Attitude, Aptitude and Success in Life

Attitude, rather than aptitude is the main influence toward making a successful life.

Although lack of knowledge or skill in a specific area can be rectified by applying yourself to learning the requisite information, changing your attitude, and the language that projects your attitude can be more difficult..

There are those who carry a bad attitude with them anywhere and everywhere, if it’s personal problems and a tumultuous life that causes the negativity, then some empathy and understanding may go a long way toward alleviating the negativity.

But ingrained bad attitudes fester, they’re contagious, ugly and difficult to tolerate, especially in the workplace.

A person with a negative attitude is usually seen as someone who is easily upset or quick to anger, which affects both the quantity and quality of their work performance.

Conversely, those with a positive attitude are usually difficult to upset; they are bright and cheerful which manifests itself in their behavior. They are active, productive and generally improve the mood of those around them.

The attitude of those around us can be a powerful force for good or bad. Use the group dynamic power of your colleagues' influence to feed your sense of optimism. Actively look for the company of people who have a positive, sunny disposition and let yourself become influenced by their optimism.

Victor Frankl, a neurologist and psychiatrist was a prisoner in a Nazi concentration camp. He lost his family before the war ended. What he said in his book “Man’s Search for Meaning” touches a cord.

“Everything can be taken from a person but one thing: the last human freedom to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances…”

In order to obtain a measure of peace in this life, the foundation of your quest will be your attitude.

Attitude covers a person’s view and outlook on the world. Attitude embodies a person’s thought process and how they relate to things while behavior is attitude in action.

In other words, your dominant mental disposition is what brings together ‘who you are’ with ‘what you do.'

1. Expectations

2. Adaptability

3. Confidence

4. Appreciation

Whatever your career may be, skills and knowledge play an important role and while there are many people with said knowledge and skill, success requires that you know what you are doing and deliver what you promise.

The fact therefore is that your attitude will be what determines your level of success and happiness in your life, and although attitude has many facets we will deal with its main components.

Attitude can be broken down into its four major components:

Expectations – do you expect to succeed or to fail? What you believe you do or do not deserve is a reflection of your own self worth. Low expectations give you mediocre results as you unconsciously make choices that limit your ability to succeed.

Adaptability - ability to adapt to changing circumstances and maintain a positive outlook. If your perspective on life is that it’s ever changing, you will expect change and look forward to the adventure. The reverse attitude of wanting things to stay the same as change represents pain and you will rather try to avoid change.

Confidence – gives you a distinct edge in life. While lack of confidence manifests in everything, you do and say. If it is balanced with a reasonable ‘can do” approach, the doors of opportunity will open for you to walk through.

Appreciation – is a magnetic quality and the gratitude enables you to build rapport with almost anyone. It’s not about flattery, it is a reflection of you, your point of view, and vital in making positive changes in your reality.

Expressing appreciation to others whenever someone shows you, a little consideration encourages others to continue. Even though you may not have everything you want, you have so much when compared to the billions who would be ecstatic to have what you have.

The more you focus on gratitude for what you have, the more you will appreciate your life and the happier you will be.

Focusing on the positive and making it a habit will increase your level of appreciation. As you find more and more reasons to feel gratitude for each aspect of your life, you become a magnet for positive energy.

Attitude is in fact everything, and nothing else compares to the positive impact it can have on your quality of life and degree of success.

The key to altering your behavior is consistency. Trying to make changes to your world, without attending to the above areas will only provide you with frustration and limited results, instead of a great positive impact and a life transformed.

Observe experts

Just as children learn; the best way to learn a new life skill such as a positive attitude is to observe those who are already proficient in the skill.

Challenge yourself by asking:

· What do they say?

· How do they express it?

· How do they act?

· How is their behavior different from your way of expressing yourself or acting?

· Are there particular behaviours they consistently use that would be easy to adopt?

· What mental changes will you need if you want to be more competent or creative?

· What specific changes in your attitude are required in order to support such flexibility?

Remember that mental flexibility raises your ceiling of limitations, both your own and those of which you are unaware. It is, however, dependent on both your emotional resilience and your willingness to acknowledge the power of your thoughts.

Hesitation, doubt or fear, can prevent you for experimenting. Trying different options to solve a problem can lead to exciting discoveries.

Asking ‘what would happen if,' is an approach used by children that we lose as adults, as our tendency to be risk aversive tightens its grip. Asking yourself a ‘what if’ question every day, will help new and better habits to form, which can only be mastered by practice.