SERIES: Taking Care of YOU! Attitudes and Their Effects on Us
Did you know that our attitude determines how fast we achieve our goals or how well we learn a new skill or advance our knowledge? Did you know that our attitudes serve as a framework for solving problems? Have you ever thought about changing your approach to a problem (i.e., redefining it as an unresolved opportunity, rather than complaining about it)? Also, did you know that failure is viewed by successful people as helpful feedback for moving on rather than wasting time on a brooding attitude?
Did you know there are well over 150 different examples of attitudes?
How we feel about someone or something is a reflection of our attitudes. It’s our point of view, opinion, frame of mind, outlook, perspective, interpretation, or sentiment, etc.. Attitudes have effects or consequences that can be good or bad. Attitudes drive our behaviors and behaviors define our character.
Attitudes can be complex and acquired through our past and present experiences, based on our beliefs, values and assumptions. So, we learn how to respond to people, inanimate objects (e.g., I hate that light bulb, it’s not very bright), events, and other things, therefore, we choose to express ourselves in a favorable or unfavorable way. It is how we feel about something at a particular moment in time and how we choose to act. Attitudes are voluntary; emotions are involuntary (i.e., we have more control over our attitudes than we do with our emotions).
Since our attitudes drive our behaviors, we should get our minds right. This means choosing a mental attitude that fosters positive behavior. We all have a choice in what attitude we choose to adopt. If you get angry because of something someone said, you chose that attitude to display. More likely than not, when you react in a positive way, you will benefit, in the long run. Thomas Jefferson has been quoted as saying, “Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude”.
Are you taking care of your attitudes by altering your state of mind? If you would like to change start each day with a mental picture of how you want your day to go. If this means talking to yourself to prepare your mind, by all means do so. If it helps to sit down and write a positive plan of action for that day’s events, then go for it. Be sure to include how others might be impacted by your actions. Each day’s plan should result in a win-win-way. Choose your attitudes wisely and you will be glad you did. BTW, did you know that a genuine smile reaches the eyes (i.e., a simultaneous crinkling of the corners of your mouth and eyes)!
Take care of YOU by being mindful of how your attitude affects your well-being and work performance.
(Note)
About the photo: The original wedding picture showed bridesmaids and best man with smiles that reach the eyes. However the three groomsmen exhibited opposite expressions? What were they thinking about?
