Eric’s Sunday Sermon; Attitude Adjustment Time

Does your attitude need an adjustment? Adjustments are often real hard to do. Some would call Attitude adjustments growing. I try to start every day with an attitude adjustment. Wake up with a bad attitude? Perhaps we all do from time to time. And that adjustment at the end of the day is critical. Let us check into the wonderful world of possibilities if we simply take the time to do an attitude adjustment.

I can’t.

This is so frequent it is an obnoxious broken record. It is a dirty word in our home. The concept alone has caused the greatest losses of the greatest works though out all humanity time and place. Yes, because works never were started. Last Thursday when I said to myself “I can’t” did I just blow the opportunity to create the best writing piece ever? Clearly we will never know and that is a shame.

So the worst thing about a bad attitude could really be what does not occur, because of it. Is it possible that the main reason for relationship breakdowns is “I can’t”? The greatest losses in businesses are not failures, they are the result of the attitude of “I can’t”. Just assume that after the 100^th failure Edison just threw up his hands and said “I can’t”. But each time he adjusted not just technique and experiment but he adjusted his attitude to “well that doesn’t work I get to try a new way.” Real or imagined the can’t factor can tear down a person or whole nation in the time it takes to paint a house. We live in a time of “you can’t”, right or wrong it is destroying an economy. The perspective of government at the moment should be “we can’t stop you”.

That brings us to the opposite value of a notion. “I can’t” is not always bad. I can’t let that stop me is real good. It is not the words but the attitude applied to the words that make the difference. Even as simple as that concept changes to the good with a furtive attitude adjustment. The adjustment from “I think I can” to “I know I can” can create the lightbulb. What other energy can it harness and put to good use?

Obsessive compulsive disorder is real. What they will not let us in on is the secret that like bi-polar we all have it, albeit hopefully to a manageable lesser degree. But go ahead and have them full blown. Just take a pill and you may get better. Change your attitude about them and you will get better. One whole heck of a lot easier said than done.

Approaching the illness.

Let us call the illness a “dis-ease”. Let us assume I have both of them and that the most common manifestations are “I can’t”. I can’t stop and I can’t do it. Same coin just different sides of it. But just change it around. Instead of I can’t stop doing the behavior we say I can’t do the behavior. And in our depression we stop saying I just can’t and start saying I just cannot, not do it.

Yes I know this is all mumbo jumbo psycho-babble about “Self-Talk”. Well genius that is what we are talking about. Attitude is strictly an inside job. Now I do not know what comes first as in chicken or egg here. Does the attitude lead the negative inside talk or does the inside negative talk make the attitude? Probably one simply compounding the other. But we do know that adjusting that negative personal speech to a positive one, even without feeling it, works better than that pill at alleviating the symptoms.

Now let us assume I am healthy and I have my shots like a good boy. But I still get the flu. One thing is known that even though I get it, if I gave my body the latitude of the shot the effects of the flu will be lessoned. Now my positive newly adjusted attitude cannot really cure the flu, but as we all know I can still work from home and feel no more miserable than if I just binged watched TV and said I can’t do it. How about I just say, “I cannot let myself suffer and binge watch”? OK, I am going to suffer but I can still review that paperwork I have put off. Or maybe like the OCD above we can even get rid of the “suffering” and just notice the yucky and keep moving.

Of course we agree 90% of the above is all in adjusting our attitude. And I would suggest that the best of all attitudes is the attitude of gratitude. Better alive and dealing with cancer than the alternative.

There is an area that spans three notions. They all have to deal with emotions. My wife said “that is a nice haircut, I can tell you did it yourself”. Now do I care about that comment, do I love that comment or do I hate that comment? That attitude does not require knowing why she made it. Many would call it a “backhanded” compliment. Personally my attitude went to hate, I adjusted and self-talked into I don’t care but I still did, then I went into loving it as funny, showing she cared and just a touch of admiration and appreciation that I saved money on a haircut ;-) My young son helped correct it a bit, as in “I missed a spot”. And of course my wife said it looked “better”. And there my brain went into that cycle again. If you deny you do this you have a liar for your self-talker.

Love, Hate and Apathy

Really all just attitudes. Sometimes I like to try and be in them. It is really hard. My brain and my heart want to justify, create and dictate attitude. Well once again we see that those two can be adjusted. Maybe I look to the chore. I have got to paint the hallway. I just can’t do it today. Maybe I will give a dang tomorrow.

Perhaps I should forget about the chore in my inside brain rattling and look strictly to my attitude and maybe make some adjustment. “This is a great day, I am so happy to be alive and have a home.” This way no matter a problem I do not suffer it. Go ahead and call that Pollyanic and go into your ocd and bi-polar over some matter. Or better do some apathy and hate so that you can justify your negative attitude toward life in general. And let us not forget that if we paint that hallway instead of watching a show and heaven forbid the nightly news, we can allow that accomplishment to change our attitude. Especially when my wife comments that it is just great for a dark hallway guests never use. Lol.

(Truly my wife loves to make such comments and then scamper away laughing at her own wit. I have to admit, it cracks me up)

So the most important attitude is the one of love. You simply cannot go around with a heart filled with love and have a bad attitude. Love is a good attitude. We can slow down and tell ourselves to love. Love you and love me and love another day breathing. So when the boss man threatens to fire you, I suggest you not smile and give him a hug. But in your adjusted attitude you can imagine it.