According to a study by a prominent American university, skill accounts for 15% of the reasons someone lands a job, excels on the job or earns a raise or promotion. What makes up the other 85%? Attitude.

Attitude affects everything: your schoolwork, your job performance, your personal relationships, your self-esteem, your outlook on the future—the list is endless. Considering the tremendous impact your attitude has on life, it is well worth the effort to make it the best it can be. Here are some simple but powerful ways to improve your attitude starting right now:

Believe it’s possible. Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you’re right. Case in point: In the early 1950's, an Englishman named Roger Banister announced to the world he would run the mile in under four minutes. Everyone, including sports experts and the medical establishment, told him it couldn’t be done. But in 1954, he did it. Within a year, more than 30 people accomplished the same feat. When asked how it was possible for so many to run that fast so soon, Banister said, "It was never a physical barrier, it was a mental barrier."

Raise yourself up. Lift up your smile, your eyes and your talk. Rather than plodding through the day, make it a point to be more upbeat.

Build other people up. Talk about good news with your friends and family. Give compliments. Offer to help. After every interaction, ask yourself, “Does that person feel better because he talked to me?”

Find the good. We can’t control what happens to us in life, but we can certainly choose how we react. Instead of looking for someone to blame when things go wrong, look for the lessons to be learned and use them to prevent mistakes in the future.

As Victor Frankl, a Nazi concentration camp survivor, said, "Everything can be taken from a man but the last of the human freedoms—to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."