Building Attitude Awareness.

The First Step to Building Attitude
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– By Jeffrey Gitomer

Got attitude? "YES!" You all scream. A positive one? "YES!" You all scream.

Wanna bet?

I'll bet every one of you "thinks" you have a positive attitude, and the same amount of you have NEVËR taken a course in it.

Let's go a bit deeper. How much of your success is dependent on your positive attitude? The answer is somewhere between "lots" and "all."

So 80-100% of your success is dependent on your positive attitude, yet you've had no formal training. OK, suppose you needed surgery and I recommend a surgeon with no formal training, but "thinks" he can do a great job. Get it?

You can start by reading and studying these four books:

1. Think and Grow Rich -- Napoleon Hill

2. How to Wïn Friends and Influence People -- Dale Carnegie

3. How to Stop Worrying and Start Living -- Dale Carnegie

4. The Power of Positive Thinking -- Norman Vincent Peale

Me personally? I read two pages from these books every day. I've been doing attitude-reading for fifteen minutes a day for thirty years. I don't know if it's working yet. I'm going to do it another thirty years, and then that's it, I'm going to quit.

If you want wealth, first build a wealth of knowledge.

I also recommend that you enroll in the nearest Dale Carnegie program. Carnegie courses are timeless and will provide a great attitude foundation.

But I know you. You want it NÖW and you want it FRËE. OK, hëre are 20.5 attitude gems I've picked up along the way that I recommend you read, cut-out, copy, share with others, post on your wall, and study in a way that you implement into your "thought and expression" process. They are not in "course" format. They are mental snacks to chew on and digest.

1. Change your input to change your attitude. If you seek a positive mind, you MUST expose yourself to positive information and hang around positive people. If you want to achieve "positive" you have to surround yourself with it and live it.

2. You were born to wïn -- but you must plan to wïn, prepare to wïn, then you can expect to wïn (a famous Zig Ziglar quote).

3. The will to wïn is nothing without the will to prepare to wïn (Vince Lombardi, famous coach).

4. You will get whatever you want if you help enough people get whatever they want (a quote that many claim to have said -- it doesn't matter who said it -- just live it).

5. Make every day as productive as the day before you go on vacation. That's a day that EVERYTHING gets done.

6. Ignore people who tell you "you can't" (except your boss). People will try to rain on your parade because they have no parade of their own.

7. If you have nothing nice to say about someone, say nothing (a famous quote said by your mother).

8. Don't dwell on (whine about) the problem; concentrate on the solution. Resolve how you can, not lament why you can't.

9. Forgive and go forward. Grudge BLOCKS positive. Until you clear the past you are destined to repeat it.

10. Self-talk equals self-performänce. Look at any athlete – self-talk is a crucial part of their expected positive performänce.

11. What is the picture you have of yourself? That is what you will become. Spend 15 minutes a day focusing on a positive picture.

12. You will hear the word no 116,000 times in your lifetïme. Try converting just 1,000 of them to a "yes," and the world is your oyster.

13. What you do off the job determines what you are likely to do on the job. Uh oh.

14. Strengthen your weaknesses and strengthen your strengths at the same time. Combine positive with negative for better personal development results.

15. Failure is an event, not a person. Think of failure as "it," not "me."

16. It's not what happens to you. It's what you do with what happens to you. Attitude manifests itself in your RESPONSE to events.

17. Every obstacle presents an opportunïty. If you're looking for it. "Revel" and "lament" are choices. Your choices.

18. Hard work makes luck. Nothing affects positive circumstance and results more than hard work.

19. How many of your problems are cured with 10 grand? A question my dad once asked me as I lamented my problems. If monëy makes your problem go away, attitude makes them go away as well.

20. It's not what you say; it's how you say it. The tone of your verbiage determines the atmosphere of your environment.

20.5. Resign your position as general manager of the universe. Don't try to solve (butt into) other people's problems, until YOU are problem-frëe.

And then there are the "Attitude Aha's." Many (many) years ago I was riding down the road listening to a tape by Earl Nightingale (one of the founding fathers of personal development). On tape 4 of his legendary, but unavailable, series, "Direct Line," the topic was enthusiasm.

"Enthusiasm," Earl said, "Comes from the Greek 'entheos' meaning the God within."

AHA! All of a sudden all the other quotes and advice made sense. The strength of self-belief is within your own spirit, if you hunger for the feeling.

And these words are food for yours.

Frëe GitBit. Want to start taking Attitude Actions? I have compiled a list of physical and mental actions you can take to immediately make your attitude better. Go to http://www.gitomer.com -- register if you're a first-time user, and enter the words ATTITUDE ACTIONS in the GitBit box.

About the Author:

Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Säles Bible, and Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless. President of Charlotte-based Buy Gitomer, he gives seminars, runs annual säles meetings, and conducts training programs on selling and customer service. He can be reached at 704/333-1112 or e-mail to salesman@gitomer.com

© 2001 All Rights Reserved -- Don't even think about reproducing this document without written permission from Jeffrey H. Gitomer and Buy Gitomer. 704/333-1112