By Bill Chaffin
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]n “attitude upgrade”—We all need it!
The changing of one’s attitude can change the direction of that person’s life professionally and personally. Herb Kelleher, founder of Southwest Airlines, set the bar high in taking on new employees:
“There is only one thing we are going to hire at Southwest Airlines and that is called attitude. We can teach our people everything else we want them to know.”
Mr. Kelleher understands that attitude is the basis of what comes out in a person’s work. It is more fundamental than intelligence, talent, skills, and abilities. It will take you further than education, degrees, knowledge, and experience. And it will win you more friends than personality, charisma, and appearance. When you have a positive upbeat attitude, people love to be around you-partly because a good attitude is so rare these days.
Victor Frankl, author, psychiatrist, and survivor of a Nazi concentration camp, held a high view of attitude: “The last of human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.”
There is no future in complaining and grumbling about what you don’t have. You’ll only have a better tomorrow if you first get excited about the things you do have. A thankful spirit replaces anger with love, resentment with happiness, worry with security, fear with faith, waiting to be served with a desire to serve others, jealousy with a joy at other’s success, and inferiority with dignity.
By the way, a good attitude is an “inside job”- It is your choice and is It is my choice, but you may not have realized what a crucial role attitude plays in living a life of Integrity. Attitude is the crowning touch on a life of integrity. Attitude reflects to other people how you feel about life itself. A person of impeccable integrity treasures life to the fullest.
You want to be different? Try having a good attitude and you will “wear well” with others. Your good attitude demonstrates the integrity of your heart. If you’re right on the inside, your attitude will show up on the outside.
Having a positive attitude though, doesn’t happen automatically. If you choose to have a good attitude, you also have to work at it. Like any goal worth achieving, sporting a healthy attitude takes work. You wouldn’t expect to run a marathon without practicing and you won’t consistently exhibit a “winning attitude” unless you cultivate the habit of thinking and acting positively.
Through the hardest of times, I’ve discovered some truths about attitude that’ share on a regular basis with my audiences. If you pay attention to these truths, you will grow immensely in solidifying an attitude consistent with your integrity.
1.) For the good or for the bad, your attitude goes everywhere you go!
2.) The attitude you bring to work every day (and bringing it every single day is crucial) will dramatically affect your productivity!
3.) Nothing colors your personality more than the attitude you embrace. Your attitude is how other people view you.
4.) It is a dead-end street to let things you cannot control interfere with the attitude you can control. You have no control over the weather, interest rates, the economy, the overall industry or profession you work in, or unrest in the Middle East–so letting negative aspects of these things drag down your attitude only sets you up for unnecessary misery.
5.) Be trusting in the face of disappointment. Give the other person the benefit of the doubt. Everyone needs a second chance — you be the one to give itl
Remember; learn to “live in the moment.” You will be glad you did!
“Basketball Bill” Chaffin
Speaker/Author, Bill Chaffin is the only motivational speaker in America who does basketball shootouts with middle schools, high schools, colleges and professional basketball players. This novel approach with teenagers and young people gains instant respect before he shares an urgent message entitled, “What Goes Around Comes Around”. September 12th, 1989, Bill broke into the Guinness Book of World Records shooting a basketball on cable television in Schererville, Indiana. He made 190 out of 208 free throw attempts in ten minutes, using one ball and one rebounder. To Corporate America, Bill’s talk is entitled “Nothing But Net” – www.billchaffin.com.
