Attitude is defined as the way a person views people, objects, event, activities, ideas, or just about anything in the environment, and his behaviour towards them. It is usually done in an evaluative way, either positively or otherwise.
How do you acquire or develop your attitudes? Studies show that you may develop or take on an attitude due to the following reasons:
- as the result of your personal experience
- because of your expertise in the subject
- your expectation of a favourable outcome
- your repeated exposure to the attitude
- when your reputation is at stake on an issue
Since your attitudes exert great influence on your happiness and success in life, you can always choose to develop or discard them to better align them with your behaviour and beliefs. You can make attitude change through any of the following ways:
Be decisive.
Refrain from procrastinating. Instead of wasting your time worrying and over-analysing when caught between conflicting choices, take what you feel is the more appropriate action required and then “let it go”. Things will happen whether you worry about them or not. Delaying action will only put a downer on your attitude. You can always make the necessary adjustment as you go along. As long as you keep close tab of your progress, you cannot go wrong far.
Share positive attitude.
Associate more with people who have positive attitudes. Through the natural process of osmosis, you will be absorbing each other’s positive vibrations. This is most essential in times when you seem to be out of luck. This is when positive people to encourage, support, and inspire you are very important to have around.
Keep a big heart.
Be aware that people have limitations like you do. Rather than blowing your top over the mistakes of others, it is best to practice and improve your attitudes of patience and forgiveness. These attitudes can also improve the situation since consultation and cooperation will prevail instead of anger and blaming. Your forgiving attitude will free you of the burden of harbouring grudges which can harm you emotionally and psychologically.
Lead a purposeful life.
Do not go on life sleep-walking, driven more by instinct rather than reason or purpose. See to it that you live a meaningful life, always aware why you do things. Be conscious that your every action and word can affect those around you, but especially your loved ones. With this in mind, you will have to think more than once before you act or open your mouth and thus altering your attitude in life. You will be more considerate and maintain open and understanding attitudes towards those you get in contact with daily.
Be courteous towards everyone.
Everyone, including you, deserves to be treated with dignity. This is our intrinsic right as human beings. Being polite towards others will not cost you much but acting otherwise can have a big adverse effect on how others will see you. The simple words “Please” and “Thank you” can go long way to change the world into a better place to live in. Polite and respectful attitudes, as well as amiability, are very contagious and can quickly go viral. Try this experiment: Smile to the next person you meet and watch his/her face light up and smile back in return. It may be timid smile but a show of friendly gesture just the same. That smile does not get erased off the person’s face in a snap but is most likely to be passed on to the next person behind you. Slowly, you will notice that the smile you initiated spread.
Appreciate your uniqueness.
No one is an exact copy of you on this earth, not even your twin, if you have one. Therefore, it is a waste of time to compare yourself to others because there is always someone better or worse than you thus making you undeservingly proud or disappointed with yourself. It is bad enough that you get dissatisfied with yourself, but that you spread this dissatisfaction around. As a result of this senseless and stupid attitude towards others, you unwittingly promote discrimination, hatred, and bigotry. Lesson: Refrain from comparing yourself with others unless your purpose is to emulate the good qualities of others.
Keep a positive outlook.
Perhaps, failures and setbacks are integral parts of life, but so are joy and success. Nothing is absolute in this life and everything has its shades of gray. Your mind has the power to be selective on what and how you feel towards everything. Although your brain is the most powerful of your body, studies show that it can be trained how to react to stimuli. You can make it see more of the brighter side of every situation through its selective capabilities. This can change your attitude. The classic example of the half-filled or half-empty glass of water shows that without altering the amount of water, it can affect the perception of people depending on their mindset. You can do the same and make you feel happier.
Adjust your alarm 20 minutes earlier.
20 minutes may not seem much but it can make a difference between an energized day and a sluggish and sleepy one. It may be merely psychological but being aware that you are starting your day earlier than most will trigger that competitive streak in you. The fact that you take your shower earlier than the rest of the household, that you fall in line ahead of other commuters, or that you punch in your card before others do somehow gives you that triumphant feeling. This exhilarating mood can last throughout the day. Give it a try and feel how it can change your attitude to being alive and ‘on-the-go’.
Be grateful for everything.
Being appreciative of your blessings, be they great or small, is a very powerful attitude. It is virtually impossible to hold on any grudge while you hold this feeling in your heart and mind. You can spread this feeling of appreciation by paying forward to others. This is done by showing your appreciation of the blessing you receive, not by reciprocating or doing a good deed to the one who gave or did you a favour (for that just zeroes out the indebtedness), but instead, passing the good deed to someone else. This way, you will set your day off nicely, your attitude will improve, and you will find you will be receiving more things to be grateful about while at the same time, spreading it around to more people.
It does not matter why or how you developed your attitudes, but by being aware of them and how they affect others, you can change them in order to make your life and that of others happy.