I like your attitude
TWO things define you. Your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything.” This awesome quote from last week’s article really inspired me for this week’s content and that is…
“ATTITUDE”
Your ATTITUDE is like a price tag. It shows how valuable you are.
What is it?
What does it mean?
Last week we focused on modelling and how you should use it to your advantage.
You pick someone that is smashing an area in life that you would like to improve on and then identify all those skills that they boss. After doing this, it is then about implementing those skills into your own life. Simple right?
Well what is ATTITUDE and what can we do about it?
It can be defined as “a settled way of thinking or feeling about something.”
I would like to delve into this further and use an acronym to make it easy to understand. You see there are many components that can be brought into ATTITUDE but I think there are a few key factors and they are:
A – Awareness; T – Thinking; T – Therapy;
I – Identity; T – Trust; U – Understand; D – Decisions; E – Emotion.
A mentor of mine, Charles Swindoll, once said: “The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home.
“The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.
“We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude... I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.
“And so it is with you... we are in charge of our attitudes.”
I COULDN’T AGREE MORE.
I love what Charles said and the bit that really stands out are the last few words – “We are in charge of our attitudes”.
We are in charge of our ATTITUDES
We are in charge of our thoughts
We are in charge of our futures.
What do you want your future to look like? So going back to the acronym from earlier how about we delve back into those eight components of Attitude:
A – AWARENESS – Awareness is the ability to perceive a situation, to feel or be conscious of an event, a circumstance or a pattern. It is the absolute beginning of changing your own attitude. Once we are aware of a difficulty we can take the necessary steps for changes. This is such an important factor and once we become aware we can then become forward thinking.
T – THINK – Thinking is a mental process. It is one part of our mind faculties: intellect, emotion and will. Sometimes it helps to think through a situation before we make a choice and consider the consequences of our actions. Thinking is fun especially when it gives us insights.
T THERAPY We are basically giving ourselves therapy when we try to change things for the better. Regarding attitude, it is sometimes possible to create some helpful conditions such as a three-week retraining of behaviour. Habits can take a long time to form so it is really important that you focus hard on improving a certain behaviour.
I IDENTITY What is your identity? What do you want to be perceived as? What values do you want to live by that give you a set identity? I believe in health, fun and being highly energetic so I make this part of my identity. I also make sure my identity stays true to this.
T TRUST – Trust is a feeling which includes friendship, love, agreement, and comfort. Trust can take years to form but can be lost in a second. By adopting good values and having solid attitudes you increase the chances of having and giving trust in the long term.
U UNDERSTAND – Understanding is a psychological process of relating to an abstract or physical object such as a person, a situation or a message. More than using concepts, real life experience brings true understanding. Wisdom grows with years of repetitious activities, and building habits of discipline. When I understand things better I always feel better about things. I love it when clients ask me a question that I don’t know the answer to. This is due to the fact that it gives me a chance to learn something new. Life is all about learning and I love this. What is your ATTITUDE to learning and growing?
D DECISIONS Some people believe that attitude is a talent and we were born with it.
Most of us have discovered that when we are down and out on our “luck” it is not any talent or aptitude which helps but a decision which can turn things around. Taking a different look at a situation can bring a whole new perspective. I believe that it is all about your choices and the steps you take that affects your future. It is all about making decisions and taking action. We can improve this skill by taking action more.
E – Emotion – Emotions are energy in motion. They are transferred by our mind to express certain feelings and attitudes. If directed in a positive and constructive way, we experience joy, happiness, and peace. On the other hand, if we repress the flow of emotions either by being told we are worthless, stupid or talentless, these sensations turn to resentment, fear, anger, guilt, etc. What would you rather have?
What you can take from the above is:
You are in control of your attitudes.
You are in control of your decisions.
You are in control of everything that happens in your life.
A bad attitude is like a flat tyre. If you don’t change it, you’ll never go anywhere.
A POSITIVE ATTITUDE WILL LEAD TO POSITIVE OUTCOMES…. I PROMISE YOU.
So going back to the beginning … Two things define you. Your patience when you have nothing and your attitude when you have everything. What attitude do you want to own this week? I say you take an ownership attitude. Conduct yourself in a manner that is that of an action taker, an achiever, a goal grabber, an absolute legend that wants to be the best that you can be. Do it. Own it. Live it.
Until next week, let’s have a belter.