Each of us are made up of various physical, vital,
and mental parts. There is our physical body and its organs, muscles,
etc; the vital being with its sensations, emotions and feelings, and the
mental part with its thoughts, memories, reasoning power, beliefs, etc.
Somewhere between our emotions and our thought processing lies our
attitudes -- our emotional perceptions about life, about others, even
towards our own selves. Attitudes generally express positively and
negatively. E.g. when I have good feelings towards my work or towards
others, the attitude is positive. When I feel reluctant to do certain
things that are necessary, or show hostility towards certain
individuals, then my attitude is negative.
Interestingly, if we can identify a bad attitude and make the effort to change
it, we will find that life will cooperate with our inner efforts,
bringing us instances of sudden good fortune. Consider this true-life
incident.
A
salesperson was intimidated about meeting a very large customer. He
felt that the effort was a waste of time since the company was too
large and would be too hard to penetrate. Needless to say, he did
not get that or any other sale with the client. However, a number of months
later, he changed his attitude about working with such large
accounts. The very next day, he was stunned when that very same
large customer, who turned him down earlier, gave him a huge order!
As we can see, if
we change our attitudes, life has a funny way of responding to our
efforts. We call this phenomenon "life
response." When we change our attitudes, or otherwise elevate our
consciousness, life quickly responds thereafter with miraculous-like
instances of good fortune.
Attitudes About Ourselves, Others, Life Though we have many attitudes about
all aspects of life, if we look a little closer we can identify three basic types -- those
that have to dowithourselves,
those we have aboutothers and the
objects around us, and those we have towards life itself.An example of a wanting
attitude about others is feeling ill will towards another person, or
being mistrustful of others. An example of a negative attitude towards
life is being pessimistic that things will never turn out well. The good
news however is that if we change any negative attitude to the positive,
life tends to quickly respond. Consider this true story, where a person
changed her attitude about certain people:
A
woman was working as a temporary employee for a large medical
organization. For months, she complained about certain coworkers at her
job. At the time, she had decided to develop a 30-day plan to secure
a full-time position. One part of her plan was to change her
attitude toward these particular individuals. In the days that
followed, she persisted in following her plan, especially focusing
on her wanting attitude toward others. She was shocked however when
a month into her plan, she was suddenly asked to work for the
organization full time -- her first non-temporary job in nearly a
decade!
Newly Released! By the author of this
article,
Roy Posner
That is the power
of changing a negative attitude toward others. Here is another incident,
this time narrated by a friend of ours from Asia:
"In our unit there
was a supervisor whom I felt was indifferent, insubordinate, and had to
be punished. I was looking for an opportunity to pin him down. A time
came to do so, and I dismissed him mercilessly. Within two days of his
dismissal, there was a major breakdown in one of the machines.
The supplier of the
machine had sent their engineers. They struggled for 7 days and could do
very little to set right the machine. I was thoroughly disgusted. I
started examining my attitudes on several fronts during the last 10
days.
It struck to me that
whenever I am in the position to do so, my attitude is to dominate
another person. In this case, I was able to dominate the supervisor and
dismiss him mercilessly. But in the case of the machine, I could not
afford to throw it away and replace it with a new machine; so I
tolerated it. Based on my previous knowledge of the subtle workings of
life, I understood at that point that I had to change my attitude.
I then called back
the supervisor, apologized for my rude action, and requested that he
continue in the company. He felt very happy. It was then striking that
the machine that had been out of commission until then, now unexpectedly
got fixed. In fact, there haven’t been any serious
troubles with any of the machines since then!"
As we can see,
when we overcome a negative attitude towards others, life tends to
respond with instant good fortune. Machines that had broken down
suddenly start working, late projects suddenly are completed on time,
negative situations dissolve, employment comes our way out of nowhere,
cash unexpectedly moves in our direction, and so forth. It is the
miracle of life response in action!
Negative Expressions Attracts Negative Response So far we have indicated that changing a negative attitude can
attract sudden instances of good fortune. Inversely, if we take to a
negative attitude, we can attract instances of bad fortune. For
example, if we speak negatively about another person, it is likely that
problematic circumstances will arise.
At the annual
gathering of the company's employees, prizes were being given out to the
staff. One of the employees watching the proceedings hoped to win one of
the larger prizes. When the biggest prize was announced, the winner
scurried to pick it up from the host. However, the woman watching the
proceedings was bitterly disappointed that she did not win. It also
turned out that several weeks earlier she had a run in with the very
person who had now won the prize, adding to her current bitterness. When
this woman arrived back at her home later on that night, she received
word that her son had suddenly fallen into very difficult straits.
Here's another
example of how life responds negatively to a wanting attitude.
A man "A" met a
fellow instructor "B" before a class he was to perform that day. One of
the things they discussed were problems they had experienced in earlier
classes. In particular, A kept talking about how the students at a
certain client were particularly difficult to work with. He persisted in
expressing his feelings. Though that instructor rarely had problems
with his students, later on that day, as well as in the next two
classes, he had a series of difficulties with his students!
