“Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret power working twenty-four hours a day, for good or bad. It is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and control this great force.”
- Tom Blandi
Perhaps as important as what you believe is the manner in which you believe it. Your attitude can turn a miserable event into a pleasant one; or a good time into a nightmare. By controlling your attitude, you have the power to control any situation and make what you want from it.
In order to determine the best attitude for any given situation, you should take some time to decide the kind of person you want to be, and the image you want to convey. You may be interested in being the life of the party, the quintessential sympathetic ear, or the strong and silent type with the ability to take the lead at any moment. Once you are aware of your true self, you can begin to adjust your attitude to match.
Here are some important considerations to keep in mind as you develop your personal attitude preferences:
Be yourself
“He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.”
- Raymond Hull
Whatever attitude you choose, be sure it is a reflection of your true self. Being true to yourself is crucial to the success of your positive thinking program. You have only one life to live, and spending it trying to emulate someone else robs the world of the person you could have been.
You may not know yourself as well as you would like to, or as well as you should. If you have been following the methods in this blog so far, you may have discovered more than you knew before. One of the most wondrous aspects of humankind is that there is always something new to discover about ourselves; always some new avenue of interest to explore or stand to take. We possess the capacity to never succumb to boredom. It is amazing that with all the activity happening in the world, so many people experience lulls and cannot find anything to occupy themselves with. If you ever become bored, you have stopped developing as a person and should take steps to rectify the situation immediately. Knowing yourself is a constant journey that should never cease.
How can you get to know yourself better? Try some of the following techniques to discover aspects of your personality you may not have even known existed:
• Date Yourself. Choose an activity you either know you enjoy or believe you will enjoy, and make a date to do it by yourself. Treat this date as you would any other commitment: dress nicely, arrive on time, and don’t put it off unless an absolute emergency comes up. When you go out on your date, notice the things that make you feel good. Enjoy the experience of being with yourself and doing something fun. When you are finished, reflect on the date just as you would with any other event. What did you enjoy about the experience? What did you dislike? What would you have changed? You should make a date with yourself at least once a month, even if it’s just for a walk in the park or an evening on the lounge with popcorn and rental movies.
• Talk to Yourself. You are capable of making intelligent conversation with other people to discover more about them. Why not do the same with yourself? You can hold a conversation with yourself aloud or in your head, whichever you are comfortable with. Ask yourself leading questions, and then take some time to think about the honest answers. Lying to yourself is the worst offense you can commit.
• Record Yourself. When you discover new aspects of your personality or sparks of interest you didn’t know you had, write them down and remember them. You may not have time to explore a particular thought when it occurs to you, but if you jot it down and come back to it later, you will be able to expound on it. It can be helpful to keep a small notebook or diary with you to write things down as they occur to you, and flip through it when you have a few spare minutes.
• Analyse Yourself. The way you react to social situations and world events can be very revealing about yourself. Keep yourself informed about what’s going on in the world, either by reading the newspaper, watching television news, or frequenting news feed web sites. Take note of your reactions to real events and situations, and try to apply them to situations in your life. You can use this to help you determine why you feel a certain way about people or situations that impact your everyday life, and then plan your attitude toward them around your newfound knowledge.
Copyright 2009 Mark J Holland.
All Rights reserved.
http://www.markholland.com.au/
Mark Holland uses an approach to psychotherapy and a model of change based on the subjective study of language, communication and change, as a personal & business NLP Mind Coach having a lot of success helping people.
I am solution oriented, fast and not based on theory. As your Mind Coach, with over five generations of Personal Development Technologies, I have a lot of success helping clients with advanced communication strategies, removing fears, limiting thought patterns, negative emotions, ineffective thinking strategies, goal strategies, values alignment, stop smoking, discovering your perfect body, and accelerated learning techniques. But it is more than curing something. It is about helping someone evolve and become congruent and aligned in all areas of your life.