How Can I Change My Attitude?

So far we have looked at choosing our attitude by choosing the thoughts that will give us the attitude that we want. Let’s look at how we can manage our attitude on an ongoing basis. This is important if you have a bad attitude related to deeper problems from your childhood or maybe something traumatic that happened earlier in your life.

We need to manage our thoughts every day, every minute of every day. We need to take this action on a regular basis and not just when something is bothering us. Usually we are not aware of our attitude so managing it in advance is beneficial. But, like any management tool it works best if we do it on an ongoing basis. If we were to take time every day to develop a great attitude we would have dramatic effects within a short period of time.

It may sound like an overwhelming task but anyone can do it. Once you have developed a better attitude it is easier to maintain it.

Suggestions for developing and maintaining a good attitude:

1. Be aware of your attitude at all times. At first this will be difficult but over time it will get easier and eventually it will just be part of who you are.
   1. Once you become aware of your attitude you will want to change it because you will realize what affect it is having on your life.
   2. When you attitude is not what you want, it is quite easy to take just a few minutes and change it. That small investment of time could change how you experience the remainder of your day.
2. Pray or meditate to change your attitude or prepare yourself for an event or situation.
   1. I don’t know what your spiritual beliefs are but if you pray or meditate on a regular basis it will help immensely in developing a better attitude. I know that I have always prayed before I give a speech and it makes a world of difference when I speak. I believe that I will do a wonderful job and I seldom feel  that I did less than my best.
3. Morning readings from the Bible, inspirational material or self help books are a great way to set your attitude for the day. Whatever your philosophy in life you can get some appropriate motivational material and read and reflect on it each morning and it will get you into the grateful frame of mind that you want.
   1. One great thing about doing this in the morning is that it starts your day off in a wonderful way.
4. Positive affirmations are a great way to change your attitude especially deep seated ideas that plague you through life. Let us say that you have the following three beliefs about yourself from your childhood:
   1. I am weak
   2. I am ugly
   3. I am unlovable

Positive Affirmations

A positive affirmation is a positive statement that contradicts a negative belief that you have about yourself or a positive belief that you want to foster. Positive affirmations to counteract these three beliefs might be:

1. I am powerful or I am enjoying being powerful
2. I am beautiful or I am thrilled to feel beautiful
3. I am loveable or I am happy to be loved

It is best to write these down and read them aloud each morning when you first get up and each evening just before going to sleep. It is more powerful if you stand in front of a mirror and look yourself in the eye and read them with real passion. The more emotion you attach to them the more powerful they will become inside you.

5. Before you go to bed at night feed your mind some good material. Instead of watching the television news or reading a book about violence, read some uplifting material.
   1. Maybe read over your goals with strong feeling so that your subconscious mind will work over the night to achieve these goals.
   2. Review your day and celebrate your successes from the day. If you had setbacks during the day, review what you learned but don’t well on the setback itself.
6. Find friends who have the attitudes that you want. I belong to Toastmasters which is filled with people who are upbeat, positive and doing positive things in their lives.
   1. There are many service clubs that you could join. A service club is a group of people who share a wonderful mission. It is amazing but when you serve others you will reap so many benefits that are not expected.

Does all this seem overwhelming? Let’s look at a way to get started slowly and build up a wonderful attitude over time.

Bruce is a motivational speaker and conducts seminars and workshops based upon the ideas in his book, “Attitude Determines Destiny”.

Contact him for your next event

**originally published 6/6/12