What Is Attitude And How Important Is It?
The Power Of Positive Thinking
What is attitude exactly? The definition of attitude is elusive. Without opening a dictionary, it's difficult to articulate what attitude is. Yet we all know that a person's attitude is important and has a significant bearing on the level of success they can achieve in life.
What Is Attitude? The Definition Of Attitude
The definition of attitude according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is:
"a mental position with regard to a fact or state; a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state."
Another way to think of attitude is a mental habit that filters how you perceive the world around you and also the actions and behaviors you take in response.
For Example... Let's contemplate the attitude of optimism. If you decide to have an optimistic and positive attitude in life, you'll be inclined to practice positive self talk. Your dominant mental habits will include always seeing the glass half full, always giving people the benefit of the doubt, and always feeling a sense of hope and trust that things will turn out okay.
This attitude of optimism and the corresponding mindset of positivity, compassion, hope and trust would then drive you to take certain actions. You'd be more relaxed giving and sharing with others, you'd take more risks because you'd feel a healthy level of confidence that things would work out for the best, and you would give your all because you would see the opportunity in everything.
Can you imagine what kind of circumstances would occur for someone with an optimistic attitude? As if by magic, they would attract positive, generous people, work opportunities that were engaging and relationships that were fulfilling.
What Is Attitude? Where Does It Come From?
Attitudes are initially thoughts, whether conscious or not. If you think about an area in your life where you experience success, try and find where that success started. It no doubt first required a decision as to how you were going to act and behave in the world. For example, I changed careers when I was 27. I remember on the first day feeling so overwhelmed, and so far behind my peers. At that moment I made a decision I would be the best in my job in a year or so. And that eventuated. Now looking back I can see that I used positive self talk to create a winning attitude that served me... an example of the power of positive thinking in action. That attitude to win literally came from the thought that I wanted to be the best on the job and it influenced all of my actions and behaviors at work. When there was extra to do, I gladly did it. And I always made sure my jobs were completed with thoroughness. This was all to serve my "winner" positive attitude.
What Is Attitude? A Good Attitude Is The Mother Of Success
Your attitude determines how you'll be in a future situation, independent of the circumstances that present themselves. If you have a "go-getter," positive attitude at work, then you've decided before circumstances present themselves that you're going to come out on top. This powerfully shapes how you encounter different situations. The locus of control is within you, not your environment. You've predetermined the outcome even before the game has begun.
To know going into a situation how you're going to respond is powerful. And that explains why so many writers emphasize the importance of attitude in obtaining success.
What Is Attitude? You Choose Your Attitude
Now that you have a clearer understanding of the definition of attitude, can you see how you always have a choice in what attitude you practice? We all have attitudes in operation. They are the filters that shape how we interpret and respond to people and circumstances. Attitudes are habits, and since we become our habits it's important to choose them wisely.
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