Attitude Adjustment

Are you in need of an attitude adjustment? After all, it's spring cleaning time so why not clean out the old brain and get rid of some bad attitudes while you're at it?

Of course, we can't just chuck an attitude in the trash bin no matter how much we'd like to do so. Attitudes can only be changed by replacing one with another, and it requires conscious effort to make that change.

Consider Please

Start your attitude adjustment by analyzing how you face challenges and disappointments. If life has been handing you a basket of lemons lately, do you turn those suckers into lemonade or do you pucker up in sourness and make self-defeating statements like: "I knew I wouldn't get the job done on time."

Perhaps you've been known to say: "I knew my manuscript would get rejected. Why did I even try?" Tonight, on the phone, a friend told me about her dead car battery today: "If it's not one thing, it's another. Tomorrow will probably be something else."

Self-Defeating statements come from fear and from the insecurity we each host inside our subconscious. The only purpose of this defeatist self-talk is to make us feel bad and to grind our pitiful little egos into the dust. Unfortunately, yielding to the temptation to self-flagellate is the easy path when we confront disappointments. There's another option.

Change Your Reaction

Consciously change the way you'll react to those challenges. Write out a script and keep it within eyesight. When you're tempted to heap recriminations on yourself, read that script aloud. Other methods of making yourself consciously aware of what you're saying to yourself is to wear a rubber band on your wrist.

When you tell yourself something, ask if that's really true? If not, why did you think it? Pop that rubber band and consciously replace the negative statement with a positive one. Attitude adjustments can make the difference in a life lived happily and a life lived miserably.

Takeaway Truth

Many times, the choice of happiness or despondency is yours to make. Choose wisely.