Introduction
Have you ever considered how your attitude affects your success? Look back over your personal wins. Then, look back at your professional wins. I would bet that you won more often when you faced the challenge with a positive, “can-do-it” attitude. Am I right? I know I am. That’s why I’m bringing today’s post to you.
So, even if you don’t agree, I challenge you. What’s the challenge, you may ask? My challenge to you is to still believe, at the end of this conversation, that your attitude does not determine your success level. So, here we go.
What is Attitude?
When I Googled the word attitude, I learned that it is a psychological term. I also learned that it is a noun (person, place, or thing). The top definition listed for this word, attitude, describes it as a ‘settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something, typically one that is reflected in a person’s behavior.’
Now pardon me, but I think that Google just helped me to prove my point; however, I want to be fair. So, I will give you some more food for thought.
Let’s Explore An Illustration of Attitude’s Link to Behavior
You attitude has a causal link to your behavior. In other words, you allow your attitude towards someone or something to determine your subsequent behavior towards it. If you’re like me, you immediately form an opinion of any person, place, thing, or circumstance that you encounter. Sometimes, we do so without even realizing it. What is that opinion that we form? It is our determination of whether that person, place, thing, or circumstance is good or bad, enjoyable, useful, worth our time and effort, etc.
This determination forms our attitude about that subject. Our attitude then informs our behavior towards it. If I perceive someone or something to be good, useful, or worth my time, I take an interest in them or it. I may nurture my friendship with this new person whom I’ve met. Or, I may make the place of interest a travel destination. I may even try to learn more about the thing or circumstance so that I can experience it again. It’s the law of attraction. I find myself attracted to the people and things that I think are good. Don’t you?
As you might imagine, I avoid the people, places, things, or circumstances that I have a negative attitude towards. So, I don’t allow them a chance at success with me.
Train Your Attitude to Change Your Behavior to Your Advantage
I now realize that I should have had a more open mind towards some of the people, places, things, and/or circumstances that I formed a negative initial attitude towards. Why? Because some of them might have been good for me. I just failed to allow them a chance to prove me wrong. So, I admire self-disciplined people who can change their behavior by first training themselves to have a different attitude towards someone or something. So, I decided to give it a try.
For example, I had never eaten oatmeal. Because I did not like how it looked, my attitude was that I would not eat it because it could not taste good. Well, when my doctor recommended that I change my eating habits, guess what I did? You got it. I gradually added oatmeal to my diet. Although I did not instantly love it, I started with small portions. Then, I found creative oatmeal recipes on Pinterest like adding nuts, berries, a little honey, flax seed, almond milk, etc., to it. I tolerated it at first, I then began to like it. The payoff was that I did not gain any weight during the pandemic. So, my new attitude towards oatmeal paid off. Wouldn’t you say?
How Do We Achieve Added Success:
Consider Caleb and Joshua in the book of Numbers in the Holy Bible. Moses sent the spies to the land of Canaan, the promised land, for forty days, to spy out the land that God promised them. When they returned, all, except two of the the spies brought back a negative report. So, their first negative attitude was towards themselves. They told Moses that they were, in their own sight, as grasshoppers. That was their first assessment of the situation. They felt inferior. Then they revealed their wrong attitude towards the Canaanites when they said that they were also as grasshoppers in the Canaanites’ sight.
Caleb and Joshua, however, had a positive report that resulted from a positive attitude and told Moses that if God delighted in them, He would deliver them into the land flowing with milk and honey…the land of Canaan. Their can-do attitude earned them favor in God’s sight. They saw God bigger than their challenge. As a result, they were the only two from their generation who got to enter the promised land. Now that’s success on steriods, I would say. Wouldn’t you?
Moral of the Story
When you go into any situation with a negative attitude, about yourself, who you’re interacting with, or about your experience, you start at a disadvantage. That makes you your own worst enemy. So, Don’t do that to yourself. Train your mind to have a “can-do” attitude. Look at the challenge as an opportunity to develop personally or professionally, regardless of your age or circumstance.
Then Take action. Remember that a year of taking no action lands you in the same place, or heaven forbid, a worse place, a year from now. There’s no progress. In fact, you may lose ground. You don’t want that. This can cause you to get depressed and feel hopeless and useless. When the process involves a person, place, or thing that you have a negative attitude about, I challenge you to tackle the most-difficult part first. Interact with that person, place, or thing. Try to find something positive about the interaction or experience. This will give you the quick motivational boost that you need when facing a challenge.
Conversely, small steps are progress although we don’t always see it that way. So, adopt the attitude that, with each step you’re propelling yourself closer to your goals. Go ahead, wow yourself with your new attitude and the progress you can make in a short period of time as your sense of self-worth and confidence grow and prosper. Then, you’ll wow others because your progress will become evident to them. Your new-found positive attitude results in a success mindset that will be evident to everyone around you, which is vital to your perseverance and resilience, and yes…your success.
That’s my motivational lecture entitled “Attitude-A Little Thing that Makes a Big Difference.” I hope that it helps to bolster your towards your success. Thank you for joining me.
So, find your winner inside and go get your success!
