Monday Morning Motivation – Attitude
Sharing Resources to Help You Grow Personally, Professionally & Financially
Sometimes it helps to get a little dose of encouragement—along with a good cup of coffee!—to start the day. Today we discuss attitude.
Hopefully the message below will help you get off to a good start for the week. Please feel free to forward the newsletter on to others that you think would benefit from the content.
Attitude
Common sayings stand the test of time for a reason: there’s usually a little—or sometimes a lot—of truth behind them.
One saying that continues to resonate is:
Your attitude determines your altitude.
Think about how differently these two statements feel:
“I have to go to work.”
vs.
“I get to go to work.”
The circumstances haven’t changed. Your perspective has.
“I Have To” vs. “I Get To”
We all have days when work feels exhausting, frustrating, or simply unenjoyable.
Your workload may be overwhelming. Your boss may test your patience. A coworker may get on your nerves.
But here’s the question worth asking:
Are you allowing those circumstances to determine your entire day?
Consider the alternative.
Instead of “I have to go to work,” think:
“I get to go to work.”
You get to earn an income.
You get to develop your skills.
You get to work toward your goals.
You get to provide for yourself and the people you care about.
And in an uncertain economy, having the opportunity to work and earn a living is something worth appreciating.
That doesn’t mean you have to love every part of your job.
It simply means you can choose to recognize the good alongside the difficult.
Don’t Give Someone Else Control of Your Day
We’ve all encountered difficult people.
A frustrating conversation can happen before 9 a.m., and suddenly we’re carrying it around for the rest of the day.
But why give someone else that much power?
You cannot control someone else’s attitude, personality, words, or behavior.
You can control your response.
That distinction is powerful.
Someone else’s bad mood doesn’t have to become yours.
Someone else’s negativity doesn’t have to determine your outlook.
Someone else’s behavior doesn’t have to dictate the quality of your day.
You may not control everything that happens to you, but you have a tremendous amount of influence over how you respond to what happens.
Your Attitude Is a Choice
A positive attitude doesn’t mean pretending everything is perfect.
It means choosing to look for possibility even when circumstances aren’t ideal.
It means choosing gratitude instead of constantly focusing on what’s missing.
It means asking:
“What can I learn from this?”
instead of:
“Why is this happening to me?”
That small shift in perspective can change the way you experience your work, relationships, challenges, and even your everyday life.
The Bigger Picture
Your attitude influences much more than your mood.
It can influence how you approach your career, how you interact with others, how you handle adversity, and how satisfied you feel with your life.
And perhaps most importantly, it is something you can work on every single day.
So the next time you catch yourself saying “I have to…”, pause for a moment.
Ask yourself:
“Could I look at this as something I get to do instead?”
Sometimes, changing the words changes the perspective.
And changing the perspective can change everything.
You may not be able to choose every circumstance in your life—but you can choose the attitude you bring to it.
That brings us to this week’s question:
- How’s your attitude?
Thanks for sharing a bit of your time with me this Monday morning.
Have a great week!
Curt
About MMM: Each week I publish “Monday Morning Motivation” in the hopes that at least one person will find a bit of inspiration and that this inspiration will have a positive impact on their life. My motivation comes from experiences, reading, sermons, and discussions.
Photo credit: Austin Distel (useproof.com on unsplash.com)
Blog post from this past week:
Monday Morning Motivation – Skill(opens in new tab)
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