As a reader of SelfGrowth.com, you’ve likely given some thought to the whole idea of your “attitude.” Some offices I've been to usally have a corny but helpful poster with some pithy saying about “attitude” right? Some of the more popular ones:
“Attitude is everything!”
“It’s your attitude, not your aptitude that determines your altitude”
“Attitude is contagious- is yours worth catching?”
Or pick your favorite. There are lots of options, and I think that’s great- in fact I have some of those very posters! What we’re hoping for with this article is to go a little deeper with your understanding of this critical success factor.
To begin with, what exactly IS your attitude? When I ask this question in our live workshops, I get mostly blank stares from folks who thought they got it, right up until I asked. So rather than try and stump you, I’ll just give you a definition that seems to work pretty well:
Your attitude is the way you choose to view your world.
Can you pick out the most important word in that definition? That’s right- it’s the word CHOOSE. Ultimately, your “attitude” is a choice that you make every day. This is good news, because our choices are the only things that we have any real control over. To clarify- in life, there are lots of things we influence, tons of things that we just need to accept, and the only thing that we actually control is our choices. Here are some strategies for guiding those choices.
Strategy #1- Aggressively Manage Mental Input Sources
Most of us have heard the saying about computers- “garbage in, garbage out”. Your desktop or laptop is terrible at guessing what you want it to do, but does an excellent job of carrying out the exact instructions you give it. This concept massively influences the computer we call our brain, only on a much larger and more complex scale. If you constantly feed your mind images and emotions of fear, worry, lack and negativity, your mind will feed you back an experience of those exact things. If you’ll actively engage in healthy “mind nutrition”, you’ll get a much different experience and result. Here are some of the input sources from which your mind takes its nourishment:
• Books (and other forms of literature) you read
• Things you listen to and watch, like radio, TV or audio programs in your car
• Your own self-talk
• The people you surround yourself with
This isn’t really the place to delve deeply into each of these sources, so for now just do a quick assessment of the input sources in your Life today. Are they moving you in the direction you want, or would you benefit from a new “mental diet”? Ultimately you are making choices about this every day, and a different choice will get you a different result nearly every time.
Strategy #2- Spend Less Time on Judgment
I’m learning that one of the most energy consuming and attitude degrading things that we humans tend to do is to place judgment on, well, just about everything. People, results, situations- we tend to label just about everything as “good” or “bad”, and this requires an enormous amount of your attention. Now think about this for a moment- how often has something you initially saw as “bad” (maybe even “really bad”) turned out to be the one of the best things that ever happened to you? For me the answer is “pretty often”. This means that ALL of the energy I invested in complaining, feeling guilty and being mad at myself was nothing but a drain. Again, we could spend weeks discussing this, so for now I’d encourage you that if you can reduce your emotional spending on judgment, you’ll find quickly that you have way more energy, and the way you’re choosing to view your world is much more enjoyable. For everyone.
Strategy #3- Practice Gratitude
If you’ve known me for any length of time, you’ve probably heard this. And the more I see, the more I realize that the practice of gratitude may be THE most powerful thing you can do for your attitude and peace of mind. I’ll even go so far as to say that it is impossible to be focusing on things you are grateful for and simultaneously have a negative attitude. In fact, try this out: take a moment right now and clearly visualize even one thing in your life that you are grateful for. Seriously, do it now.
At least for that moment, when you were focusing on what you are thankful for, your entire being was one of joy, health and positive energy. String two of those moments together and you’ve got a trend. String a few more together and you will actually create positive momentum in your world.
I’d love to hear how you manage your attitude - post a comment at:
http://www.deliverfreedom.com/blog/the-proper-care-and-feeding-of-your-a...
Be Free!
Roger Seip
Roger is co-owner of Freedom Personal Development deliverfreedom.com. He teaches workshops around the country on memory training, goal setting, attitude management and time management.
To read more articles by Roger, visit
deliverfreedom.com/blog/author/roger-seip/
Contact: Roger@deliverfreedom.com 888-233-0407