Does Your Attitude Have Attitude?

This week I have made a life changing decision, something which I am very excited about yet at the same time scared and very overwhelmed. From the moment I made this particular choice my attitude was like a kid being given free rein in a supermarket – so many ideas and choices in my head and ecstatic that I didn’t know where to start. Over the next day I came back to planet earth and my attitude came spiralling down, doubting my decision, second guessing everything I was doing, I felt lost and out of control.

This sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

I needed to take a step back and think of the reasons I wanted to take this step:

What was my one reason for being on this path?
What was it I wanted to achieve?
What was my driving force in all this to keep me going day in and day out?

It took me a few days to work out the answers to the above questions but once I knew my purpose for taking the action I did, I was set and ready to give it 110%. My attitude had spun a full 360 degrees and before I knew it I was back to where I was a week ago – in control, excited and I knew my direction, well kind of.

How often do you find your attitude giving you attitude? By this I mean no matter what you do you feel like you can’t release yourself from a particular mood? I bet it happens a lot and you’d just love to know how to snap out of it and get yourself back on track to being the happy, positive person you are.

You carry your attitude around with you like a pair of glasses looking out into the world. Sometimes it’s bright and shiny, other times it’s dark and gloomy. This is all based on our own perception, have you heard the quote – ‘I think, therefore I am,’ this applies directly to our attitudes.

We all have the power to choose what ‘attitude hat’ we are wearing at any time of the day; you just need to understand how to call upon this power. Here’s what you do:

Move out of wherever you are – your office, house etc. and find someplace peaceful such as the park or even your backyard if that’s more convenient.
Close your eyes and think back to a time when your attitude was just the way you wanted it, when you were feeling happy, determined, ready to take on your next big project… whatever it is you need to be feeling think back to a time when you were in that state of mind.
Keep yourself there and remember where you were, how you felt, who was around and then tell yourself, ‘I feel …x…right now.’ (x being the state you want to be in)

This technique is something I use whenever I need an attitude adjustment to get myself together again and you know what? It works every time!

Of course there are plenty of other steps you can take to prevent this from happening, which I also undertook this week even though it was a little too late on my part. They are:

Talk about why you’re having that particular attitude with a close friend, family member or partner.
Take back control of your own thoughts. Acknowledge that you are having this attitude problem and tell yourself you’re going to get rid of it.
Go for a walk. Let whatever thoughts come in and out of your head just flow freely and before you know it, your attitude will begin to change.

Notice how simple these steps are? Next time you feel like your attitude is giving you attitude, stop and ask yourself, ‘is this serving me any purpose?’

If not then give that crappy attitude a good butt kicking to the curb and keep moving forward.

Hope you found these tips useful and something you can implement next time you run into a little attitude problem.

For more reading check out the A2Z Personal Training blog