I had the pleasure of flying from Chicago to Singapore for a few days this last week. I rediscovered just how much control I have on my own happiness. Almost everyone I talked to bemoaned my future as I told them the flight from San Fransisco to Singapore was seventeen hours. I was doomed on a flight that long, especially in economy. What I found was the exact opposite.

Certainly I felt like I had good fortune in some respects on my flight. I benefited from having an empty seat next to me. I was lucky to have some extra legroom. I also felt like my attitude had a lot to do with me being happy for the 24 hours of travel. I decided before I embarked that I was grateful for the opportunity to fly halfway around the world. I marveled that it was possible to start on Thursday afternoon and end up Saturday morning in Asia.

One tactic I used throughout my flight was to take every opportunity to be grateful. I was grateful for the stopover in San Fransisco to stretch my legs. I was grateful for the meals they served (since they don’t serve meals on domestic flights any more). I was grateful for my ability to sit in a club lounge and have a beer while I waited between flights. There were so many things for which to be grateful.

It wasn’t that there weren’t things that might have frustrated me. There were. I simply chose not to dwell on those aspects of my trip. We had a mechanical delay on two of my flights. I was grateful that I had I had given myself enough connecting time that I still made my connecting flights. I arrived early morning on Saturday and my hotel room wasn’t ready. I was grateful that the hotel let me shower in the gym and leave my bag so I could explore the city before my room was ready.

The flight home was probably the best example of focusing on the positive. There was a family of four with two very small children in the row ahead of me. One of the two children was crying or yelling every 20 minutes for the sixteen hour flight. I decided early on that I felt bad for the parents and I was grateful for my place not having to be responsible for the kids. I didn’t focus on the bad, I focused on the good.

I was struck by the difference in the attitude of another traveler that I overheard upon arriving in the USA. She had been in business class with many more amenities during the sixteen hours. She couldn’t stop complaining to her traveling companions about the baby. How horrible her entire flight was because of the noise. She said it was the most miserable flight she had ever had. I realized at that moment that we both experienced the baby, but we chose to approach the experience very differently.

Consider for a moment how you can make your own happiness in your work. As a leader, you are a model for what behavior you want from your team. Every company has things that you can find irritating. Every role has its own “screaming baby.” Choose to find things to be grateful about rather than let those things impede your happiness. Model your happiness rather than openly registering your complaints in order to get the most our of yourself and your team.