As we see, when we
express negative sentiment in life -- whether it is ill will towards
certain individuals or complaining about situations -- we tend to elicit
ill fortune. The best approach then is to avoid all negative expressions
or complaining about others. In our moment-to-moment activities, we need
to be mindful of our thoughts and feelings, and catch any negative
expression -- whether it is us a flawed attitudes, a limited opinion, or a
hasty, reflexive reaction. This is indeed serious business, because such
expressions can literally destroy a work, as we see in the
following incident:
An instructor had
lined up a training class for the near future. Several days before the
class, he was focusing on his work. However, at one point, he got
sidetracked and sent an email to someone, in which he disparaged a
prominent thinker. At that point, his energies were far removed from the
important work that needed his attention that day. In the middle of
writing that note, he received a call from his contact canceling
the upcoming work.
As we see,
negative expressions, feelings, opinions, etc. can actually cancel or
destroy a work. From this situation, we see that it is best then to
catch these negative expressions before they rise so we can avoid the
sudden arrival of ill fortune.
The Power of an Overall Positive Attitude In addition to having the right
attitudes towards others and life around us, it is always best to have
an overall positive attitude. Here's another real-life incident
to show you what I mean:
A
management consultant was hoping to have a key meeting with the
principle officers of a company with over $100 billion in
assets. For days, he fretted about the deal as the potential client
failed to contact him. He developed greater and greater doubts that
the meeting would ever take place. Finally, he remembered that it
was important to have a positive attitude in these situations. He
decided to change his attitude about the potential meeting from
worry and concern to being positive. A very short time later, he was
contacted by the client that the meeting could in fact take place.
He was thrilled. In addition, years of high-level consulting
work followed with the client!
That
is the power of having a generally positive attitude.
Now
consider this journal entry of an audio-video retail chain owner, who
was in the process of conducting sales meetings. Fortunately, in this
incident, described in the owner's journal, he was aware of the
importance of having a positive attitude.
"-around 4pm my
energy starts to sap, I start to feel sorry for my self and wonder how I
will last the day. I decide to reverse my attitude and say, "there is no
room for this behavior you must push on and go to work." In the very
next sales interview D reports he just sold for $18,000!!' [A huge
amount for one of these salespeople.]
-I have a meeting
with G, an important audio salesperson. We work through a system to get
him committed and productive. We discuss the fact that he must commit.
During the meeting, I am conscious of my attitude that is negative about
our chances of success. I struggle to reverse them with lukewarm
results. We are then interrupted as the store is then filled with
customers, and a good one for that salesperson to boot!!"
An
overall positive attitude has the power to attract sudden good fortune
from the world around us. We have also seen that when difficult
circumstances come your way, and you do not get overwrought by them,
maintaining a positive calm, life can suddenly reverse and cancel the
problem or otherwise bring sudden instances of good fortune. Here is an
astounding true story of the benefit of remaining positive and calm in
the face of adversity.
"We have our business unit in a space that we
rent out from others. One day the owner of our rented space picked an
argument with our own manager, apparently without a valid reason. As a
result of the dispute, the owner threatened to terminate our lease for
the space we rent. As it turned out, I was away during the time these
events were taking place.
Naturally, all of the workers, including my
manager, were agitated -- so much so, that they wanted me to take
appropriate legal action against the owner of the space we were renting.
However, I decided not to react to the intensity of the situation, and,
instead, decided to remain calm and composed. In fact, I told the
workers as well as the manager to also be calm, and to concentrate
instead on their work. I myself continued to function in a normal
fashion, as if nothing had happened.
Within a few days, the owner of the rented
space came to me in tears. He said that his two-year-old grandson had a
heart problem, and wanted me to suggest a hospital where the child could
be treated. Through my doctor friends, I was able to suggest a hospital
in Madras [India]. The child was then taken there.
After examination, the doctors revealed that
the child had a hole in his heart, and that he had to be operated on
immediately. The operation was going to cost around two lacs of rupees
[~5000 US dollars]. Unfortunately, the owner did not have two-pennies to
pay for this very expensive operation. I then talked to a bank manager
and arranged financing from the bank. The loan was secured based solely
on my personal guarantee. The bank also took an undertaking from the
owner that he would not evict my company on any grounds for the next
five years."
In the
end, we see how his positive right attitude of calm and equality not
only led to the cancellation of the eviction, not only led to the
intense appreciation and goodwill of the owner, but had saved the life
of a small child. When we maintain a positive attitude in the face of
adversity or shift from a negative attitude to a positive one, life has
a way of cooperating with us from all quarters. It is the miracle of
life response in action.
To see a
list of human attitudes expresses positively and negatively,
click here.
For additional Growth Online thoughts on
the relationship between our attitudes and achievement, click
here.
