Your Attitude!

 

The man was selling balloons at sea shore.  He had all colors of balloons: red, green, yellow and many more.  Whenever his business went down he used to fill hydrogen in one or two balloons and release it to the sky.  When children saw it going up, they all wanted to by one.  Thus his sales go up once again.

 

A boy used to see this balloon seller every day.  He wanted to ask him a very important question.

 

He appeared in front of the seller and asked. “I see you release balloons everyday.  I see you release green, red, and many other color balloons to the sky.  If you release a black balloon, would that also fly?”

                                                                                                                             

Moved by the little boy’s concern, the balloon seller replied with empathy.  “Son, it is not the color of the balloon, it is what is inside that keeps balloon go up!”

 

Do not you think the same thing applies to our life also?  Yes, it is what is inside that counts.  And what is inside of us that makes us go up is our ATTITUDE!

 

 

“The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their ATTITUDE of mind” William James of Harvard University.

 

 

TQP (Total Quality People)

The training programs like customer service, selling skills, and strategic planning will not work effectively without right foundation T Q P.

 

This Total Quality People are people with character, integrity, good values, and a positive attitude.  We do need all the programs, I agree.  But they will work more effectively when we have the right foundation – T Q P.  If your smile to a customer is not from your heart, the smile would be irritating to the customer.  Keep in your mind that smile comes easier when accompanied by a desire to serve.

 

When employee says, “I can’t do it,” there are two possible meanings.  Either he doesn’t know how to do it, or simply he doesn’t want to do it. If he means ‘he doesn’t know how to’, it is a technical training issue.  But if he means ‘he does not want to’, it should be an attitude issue (he just doesn’t care!), or may be a value issue (he doesn’t believe that he can do it).

 

Great buildings have great foundation too.  Have you ever thought how long it has taken to set foundation to the ‘Burj Dubai’? (Dubai Tower is the tallest building in the world by the end of 2008.  Just like a great building stands on a strong foundation, so does success.  The foundation of success is ATTITUDE!

 

Someone once said to Blaise Pascal, the French philosopher:

“If I had your brains, I would be a better person”

Pascal replied: “Be a better person first and you will have my brains.”

 

The change within us should be holistic.  The whole person goes to work and returns to home.  We take family problems to work and work problems to the family – our stress level goes up and our productivity comes down.  Similarly, work problems too have an impact not only on our family but on every aspect of our lives also. Personal, profession, and social problems impact each other.

                       

 

ATTITUDE CONTRIBUTE TO SUCCESS

 

A study at Harvard University found that when a person gets a job or a promotion, 85% of the time it is because of his ATTITUDE, and only 15% of the time because of intelligence and knowledge of specific facts and figures.  We will be surprised to know that almost 100% education expenses go to teach facts and figures, which account for only 15% of success in life.

 

ATTITUDE applies to every sphere of life, including one’s personal and professional life.  Can an executive, a sales person, a teacher, a student, parents, employer, or employees be good in their roles without a good ATTITUDE?   The foundation of success, regardless of your chosen field, is ATTITUDE.

 

Being ATTITUDE such a critical factor in success we should examine our attitude towards life and ask how our attitude will affect our goals.

 

1.  When our attitude is right, we realize that we are walking on opportunities under our feet.  We don’t have to go anywhere; all we need to do is recognize it.

 

2.   The other side of the river always seems greener all over the world!

 

3.   When we are eying the other side, others are eying on our side too.  They might be happy to exchange opportunity.

 

4.   If we don’t know how to recognize opportunity, we complain of noise when it knocks at our door.

 

5.   People with negative attitude recognize opportunity only when it is leaving rather than when it is coming, and lament later!

 

6.   Opportunity knocks only once.  The next knock may be better or worse, but never the same one. So, it is too crucial to make the right decision at the right time.

 

7.    A right decision at the wrong time, a wrong decision at the right time, both becomes wrong decision!

 

 

 

THE IMPORTANCE OF THE ATTITUDE TO ORGANIZATIONS.

 

Why some individuals, companies, or countries are more successful than others?  It is not a BIG secret.  They are successful because they think and act more effectively.  They are more practical.  They do so by investing in their most valuable asset – people!  The executives at major corporations want to change only one thing in their organizations - the attitude of people (workers) in their company.

 

With better attitudes people would be better team players, cut back on waste and become more loyal.  Generally, their company would be a great place to work in.  Human resource is the most valuable asset of any business, more valuable than capital or equipment.  When human resource becomes worst resource, people can be biggest liability to the company.

 

“Winners do not do different things.  They do things differently.” Shiv Khera

 

If you think about something at six o'clock in the morning and then in twelve o'clock in the noon and then again in the bed before you sleep, you get different answers.  Don't take much more time to think over a tiny matter.  Be confident before you take your first decision!

 

FACTORS THAT DETERMINES OUR ATTITUDE

 

Are we born with attitudes or do we develop them as we mature?  What are the factors that form our attitudes?  If you have a negative outlook on life because your environment, can we change our attitude? 

 

Most of our attitudes were shaped during our formative years.  Still there are three factors that largely determine our attitude formation.

 

1.Environment.

 

2.Experience.

 

3.Education.

 

Environment

 

Environment consists of the following things:

 

·                     Home   :  Positive or Negative Influences

 

·                     School  : Peer Pressure

 

·                     Work    : Supportive or Over-critical Supervisor

 

·                     Media   : Television, Newspapers, Magazines & Movies

 

·                     Cultural Background

 

·                     Traditions & Beliefs

 

·                     Social Environment

 

·                     Political Environment.

 

 

All of these environments create a culture.  In a positive environment, a marginal performer's output goes up.  In a negative environment, a good performer's output goes down.  Culture in any place always goes from the top down.  In corrupt environment, an honest person has a tough time, whereas in an honest environment the corrupt one has a tough time.  In societies where lawlessness becomes the law, honest citizens become cheats, crooks and dacoits.

 

Take your own time to evaluate how the environment that you are in affects you, and the one you create affects others. 

 

 

WHY DO NOT WE CHANGE?

 

Human nature generally resists change.  Change is uncomfortable.  Same like the Charles Dickens' prisoner, we don’t want to be free from the dungeon, from the chains, and from the darkness.  The negative attitude people have fewer decisions to make, their freedom is restricted, their life is restricted, and their success at work will be limited.

 

Believe me! Working to build a positive attitude will be worth enduring the temporary stress and uncertainty of change.

 

WHO IS EDUCATED?

 

"First, those who manage well the circumstances which they encounter day by day; and those who can judge situations appropriately as they arise and rarely miss the suitable course of action.

 

Next, those who are honorable in their dealings with all men, bearing easily what is unpleasant or offensive in others and being as reasonable with their associates as is humanly possible.

 

Furthermore, those who hold their pleasures always under control and are not unduly overcome by their misfortunes, bearing up under them bravely and in a manner worthy of our common nature. 

 

Most important of all those who are not spoiled by their successes who do not desert their true selves, but hold their ground steadfastly as wise and sober-minded men, rejoicing no more in the good things that have come to them through chance than in those which through their own nature and intelligence are theirs since birth. 

 

Those who have a character which is in accord, not with one of these think but with all of them these are educated _ possessed of all the virtues."  Socrates (470-399 BC.)

 

"Universities are turning out highly skilled barbarians because we don’t provide a framework of values to young people, who more and more are searching for it". Steven Muller, President, Johns Hopkins University.

 

"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Derek Bok

 

"The first duty of a university is to teach wisdom, not trade; character, not technician." Winston Churchill.

 

"Being ignorant is not so much a shame as being unwilling to learn to do things the right way." Benjamin Franklin.