Early Momentum

The role attitude plays in our lives is major! So it is important to understand what attitude really is. When broken down, that which people perceive as our attitude is in reality the sum total of our behaviors. Behaviors are visible. They come in the form of facial and body language, the words we use, the tone of our words, and our actions. When you hear someone say of someone else ”he has a positive attitude,” they have come to that conclusion based on the person’s behaviors.

Here are some examples of behaviors that can lead people to the conclusion of whether your attitude is positive or negative.

• frequent smiling vs. never smiling
• eye contact vs. rolling eyes
• learning from set backs vs. brooding over them
• a focus on future improvement vs. past failures
• showing appreciation vs not
• saying yes to reasonable coworker requests vs. saying no
• staying late when asked on occasion vs. not
• suggesting solutions to problems vs. complaining about them
• saying I can do that vs. I can’t do that

Attitude and personality are as important as experience and ability.-Brian Tracy

Most good bosses recognize that ability is much easier to teach than attitude. I would go so far as to say that someone who has what we would call a positive attitude is someone who will improve their ability where needed much faster than somebody who does not a have positive attitude. Since what we call attitude is really behaviors, in a sense it can be tought. Yet it is in large part an individual’s philosophy and internal decision-making that determines improvement in attitude. Therefore teaching someone how to improve their attitude is much different from teaching somebody how to drive a vehicle.

I’ve seen numerous examples of people who have the right credentials, experience and skills, in other words the right ability,  be overlooked for jobs or promotion because they didn’t bring the right attitude. Don’t get me wrong, results are still the name of the game. But the role a positive attitude plays in our success is major. The typical interview process is evidence of this. For all the talk of focusing on a interviewee’s past track record, if in the interview process the interviewer concludes rightly or wrongly that they have a bad attitude towards work or people there is likely zero chance they will get hired.

Attitude is not only important when getting your foot in the door. It is important all the time. Especially in business. The number one reason that employees quit a job is because of a bad boss. Essentially they come to the conclusion that the boss had a disrespectful attitude towards them. The number one reason why customers stop coming to a business is because they perceive the staff as being rude or inconsiderate. They have concluded that the business has a poor attitude towards customer service.

Winston Churchill said attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. I agree. To drive this home, consider how Chuck Swindoll expounded on this idea.

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past. We cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.-Charles Swindoll

Ability matters. But never underestimate the importance of having the right attitude! And never forget, your attitude is yours. You are in absolute control of it. It is the one thing nobody can ever take from you!  

In self-development circles, there’s a lot of talk about deciding to be the best at whatever it is you pursue. Often times you will hear something to the effect of “you can be number one if you just decide to!” While in some circumstances this may be very possible, most times this is too large of a goal for us to view as being realistic. As a result, we may not even bother to stretch ourselves in an attempt to be the best we can be. After all, only one can truly be the best. And even then, like a championship winning sports team, nobody stays the best for long. 

The exciting news is this. While it may not be possible to be the best, it is absolutely possible to be one of the best! Rest assured that being one of the best is a great place to be! When you become one of the best in your line of work you can bank on job security. When you become one of the best in your class, potential opens for scholarships and choices for the very best in schools. When you are one of the best, you experience more recognition, rewards, opportunity and personal satisfaction. 

Here’s how to go about becoming one of the best. 

Decide

Decide what you want, decide what you are willing to exchange for it. Establish your priorities and go to work. -H.L. Hunt

 Amazingly the vast majority of the population will never even think about this concept. The thought of becoming one of the best at what they do simply never crosses their mind. By merely deciding for yourself to become one of the best you give yourself a step up on your competition.

Define

If your batting average is high enough, the Big League will find you.

 What benchmark do you need to reach in order to consider yourself one of the best? In most cases it’s a simple matter of defining some numbers to hit. A baseball player may choose to focus on batting average. A student on a GPA. A manager on productivity measurements. A salesperson on units sold. In most cases the statistics you need to determine your targets are readily available.  As a starting point, begin with a target that will put you into the top 20%. Being in the top quintile of that which you apply yourself to is a fantastic place to be. Once you are there, set the bar higher and go for the top 10%, 5% and perhaps even the top 1%.

Take action

Action is the foundational key to all success.-Pablo Picasso 

 Once you’ve decided a meaningful area of life which you want to become one of the best in and after you’ve defined how you will know that you have arrived, it’s time to take action! Monitor your results on an ongoing basis. Look for continual improvement. Resolve to change behaviors, gain new learnings, and ask for feedback along the way in order to accelerate you to your destination.

Remember the vast majority of the population is not intent on becoming one of the best at what they do. This means that if you decide to be one of the best your future is bright. And if you should become the best, all the better!

We spend a lot of time at work. For many people, that time is spent in a particular workspace. Your workspace may be an office, a cubicle or even a vehicle.

