My favorite analogy is that it's like someone takes 5 dollars from you when they ruin your day. And before you know it that 5 dollars magnifies. All of a sudden, the initial five dollars you lost has ruined your whole day and you're out 100 dollars or more. So, the lesson there is supposed to be that if someone wants to ruin 5 minutes of your day, don’t let it drag out and ruin hours of your day.

But that's not how it works. That's not how human nature works. If you just lost or had five dollars stolen from you, how can you make yourself feel better? You go out and try to get your five dollars back. So, maybe you steal it from someone else hoping you'll feel better, and maybe you do for an instant. But afterward you feel bad for stealing.

Even if you don't feel bad for ruining someone else's day because yours was ruined, odds are that stolen five dollars will create a butterfly effect. A tiny flap of wings can lead to thousands of five dollar bills being stolen. The chain reaction begins as that person who just got their day ruined tries to go out and ruin someone else's day to justify their bad day.

Before you know it the chain reaction has spread like wildfire, and people are trying to steal their money back and maybe more.

Or maybe not. Maybe you’ll get lucky and someone who just had their day ruined will keep it to themselves not trying to steal away anyone else's day. So the chain reaction is over right? Well, maybe not.

Now their day is ruined and they have family and friends who feel their emotional distress. Because emotions are, if anything, contagious. That's what empathy is. When one person cries, other people feel sad. When other people laugh can you not help but smile or join in? When other people are having a bad day I feel like it takes away from the good day I’m having.

But maybe you're not empathetic. Maybe making other people have a crappy day makes you feel better about the crappy day you're having. But if I can convince you of anything it’s that life is too short for miserable days. Maybe it's a cliche phrase that you've heard a million times, but seriously think about it, do you want to spend the fleeting days of your life being miserable?

One of my favorite quotes is from an unknown source saying, "Be happy for this moment, for this moment is your life." One aspect of the quote is to not waste moments, even the mundane ones, because those moments are what adds up to your overall living. But, one thing that's missing is the fact that you control your life and all the moments in between.

Don't let someone else tell you or let their actions determine whether or not you're having a crappy day. If you are not happy for this moment, it's okay it doesn't mean your life has to be miserable. It means you need to change something, even if it means just looking up funny jokes on the internet or listening to good music.

Make your moments happy, and before you know it your life will be. Pour all of your energy into a greater goal-- That's a bigger mission to accomplish than just making someone's life miserable. Because, the truth is, making someone's day terrible is easy.

Hopefully, there's so many things out there that you want to accomplish no matter how big or small-- things you’ve always wanted to do but never felt like you had time. So, my idea is that next time someone tries to ruin your day, don't let them win. If someone takes 5 or 10 minutes of your day, give yourself or someone else 5 or 10, or however many minutes of your day.

Instead of going out upset, go out and accomplish the things you wanted to accomplish that you never did. And hopefully, it'll make you feel better. I know it’s harder said than done, and maybe you don't feel like you have something you want to accomplish.

It’s so easy to spread your bad day to someone else. And you want to or you can't help it because it's contagious, just remember that anyone can do it and spreading misery doesn't really make you special.

Making someone's crappy day turn upside down into a wonderful day, now that's a challenge. That's a gift that's much harder to give, and once you do, well, emotions are contagious.