, including family, friends, and coworkers, have negative attitudes, you may "catch" one as well.

Just remember, you don't have to get upset if someone is trying to make you upset.  You can choose to stay happy and upbeat.  I like to think of this as wearing a bulletproof vest.  People can fire negativity at me all they want.  But if you remember that it is their issue, not yours, it should bounce right off you.

- Tabatha Coffey, Own It!

In the old days, work was self-evident. Fields were to be plowed, machines tooled, boxes packed, cows milked, crates moved. You knew what work had to be done--you could see it. It was clear when the work was finished, or not finished. Increasing your productivity was all about making the work process more efficient, or simply working harder or longer.

Now, for many of us, there are no edges to most of our projects. Most people that I know have at least half a dozen things they're trying to achieve or situations they'd like to improve right now, and even if they had the rest of their lives to try, they wouldn't be able to finish them to perfection. You're probably faced with the same dilemma.

- David Allen, Getting Things Done

Everyone has good days and not so good days, right? It's when the not so good days start to pile up that we need to remind ourselves that those days can become the greatest teacher with the greatest lesson, unless we get in the way of the lesson. How many times did you learn the lesson the hard way or miss the lesson completely? Yeah, me too. When I start having a slew of not so good days, it really helps me to check my attitude at the door. 

"A bad attitude is like a flat tire. If you don't change it, you'll never go anywhere." Unknown

Always leave blank spaces in your calendar to accommodate the unexpected, because the unexpected is often more important than the expected.

- Lee Cockerell, Creating Magic

Whether or not you're into time management and keeping a careful schedule, you know how quickly an emergency can derail even your most carefully laid plans.  And that's the thing about planning - you can't plan for the unexpected.  Or can you?