Choosing Your Attitude

Most of us believe our attitudes are caused directly by outside influences like unpleasant experiences or negative people. But while external pressures may trigger our feelings, we are the ones wearing those feelings like a suit of clothes. We can either be subservient to external events, few of which we have any control over, or we can take charge of our own response.

Choosing your attitude is not always putting on a happy face or feeling pressure to adopt the outlook that’s“officially” acceptable. Sometimes angry or sad are what’s called for. That’s why choosing your attitude is about being aware of what your attitude is, and that it does affect you and others. Once you are aware of the impact, you may view your attitude differently, even if the situation or person that upset you hasn’t changed. Then you can ask yourself, “Does my attitude help me or others? Is it helping me be the way I want to be?”

Choose your attitude asks only that you make your own choice and not try to pass it off on something or someone else. Once you accept that you are the only one who is choosing your attitude at this moment, you can decide whether to keep it or shape it into an attitude that’s more
satisfying. You control your attitude, not the other way around.

Choosing Your Attitude: The Three Skills

The three skills that will enable you to choose the right attitude on daily basis are self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-motivation Self-awareness is the cornerstone that supports all of the attitude management skills. The more we know about ourselves, the better we are able to control and choose what kind of behaviors we’ll display in the work setting. Without self-awareness our emotions can blind us and guide us to do things or to become people we really don’t want to be. If we are aware of our feelings and thoughts, we can choose how we will act or react in a given situation or to a certain person.

Self-regulation is about recognizing our emotions and moderating our responses so that we are able to reason well.When we are angry, we cannot make good decisions and often react inappropriately by blowing an incident out of proportion.We lose perspective. Conversely when we learn to manager our thoughts and emotions well, we become masters of mood and attitude management. As a result, we appear more levelheaded and trustworthy.

Once we are aware of our thoughts and feelings and have learned ways to manage them, the third step is to direct the power of our emotions towards a purpose, which will motivate and inspire us. Crew Members who are highly self-motivated realize that every job has its less enjoyable elements, but they plow ahead. They can envision reaching the goal, which gives
meaning to the mundane. Strongly self-motivated workers also accept change and are more flexible.

They have better attitudes, take more initiative and do balanced risk taking. But most of all, self-motivated employees persist toward goals, despite obstacles and setbacks.

Peter Mclees, LMFT

Principal

P. S. Smart Development Inc. has an exceptional track record helping restaurants, stores, branches, distribution centers, food production facilities, and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength and the teamwork necessary for growth. Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

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