How’s your attitude today? Are you ready to take on the world? To put your best foot forward? Or are you feeling not so confident about something. Maybe a little down in the dumps.
Your attitude – how you feel about whatever it is you’re doing influences the outcome.
Success
When someone approaches a difficult task with the underlying belief that they will fail, they generally do.
If on the other hand the person gamely tries and does their best, they may not succeed brilliantly but they do make progress. They make enough progress to know that if they keep on trying, they will ultimately succeed. Their attitude helps them persevere.
As Eleanor Roosevelt famously said, “A stumbling block to the pessimist is a stepping-stone to the optimist”.
Boring
A good attitude changes everything.
Think about it. If you attend a class that you think will be boring, and you let your mind wander you’ll probably learn very little.
If you have an open mind and attend the class with the attitude that you will learn something, you don’t know what but something. You may just find the class very interesting and learn a lot!
Fun!
Do you bring a good attitude to events – even ones you have no interest in attending? Sometimes we drag our feet and grumble about going to something to which we have no real connection. That is a bad attitude.
I have regretfully done this.
It made the event no fun for the person I was with and no fun at all for me. In hindsight, I wanted the person I was with to suffer, to know that I was there but intended to have a bad time. My strategy worked. Both of us had a bad time.
I wish I had acted like the adult I am and put myself aside long enough to bring a good attitude to the event.
I know that had I done so, both of us would have had fun and I probably would have met some interesting people.
Attitude is everything
The kind of attitude you have can change the outcome for better or worse.
Chores
Think about how you want your home to look. Think about how you are going to keep it that way. I do a few simple chores every day because it helps keep my home the way I want it to look.
I have two dogs. If I don’t vacuum there is dog hair everywhere. I invested in a good cordless vacuum. It takes me about 10 minutes everyday to zip around my home and get up the dog hair.
Some people have the attitude that chores are drudgery. Things to be avoided at all cost.
I submit that if you think about the positive things that come from doing chores that you can change your attitude about doing them.
Doing laundry brings clean clothes for instance.
Also, if you are a parent your children pick up on and copy your attitude.
Do you want your children to learn how to pick up their toys and put them away? That is a chore.
Do you want them to help you by taking out the trash? Another chore.
If your attitude towards doing chores is negative your children will also have a negative attitude about doing chores.
You can turn it around and make doing chores just part of life and being a member of the family. An added bonus is that if everyone pitches in and does something, the chores get done faster!
Check in with yourself
As you go about your day and start tackling your household chores or tasks at work check in with yourself. Ask yourself, “what’s my attitude regarding (whatever the task at hand is)? If you know your attitude is negative maybe you can reframe the task. Think about it differently.
I know, for myself, when I feel myself developing a negative attitude toward something, I switch tasks and come back to the task I’m dreading when I have shifted my focus. That helps me, maybe it will help you, too!
As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “You can often change your circumstance by changing your attitude”.
Diane N. Quintana is a Certified Professional Organizer in Chronic Disorganization and the owner of DNQ Solutions, LLC a professional organizing business in Atlanta, Georgia. She works with busy individuals and families to create personalized organizing strategies and solutions for them as they tackle decluttering, paperwork, and time management. Call Diane for a free 30 minute phone consultation.
I’m with you 100% that our attitude has an enormous effect on how we feel, what we do, and how we affect others. My dad was probably the single most significant influence on me regarding having a positive, open attitude. I’m not saying that I’m always that way, but watching him absolutley influenced me. When I’m having a bad day, and my view is detracting rather than enhancing, I try to notice that and do what I need to reset, relax, and remain open.
My mother was my big influencer in this way. She always (to the very end) looked at the cup as being half-full. I do my best to honor her in this way. Thank you for joining me here, Linda.
I found that I need to stay neutral or get excited when I am about to start something new. If I feel overwhelmed or feel sad about starting something new, it is harder for me to focus on the project at hand. I revisit why I am doing this project and what is the benefits. As a result, it helps me get into the right mindset.
Lovely post! I try to reset my attitude every day because it’s such a waste being in a funk all day, week, month etc. It does me, or anyone else, any good.
Love the Eleanor Roosevelt quotes! Another one I like is (paraphrasing a little), “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t possibly live long enough to make them all yourself!”