In my coaching and training we look at this word ATTITUDE in detail and one of the exercises we do is transpose each letter of the word with its numerical position in the alphabet and guess what, it adds up to 100!, it’s true, if you don’t believe me do the math, which gives me the opportunity to say your “attitude” makes 100% of the difference, mind-set is everything!
What’s the best definition of attitude?
“Attitude is the position or bearing as indicating action, feeling, or mood. It is OUR actions, feelings, or moods which determine the actions, feelings, or moods of others toward us, and which control, to a surprising extent, our success or failure. It is then OUR attitude towards life, which will determine LIFE’S attitude towards us.” Earl Nightingale … see amazon.com
So how do we control, alter or change our attitude, Steve McDermott in his best selling book: “How to Be a Complete and Utter Failure in Life, Work & Everything:
“Your mood/ attitude is determined by the two F’s: Fizzy and Focus
- Fizzy
Your physiology or everything that is physical about you (the way you move, breathe, stand, gesture, etc.)
- Focus
Your mental focus (what you focus on in your mind, the sorts of questions you ask yourself, what you picture, feel, and hear inside your body)
Just change your Fizzy and or Focus, and you can instantly change your attitude or mood. Quickly sit with a physiology of acute depression, with your shoulders slumped, and ask yourself self-defeating questions in a whiny tone of voice. Such as: “Why does this always happen to me?” Your brain will look for the exact answer and instantly tell you: “Because you’re a fool!” By focusing on what you don’t want rather than what you do want, you are doing an excellent job of confirming to yourself why you don’t deserve something. This is guaranteed instantly to throw your state out of whack.
When you tell yourself something repeatedly, you are sure to believe it, especially on a subconscious level.
Remember that another easy way to control your moods is to control your focus by asking yourself better questions.
“What can I find that is good in this situation?”
“What have I learned from this that will make me more successful the next time?”
“How can I make this situation better?”
If you were to ask yourself better questions like these, you would force your brain to look for choices and find solutions. Instead, don’t stop asking yourself self-defeating questions like: “Why am I so scared?”
“What did I do to deserve this?” and “Why does nobody like me?” Because quick as a flash, your brain will fire back the exact answer.
As it says in the Bible: “Ask and you will receive.” What is it you want to receive? Good news or bad news? “Regularly ask yourself, “Am I enjoying this thought?” And if you do ask the question, and you don’t like the thought, realise you have the power to change it instantly. After all, you can hold only one thought in your head at a time. Do you really mind if it’s a good or a bad one?
Top Tips to gain and maintain a GREAT attitude
Choose: Everything is a choice, there’re only five things in life over which we have no choice in order to stay alive, you don’t have a choice to breathe, eat, drink, sleep, or defecate apart from these things everything is a choice, so choose to have a GREAT attitude. People with great attitudes carry their weather, by that I mean most people let the weather affect them, Grey and Wet = Poor attitude, Bright and Sunny = Great attitude
I love the way Billy Connelly puts it, “where is no such thing as good or bad weather, only inappropriate clothing”.
Move: Physical Exercise and pick any that gets your heart rate up, anything that makes you smile and keeps you moving. This is a great way to maintain your positive attitude because of all the positive chemicals it releases into the body. I love to watch some inspiring TED talks while I get a workout on my stepper. During the day stand as much as you can, as lots of research today is suggesting that sitting is the new smoking.
Sing: One of the best ways we can change our psychology is to change our physiology so singing in the shower for example really works, because we don’t sing because we’re happy, we are happy because we sing, cheerful songs one of my favorites is the Monty Python classic, Always look on the bright side of life. And if the rest of the family is awake, SING LOUD!
Be Contagious: Attitudes are contagious, do you know any “psychic vampires” or “mood hoovers”, you know the people who drain your positivity and energy, you only have to be in this person’s presence for a number of minutes and you feel the will to live draining from you! What are they doing their whining, moaning, complaining, criticizing etc… Brian Tracy the great sales guru says “Never wrestle with pigs, the result is you both get dirty but the pig enjoys it” and we need to steer clear of these psychic vampires before we get sucked into this stinking thinking and hardening of the attitudes, so be prepared. We are the sum total of the 5 people you spend the most time with, similar level of health, income and lifestyle. So if you want to be fit then starting hanging with fit people… And if you want to be positive make sure you’re hanging with positive people. So take it seriously if you can’t change your friends then I suggest you change your friends.
Attitudes are contagious, are yours worth catching?
GI GO: is a computer programming mantra means Garbage In, Garbage Out
The result is only as good as the input. So if you’re feeding yourself with negativity you’re going to be feeling negative. The media thrive on negativity, in newspapers they have a saying “if it bleeds it leads” and sadly bad news sells papers. Put yourself on a negativity detox (including people) and watch how much easier it is to maintain your positive attitude. Replace with uplifting books, videos/ DVD’s or music to bring some positive balance.
You can instantly change what’s going on in your body, or your mind, in order to change how you feel. Continue to blame the weather. Or other people. Or even getting out of the wrong side of the bed in the morning.”
Earl Nightingale was so right. Our lives really do mirror our attitudes. Sure, people with positive, expectant attitudes have problems, and they experience setbacks, but their attitude enables them to respond effectively.
“The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his/her life by altering his/her attitudes.“ -William James
Content credit: Jim Hetherton