Hello everybody,
ever felt pleased when someone told you ‘I love your attitude’? I did, absolutely. However, I did not really know what my ‘Attitude’ exactly is. So, I thought I will need to find out. Here is what I found:
What is Attitude?
A Definition of ‘Attitude’ by Business Dictionary: “A predisposition or a tendency to respond positively or negatively towards a certain idea, object, person, or situation. Attitude influences an individual’s choice of action, and responses to challenges, incentives, and rewards (together called stimuli). Four major components of attitude are (1) Affective: emotions or feelings. (2) Cognitive: belief or opinions held consciously. (3) Conative: inclination for action. (4) Evaluative: positive or negative response to stimuli.”
OK, so, this is a lot … let’s get a bit more into this.
Eagly and Chaiken (1993, 1) defined attitude as “..a psychological tendency that is expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favour or disfavour”. This means when a certain event is happening you will react (think, feel, behave) in a certain way. This reaction or more the way HOW you are going to react is influenced by a more positive or slightly negative favour of reaction.
OK, so let’s look into the reactions (think, feel, behave) into a bit more detail with some examples:
Thinking: This is the cognitive component, i.e. what we believe and / or know about a certain event.
Example: I think elevators are dangerous, because the space is limited inside an elevator, it goes up to incredible heights and I have to trust in mechanics and technology.
Feeling: This is the affective component, i.e. the feelings and / or emotions we have about a certain event.
Example: I feel anxious when I have to use an elevator.
Behaving: This is the behavioral (or conative) component, i.e. the way we behave or act.
Example: I’d rather choose the stairs or I get sweaty hands and feel anxious when I have to use an elevator.
Why does Attitude matter?
To answer this question I want to quote a page I just found and, which I think brings the whole thing to the point. Here we go:
“A Good Attitude Is The Mother Of Success. Your attitude determines how you’ll be in a future situation, independent of the circumstances that present themselves. If you have a “go-getter”, positive attitude at work, then you’ve decided before circumstances present themselves that you’re going to come out on top. This powerfully shapes how you encounter different situations. The locus of control is within you, not your environment. You’ve predetermined the outcome even before the game has begun.” (For more check out: http://www.positive-thinking-principles.com/what-is-attitude.html)
Having an internal Locus of Control means you believe to be responsible for your actions and the outcomes of those. Things do not happen to you or are results of luck or destiny (this would be an external Locus of Control) but you make the things happen! A rule of thumb indicates ‘Your success depends 10% on what happens to you and 90% on how you react’.
With this been said – let’s take action and let’s make things happen!
P.S. I DON’T hate elevators 