Whats’ your ‘Attitude’?

There are many ways to define attitude, I find the three checkpoints below to be the most helpful. They make it clear not only what your attitude is made of but also how it affects what you do.

1. How You begin?

Before heading for a long distance travel or vacation, I expected a relaxing and enjoyable time. This is the first piece of your attitude: it is what you expect before something happens.

For me, I expected good things. Someone with a more negative bent—at least in relation to traveling—would predict rough times ahead.

2. How You Experience It?

The second piece of your attitude is the way in which you gauge your experience.

Do you notice what is going wrong? Going well? Somewhere in between?

When I go out for dinner with my family or friends I always lookout for the reactions or responses of people who I accompany. In one such instance I was particularly drawn in by an experience. A friend noticed how noisy the restaurant was, how disinterested the waiter seemed, how dull the ambience was, and how bad the food tasted.  During the same party another friend sitting next to me said he loved the atmosphere, the ambience and the taste of food at the place.  He said he is a regular here and loves the service here.

Two attitudes looking for very different things and providing two different experiences of the same place.

3. How You Leave?

The last and equally important role your attitude plays occurs at the end of a situation or experience. At this point, your attitude affects the way you sum things up.

I was watching a competition-based reality show the other night and, when two people were sent home, they were given the chance to talk to the camera one last time.

They were asked what was their experience being part of the reality show. One reflected on the friendships he had made and the good times he had had spending time with fellow competitors of the show.

The other was angry and frustrated. For him, the experience was a waste of time. He felt that the jury was biased, the competition rules were too twisted and favoured a few and somehow everyone seemed to be conspiring to get rid of him from the show. Attitude strikes again.

Watch your ‘Attitude’

If you ever want to change your attitude and be positive, you must first observe and make note or keep log of your responses to the 3 questions i.e., How you begin?; How you experience? and How your leave?

If you find yourself being overly negative, you now just have to change the way you ‘respond’.