Not everyone is wired for natural positivity. In fact, one of the world’s foremost authors and keynote speakers on the topic doesn’t even find it easy.

However, if you can focus on implementing the power of positivity in leadership and beyond, you can unlock tremendous benefits for your life.

On this episode of Change Starts Here, host and FranklinCovey Education thought leader Dustin Odham was joined by Jon Gordon, author of “The Energy Bus,” “The Power of Positive Leadership,” and more.

As Gordon puts it, to win as a leader, you must win with people – and “it all begins with your decision to become a positive leader.”

Still, that’s easier said than done, a fact that isn’t lost on Gordon.

“It’s ironic that this is my life’s work, because I’m not naturally positive,” he said. “I grew up in Long Island, New York in a Jewish-Italian family – a lot of food, a lot of guilt. … My family wasn’t very positive, and I grew up not very positive. So, I had to struggle with it for years. Eventually, my wife had had enough of my negativity. She said, ‘I love you, but I’m not going to spend my life with someone who makes me so miserable. You need to change.’”

Positivity, like anything else, comes from, practice. Gordon said he literally began to take “thank-you walks” where he would physically walk down the street and vocalize things he was grateful for.

With that kind of intent and purpose, anyone can bring more positivity into their life, and Odham and Gordon spent the rest of the episode exploring how to do just that.