The Grouch.

Today's Marketing Cookie is about how your attitude can change the weather.

Aaaah, Aaaaah, Aaaah-Choooo!!

God bless me.

I am allergic to nearly everything on this green earth. In the spring, the grass, the trees and weeds, the flowers and shrubs all start releasing an explosion of dusty pollen, which causes me to sneeze with every breeze and makes my eyes burn a bright, itchy, scratchy red. Beginning in mid-March and lasting through late June, I have to stay indoors most of the time. Sadly, the only difference between suffering from allergies and survival is about two hundred bucks.

Yes, since the days of my childhood, I have tried every conceivable medication that has come onto the market for controlling my allergies. In the early days, the pills I took pretty much knocked me out, which at times, was more than a welcomed relief from the agony of not being able to breathe. I would try to struggle through it. If I didn't take some type of pill, I would be a big fat mess, sneezing and sniffling all over the place and burning through a whole box of tissues in no time flat. If however, I did take something, I wouldn't be able to think straight and my brains would go to mush.

Thankfully, the science has gotten smarter, and the medication has continued to improve dramatically. For the past few years, I've been taking a single little pill each day called "Zyrtec", which works better than anything I've ever tried. Although I have to double the dose for most of May, which makes me borderline loopy, I am, for the most part, clear and ready to take on the world.

Zyrtec truly works wonders, except for one thing... it makes me a little grouchy.

Ha Ha. It's true. I've been grouchy with my wife, grouchy with my kids, grouchy in traffic, and I even yelled at our little doggie, who was all quite undeserving. I've observed myself walking into the kitchen where my little family was bopping around all happy, and by the time I left the room, these same people whom I love were scowling from being scolded by me. The grouch.

Our agency is going gangbusters these days. This, of course, is great news! We are becoming more sought-after and are being invited to pitch more and more new business. Our winning has been holding at such an unprecedented rate, our founder hasn't seen anything like it in over twenty-five years. Meanwhile, there are proposals to write and work to do. Yet, I have observed myself being Nick the Naysayer or Donald the Downer in meetings with my coworkers, bringing a rain cloud to our picnic. Yep. That's me. The grouch.

So, I've started a little apology tour. I've been saying, "sorry for the recent grouchification," and telling my family and friends at work that I still love them. The grouch only shows up when I let him, but sometimes he sneaks in from backstage. So, I've also asked others to let me know when they sense the grouch is resurfacing, so I can make a realignment. It took me a few weeks to realize why I've been so snippy lately, but I can clearly see the impact my attitude can have on the climate of a room, and the culture of my office and our home.

I encourage you to observe yourself. Take a look. Are you being Dr. Jekyll or Mr. Hyde? Are you a barrel of laughs, or a barrel of monkeys? Take notice of how happy people are when you enter the room, and gauge the longevity of their smiles when leaving. If you find that you're being a little grouchy like I was, find a way to smile. We can do this! Let's do as today's fortune suggests, "You use your creative talents to transform a business environment."