Programs for Leadership and Service Education

Attitude

Attitudes come from our environment, our experiences, and our parents and friends. It is the way you communicate your mood to others. Your attitude is one of the strongest elements you have to control in your life. Be aware of it because it affects others and your experiences. We should all engage in an attitude renewal regularly - it can be changed. How does your attitude control your life?

There are two types of attitudes a person possesses.

Personal. A person's individual philosophy of life. This is what makes a person a pessimist or optimist; idealist or cynics; over-achievers or below average.

Social. A person's view of society. It makes us liberals or conservatives; moderates or radicals; pros or antis.

Your attitude can be shown in many ways.

Body posture. Shows your mental state, emotion, or mood.

Mannerisms. How you act, feel and think shows your disposition.

Opinion. Your views depict your perspectives on life.

Way of thinking. It can be purposeful thinking along a certain line or it can be accidental.

You have complete control. It effects every part of your life.

  • Basic to mental health and all around success.
  • Reflect your physical health
  • Quality of relationships
  • Enhance your personality
  • Triggers enthusiasm, enhances creativity, cause good things

There are potential obstacles that may stand in the way for having a positive attitude.

Exaggerating. Try not to overestimate the problem and underestimate your abilities.

Over generalizing. Don't take an isolated event and assume it always happens.

Personalizing. Avoid thinking everything revolves around you.

Either/or thinking. Things are not always mutually exclusive. Consider them for what they are.

Jumping to conclusions. Gather all relative information before drawing conclusions.

Ignoring the positive. Despite the one negative, remember to focus on all the positive.

Everyone should engage in an attitude adjustment periodically to rejuvenate yourself.

Employ the flipside technique. When a negative arises, flip the problem over and see the humor or positive in the situation. You can minimize the negative impact of this issue on your attitude.

Play your winners. All of us have positives and negatives in life and if not careful, we can let the negatives push the positives to the back. Think about the winners, talk about your winners, and reward yourself because of the positives.

Simplify! Simplify! Free yourself from complications. An uncluttered focus will help you accept and enjoy life's little pleasures.

Insulate. Learn to live with certain "no-win" situations that cannot be resolved, thrown out, or ignored. Find an effective way to cope with such situations such as talking about it, laughing about it, or changing something.

Share. Keep your positive attitude by giving it away.

Look better to yourself. Often you look better to others than you do to yourself. Have a positive self-image of yourself. When you feel like you don't look good, nothing else looks good.

Accept the physical connection. Exercise helps keep us out of attitudinal ruts.

Clarify your mission. Have a purpose and direction in your life. This will help you stay focused, provide perspective, and destroy uncertainty.