The typical workspace is adorned with posters, paintings, pictures of family, and miscellaneous trinkets. These things are great as they bring personality and color, however I would like to propose three additional things to add to your workspace. Each of these things are common in the workspaces of leaders and top performers. They are designed to inspire, encourage and motivate.

1. Pictures of role models-for inspiration
There is nothing like daily reminders in the form of photos of the people we look up to who inspire us to be at our best. This includes people we know as well as those we’ve never met. It may be a teacher, an athlete, an author, a speaker, a pastor, an entrepreneur or an entertainer. And by no means do they have to be a celebrity. For some it may be a neighbor or coworker. Having pictures of people who’ve positively influenced your life and who you have great respect for serves as a constant reminder to us of the kind of person we want to be.

People never improve unless they look to some standard or example higher and better than themselves.-Tyron Edwards

2. Items of accomplishment and recognition-for encouragement
This includes trophies, diplomas, letters of recognition, certificates of accomplishment or virtually any kind of award. When you’re in the middle of a tough day or when you are facing a seemingly insurmountable obstacle, it is encouraging to have reminders around you of your past accomplishments. It’s as though they speak to you saying you achieved great things in your past, therefore you can and will do so again in the future! If you don’t have a lot of these things in your life yet, begin to earn some. Start small if you have to. Even a kid can go join the reading club at the local library, read a few books, and get a certificate!

Please stop teaching my children that everyone gets a trophy just for participating. What is this, the Nobel Prize? Not everybody gets a trophy.-Glenn Beck

Pictures of your goals-for motivation
When you examine goal setting literature, you will find this to be a common recommendation. It really does work! I have a very successful friend who owns his own company. In his office he has a large bulletin board on the wall covered in pictures that represent his goals. The pictures include suits, toys, vacation spots and more. The pictures are ever-changing as he accomplishes a goal, and then updates the board. He says having a visual reminder of his goals in front of him throughout his workday is a constant reminder to work smarter whenever possible. Not just to accomplish his goals, but also in order to have the time to enjoy the good things in life.

In life we tend to get what we think about most of the time. What is it you wish to be, have or do? Whatever it is, you don’t have to look any farther than magazines or the Internet to find motivating pictures for your workspace. Keeping visual representation of your goals keeps you moving towards their accomplishment and a fantastic future!

When you think something, you think in picture. You don’t think a thought in words. You think a picture that expresses your thought. Working with this picture will produce it into your experience.-Grace Speare

  There you have my three recommendations to fill your workspace (or home, room, locker etc.) with. If you haven’t done it yet, perhaps it’s time to redecorate.

I saw a diet book the other day called The Fat Flush Plan. I thought “if only it were that easy!” I then wondered if it worked as well as the Playboy Buddy Rose Blow Away Diet.  

I recently had a great conversation with a friend from the country of Morocco. He has lived in the United States for about two years. On the subject of the cultural differences he has observed in Americans,  in his opinion, we have a tendency to want everything  now. We seem unwilling to enjoy the ride towards our goals and the work me must do to reach them. Many of us already know this to be true, but it is interesting to hear this conclusion coming from someone relatively new to our country. Even if we don’t want to acknowledge it, the facts stare us in the face when we examine our society today.

As of early 2010, our nations housing market is in shambles. Nearly 25% of all mortgage borrowers owe more on their loans than their homes are worth! While there are multiple factors in this dilemma, it is in large part our desire to get into a house, and then a bigger house, before we’re ready that caused us to get here. Millions of Americans rush in over their heads unwilling to take the time to develop a reasonable down payment. “No money down” sounds great for a major purchase until the economy takes a slide downward.  

We see the “must have it now” culture every time an athlete takes steroids, an accountant cooks the books, or when a student cheats on a test. They are taking the path of least resistance. Human nature to be sure, but somehow when we do such things, I can’t help but think that it erodes our self-confidence. Having to go to sleep at night knowing that we didn’t really earn our accomplishments is no way to live.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.-Winston Churchill

Here’s what truly feels amazing and builds our confidence. Winning a game on our own merit. Paying cash for our purchase. Receiving recognition and awards due to our hard work and diligence. It is the hard work and sweat that make us appreciate our possessions, promotions and awards.

It is good for an ambitious person to be impatient with himself when progress is not being made. It is not good to be impatient when progress is being made, even in small amounts. I encourage you to go for the big play, the hail mary, but don’t neglect to appreciate the one-yard gain! Real success takes time. The person who seems like they lucked into “overnight success” rarely did. In reality it was their day by day activity that eventually compounded into a breakthrough. 

Celebrate one more test passed!

Celebrate one more sale!

Celebrate one more contact made!

Celebrate one more pound added to your bench press!

Celebrate one more ounce of body weight reduced!

Celebrate one more sentence written!

Celebrate one more dollar saved!

The Japanese have a word for this concept. It is called Kaizen and it means continuous improvement in small increments. For some reason we don’t have a word in the English language for this. Perhaps you can think of a new word for our vocabulary. Or learn Japanese.