ATTITUDE AND MOTIVATION
The most important factor that goes into determining one’s success is what goes on in his/her mind.
Where you are today and what you are today is because of your own mental attitude towards yourself and others. And you alone can change it. All that is needed is a change of your attitude.
The mental attitude that you carry is actually more important than it seems. It could be affecting your life without your knowledge.
Your mental attitude could either take you up the path of success or down the depths of failure.
And changing it is only in your hands.
In this session, we shall see what the correct mental attitude actually is. Chances are that you already have it. If you haven’t, no worries!
You can always acquire it!
We already know how important motivation is and how it can work wonders in one’s life. We shall further talk about this activity that gets you off your butt and kick starts you into action.
Attitude – A little thing in life that makes a Big difference
“It’s not what happens to you that determines how far you will go in life; it is how you handle what happens to you.” – Zig Ziglar
Whatever you do in life, it is the attitude that you have before, during, and after doing it that determines your success or failure.
There is but a simple rule that you should apply to your thinking in everything you do.
Think Positively and you will get positive results.
Think Negatively and you will get negative results.
It’s as simple as that!
Ok, now that that’s clear, complete this exercise. The exercise will enable you to understand the thoughts of positive and negative people.
Think of the different people you know well – your friends, relatives and colleagues.
Classify all these people under two heads – negative thinkers and positive thinkers. As you know them well, this shouldn’t be a very difficult task.
There must be something which made you feel that they are positive-minded or negative-minded. Something that they said, or their reaction to something, etc.
Write out all those words that describe why you feel that the people under the heading ‘positive people’ are positive.
Now prepare another list. Here you have to classify the same people listed before into the two categories – successful and non-successful. Remember, it is your perception of whether they are a success or not.
What do they say? How do they act? What do they do?
Now look at the two tables you have.
In all probability, you will find that most of the people you categorized as successful people are those who are positive-minded. Similarly, most of the people rated as unsuccessful will belong to the negative thinking lot!
Now you see!
Successful people in life are always positive people
They are the people who
– know what they want
– are optimistic
– expect the best
– expect to win
Negative people in turn, are pessimistic. They look for the worst in everything and expect to fail. These people tend to moan and complain a lot, and always try to put people down.
The way both positive and negative people handle problems is very different.
While positive-minded persons will look for solutions to the problems and a means to proceed further, the negative-minded persons will lose confidence. They will criticize themselves for having chosen that path and will be convinced that he is beaten even before he starts.
Everything that you choose to think, affects your life. The one thing that can bring success or failure in one’s life is attitude.
A positive mind attracts opportunities for success while a negative mind fends them off. In fact, a negative-minded person doesn’t even take up the opportunities that come along. Why? He is busy focusing on the next time he is going to fail.
“Whatever your mind can conceive and believe, your mind can achieve”
- Napoleon Hill
Your greatest potential asset is your ability to believe. The only problem is that you can’t benefit from it unless you have what is required- a positive attitude. Successful people are positive people.
Now ask yourself this-
Am I one of them? Do I think positively?
No matter what mindset you have, there are ways to change it. There are techniques that you could apply to cultivate positive habits in yourself.
These techniques have helped people form and keep a positive mental attitude. It has bettered their lives. If it worked for them, why won’t it work for you?
HOW TO FORM AND KEEP A POSITIVE MENTAL ATTITUDE
To get e positive mental attitude, first of all what you need to do is think and act on the “CAN DO” approach of every activity instead of the “NO CAN’T DO” approach.
Smile
Go back to the lists about positive and negative people that you had created before. Look at the positive people listed on it.
Mull over this:
Don’t these people smile and laugh a lot more and appear happier than the negative thinkers?
It may seem very silly, but there is a lot of power associated with a smile. A smile is always returned with a smile.
Follow this rule – Smile more often!
That doesn’t mean you have to walk around with a silly grin on your face all the time. Smile when you speak to someone, smile as you walk down the street, smile when looking at yourself in the mirror, smile even when speaking on the phone.
You will be amazed by the good feeling that it generates within you. You feel better and project a positive image to others, which attracts opportunities and more people towards you.
Remember, positive people are happy people and negative people are not.
Happy people seem to be more attractive and pleasant to others compared to gloomy people. Isn’t this an added bonus for you?
Pat people on the back
There are many people we see in life who jump at the chance of criticizing a person when something goes wrong. Moreover, these people don’t even acknowledge you when you are right!
To create and reflect a positive mental attitude, start complimenting people. If you already have the habit, increase the number of times you do it.
If your partner buys a new piece of clothing and looks attractive, don’t just notice that. Tell them so!
You don’t lose anything by complimenting someone, do you? And anyway, a compliment never goes waste.
So, compliment your staff and colleagues on their work. Compliment your child on making it to the football team.
The general idea is that you feel good by making others feel good and it enhances your Positive Mental Attitude. What more, you also enhance the Positive Mental Attitude of the people you compliment!
Merely complimenting people is not enough. The way we treat them is also important.
Follow this Rule – Treat others as we would like to be treated ourselves
This involves treating everyone as though he/she is the most important person in the world- because to him or her it stands true!
The laws of Success state that whatever you hand out in life, you get back at least ten times as much of it.
Connect this rule to life. If you make other people feel worthwhile, useful and valuable, you too are bound to be treated in the same manner- ten times as much.
Now comes a warning.
When you compliment people and treat them with respect, be sure that you are doing so genuinely. You must mean what you say.
Believe, conceive and achieve
Start believing that success to you is inevitable.
Whatever task you are given, picture success in your mind. Burn the thought into your subconscious mind. Keep yourself focused on the outcome that you want to achieve in what you do. The mind can achieve anything that it believes and conceives.
You will be surprised to know that there is a giant asleep within yourself. You can direct him to do anything that you want.
You have no idea what you are capable of. Don’t underestimate yourself. Believe it, the power of your mind and imagination is truly exceptional.
You can think your way to almost anything in life – success, happiness, illness and even death.
Use it for a fulfilled life!
Good luck