Attitudes: Everyone Has One – What Does Yours Say?

Attitude: Everyone Has One – What Does Yours Say?

Attitude is one of those words that is hard to define but you know it when you see it. ATTITUDE is the most critical component for behavior change and goal achievement; however, it is the most overlooked. Think about it: how many times have you set a goal that you didn’t achieve? However, it was a SMART goal (it met all the criteria for an effective goal), you were very committed at the time you set that goal, and you were even successful, and had some improved results, for a while. But for some reason, he found himself going back to the exact same behaviors he had set out to change. The reason for this failure? He failed to consider the most important aspect of any effort to change behavior, namely his attitude.

Let’s look at an example where you achieved a goal but the improved results were only temporary. Most people can relate to this scenario:

You set a goal of losing 20 pounds in the next six months. Meets all SMART criteria: was specific, measurable, achievable, results oriented, time sensitive. He even sat down and talked to his family about it to get their support. He gained knowledge and understanding of what he needed to do to achieve that goal. Eureka! At the end of the six months you weighed 20 pounds less… At the end of the 12 months you weighed 25 pounds more. What happened? You changed your behavior and achieved your goal, but the results were only temporary because you didn’t change your attitude about the food.

Understanding and properly developing our own attitudes and those of others is the most effective way to have lasting SUCCESS. In fact, the most important decision you make each day is “what will my attitude be today?” because attitude is a choice!

What role does attitude play in job performance? Consider these statistics on why businesses lose customers:

* 1% die.

* 3% move.

* 5% leave for other relationships

* 9% down due to contest

* 14% drop due to dissatisfaction with the product

* 68% leave because of an attitude of indifference that an employee shows them.

Your attitude has a direct relationship with your behavior which has a direct relationship with your performance:

A study conducted by the SHRM (Society for Human Resource Management) surveyed employers on what they considered to be the most important characteristics of success:
* 15% rated knowledge as the most important (what to do)

* 15% rated skills as most important (how to)

* 85% rated the attitude as the most important (want to do)

Since attitude is so important, how can you stay positive even in a negative environment?

Maintain a positive attitude in the workplace

If you want to become or remain a force for good in the workplace, you need a strategy. Follow the suggestions below to get you on your way:

• Ask three people who you consider to be positive how they maintain their attitudes.
• Inspect your use of language and change it when necessary. This includes internal chat and external chat. Change your negative words and thoughts to positive ones.
• Surround yourself with as many positive people as possible.
• Value yourself.
• Accept yourself for who you are, not for who you should be.
• Forget the past. Don’t worry about something that already happened. If there is a lesson to be learned, learn it and move on.
• Accept that you are going to make mistakes.
• Create positive affirmations/confessions and repeat them out loud a minimum of six times a day.
• Follow a negative fast. Refrain from making negative comments about people or situations for the next three days, find something positive in each situation. (At the end of the three days, extend the “negativity fast” another three days.)
• Make a list of all your achievements (none are too small to list) and read them every day.
• Being thankful! No matter what you face, for the next seven days find something to be grateful in every situation. If you lost your job, be thankful you didn’t lose your life. If your son didn’t make the baseball team, be thankful that he gets to play.
• Realize that how you feel about something is your choice.

You are in charge of every situation in your life because you can decide how you will react to what happens. Remember, the most important decision you will make each day is to determine your attitude.

Attitudes, everyone has one – what does it mean yours say?