About once a year someone in my family of five comes down with a cold and inevitably the entire family gets it, leading to a week of coughing, sniffles and less than optimal sleep and performance. It’s a fact of life, something we all families go through.

There’s another contagion that can run through a family, much more often if you let it: your moods. In fact, studies have shown that it’s as easy to catch a bad mood from someone as it is to catch their germs.

It’s human nature to not always be in a good mood. Life can be frustrating and things don’t always go our way. There are times when life downright sucks, but if you’re a parent, partner or boss you have to be mindful of how your mood can infect an entire room. I write from experience on this. It’s an area I’ve made massive strides in, but I’ve often been very bad at masking my mood. Minor things in my life, such as the performance of a favorite sports team or work related stress would impact my mood and inject negativity into the room.