Your attitude today determines your success tomorrow.
THE SELLING OF A GOLDEN SPEECH: ON THE MOTIVATIONAL CIRCUIT, A STAR WITH ATTITUDE read the headline of a feature article in the Wall Street Journal. The article was about attitude and the positive effect I was having on hundreds of organizations and thousands of individuals around the world. The topic of the “golden speech” was “Attitude Is Everything.” The article confirmed what I already knew, that people and organizations today, more than ever before, need to learn how to manage and control the quality of their lives through the power of a positive attitude. I am humbled each and every time someone mentions this article, but I am also reminded of the powerful impact of attitude. Attitude is the foundation and support of everything we do, a key element in the process of controlling your destiny and achieving mastery in your personal and professional life.
Over the years, I’ve attended countless seminars, read hundreds of books, listened to hours and hours of tapes, and interviewed scores of successful people on the subject of self-development. I’ve discovered that learning to monitor, control, and tap into a positive attitude is the key to every self-help process. In fact, the most valuable asset you can possess is a positive attitude toward your life. It isn’t how much you know about maintaining a positive attitude that’s important; it’s how well, and how consistently, you put that knowledge to use.
Your attitude is often one of the first things people notice about you. You may not be able to change your height or your body type, but you can change your attitude. Many researchers believe—and I wholeheartedly agree—that a positive attitude is not a product of genetics and heredity but, with proper training, an acquired trait. The best thing about your attitude is that if it’s bad, it can be made better, and if it’s good, it can be made even greater.
Each of us has the power to choose a positive attitude over a negative one. If you want an attitude that works for you, that improves the quality of your life and enables you to accomplish your dreams, you have to work at it. You can’t just sit around and wait for a positive attitude to come over you. In this book, I will provide you with tools to tune and take control of your attitude, even in the most challenging times.
The material in this book is not merely motivational. It offers you step-by-step instructions and examples of how others—including myself—have benefited by taking responsibility for their attitudes. You have made an investment in yourself—an investment that will pay dividends when—and only when—you apply the principles and take action. The fundamental principle is that attitude is everything. You’ll learn that no matter how old you are, what your position or station in life, your gender, or your marital status, a positive attitude can make an incredible difference.
In the chapters that follow, I will give you the tools you need for an attitude tune-up. I’m going to provide you with ten steps for turning attitude into action. Each of the steps focuses on fundamental principles of self-development and personal growth. The theme that runs through these steps, like a single strand through a fabric, is that in learning to monitor and control your attitude, you can make an incredible difference in your life and in the lives of people around you. Here is a brief description of each of the steps that will help you develop a super-fantastic attitude.
Step 1: Understand the Power of Attitude
Your attitude is a powerful tool for positive action. It’s inherently interwoven into everything you do. It’s your most priceless possession. The good news is, you don’t have to buy it. But you do have to develop it. In the first chapter, you will discover what attitude is, the power of attitude, and how your attitude reflects you. You’ll learn to recognize that you can control your destiny by learning the four things you need to do to stay positive even in the most challenging times.
Step 2: Choose to
Take Charge of Your Life
To transform your attitude into action, you must accept responsibility for what goes on inside your mind by monitoring your internal dialogue. We will look at the power of choice, how your choices determine your happiness and affect your success. I will offer you the keys to controlling how you respond to whatever the world throws at you, by showing you how to monitor and manage your attitude.
Step 3: Identify through Self-Awareness
the Attitudes That Hold You Back
or Propel You Forward
By practicing self-awareness, you will learn the three types of bad attitudes. You will discover how to assess your present-day attitude by identifying the things that may be holding you back and to find the attitude needed to propel you forward. You will look at the underlying causes of a bad attitude and discover how to shift turning points into learning points by taking an attitude assessment.
Step 4: Reframe Your Bad Attitude
An attitude of anger can be transformed into an attitude of gratitude and forgiveness by shifting your perspective. You will discover the power of self-forgiveness, which allows you to forgive others. You will also learn how to recognize and rid yourself of a debilitating attitude by identifying the three P’s that cause a bad attitude.
Step 5: Find Your Purpose and Passion
Once you’ve determined what has been holding you back, it’s time to look ahead and analyze where you want to go. Understanding the importance of living your life with purpose and passion—having a personal vision—is critical to achieving success. You will consider which attitudes are conducive to goal-setting and which can spoil the process. And finally, I will explain the strategy of creating a personal and professional life plan.
Step 6: Be Pre-Active
In this step, you will learn to prepare yourself for those times when challenging circumstances threaten to provoke negative attitudes that can hinder your plans and throw you off course en route to your goals and dreams. You will discover that even with a positive attitude, purpose, and passion, life is never without challenges, disappointments, setbacks, and problems. By developing a pre-active approach to life, you will become better prepared to handle the hazards you face in life.
Step 7: Discover How to Motivate Yourself
You will discover the keys to self-motivation by making use of the Attitude Tool Kit: affirmations, visualization, attitude talk, positive greetings, enthusiasm, spiritual empowerment, humor, and exercise. By using your Attitude Tool Kit, you will be well equipped to seek personal and professional success.
Step 8: Build Supportive Relationships
Nobody makes it alone in this world. We all need supportive relationships to get through challenging times. In this chapter, I will help you put together your A-Team, those people who will help you fight off negative attitudes and build positive ones. To build a team, you first have to develop an attitude that will make others want to support you. I’ll show you how to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships through networking, shared vision, and shared values. You will also learn the best defense against toxic people who try to disrupt your success.
Step 9: See Change as an Opportunity
One of the greatest challenges to a positive attitude is change, whether it’s a change of jobs, a change in a relationship, or a change in your economic status. We’ll look at the benefits of adopting a whatever-it-takes attitude when confronted by change. You will also learn the characteristics of the change process, the four ways individuals respond to it, and ten strategies for embracing change.
Step 10: Leave a Lasting Legacy
Sometimes we forget that the greatest thing we can do to build a healthy attitude is to get involved in something greater than ourselves. In Step 10, you’ll learn the benefit of planting positive seeds: seeds of hope, encouragement, faith, and love. In this final step, you will discover how you can leave a lasting legacy by making a mark that cannot be erased. You’ll be ready to transcend yourself and reach out to make a difference in the lives of your family, friends, and community.
If you want a positive attitude, you’re going to need to be committed enough to work at it. This book is a guide toward developing the positive attitude that will work for you. I will provide you with the information and the plan. It’s up to you to provide the effort and discipline to put the plan into action. It will take some work on your part, but I promise you will get a wonderful return on your investment.
Although the process I’ve mapped out is not always easy, I have broken it into small bytes of information and small action steps to make your goals easier to reach. I’ve suggested little adjustments that can change your thinking in a big way. By changing your thinking, you can change your beliefs. By changing your beliefs, you can change your actions—and your life.
Remember, this is an investment in you. The light is green, so go! I wish you a super-fantastic journey as you discover the power of your attitude.