The attitude factor

Welcome to today's issue of The Daily Dose of Motivational Medicine. The e-zine of Motivateme: Breaking the Procrastination Habit. http://www.motivateme.info. Have you signed up for your daily dose yet?
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The Attitude Factor
 
“Every day is irreplaceable, so don’t ruin yours by allowing the negative moods of other to pull you into their frame of mind”
Anonymous
 
If procrastination is a choice, so is our attitude. We can choose to be happy, or we can choose to be sad, miserable, and grumpy. We can choose to allow other people to influence us in a positive way, or we can allow other people’s actions and reactions to influence us negatively. And most of the time, we allow the negative to have a more and lasting impact on our day-to-day lives.
 
Have you noticed that when you have had a “bad day”, or someone has upset you, you spend time and energy going back over the conversation? What is interesting is that when this happens our bodies react in the same way as if we were going through the experience in real-time, all over again. Your body will secrete the same levels of hormones and adrenalin, your heart will pound, your blood pressure will rise. Blood may rush to the skin, so that you appear flushed. Imagine driving home after a particulary bad day, when we get to where we are going, we allow the person who annoyed us to influence the interactions we have with other people.
“How are you?” they ask.
“Well, you ought to hear what so and so did to me today.”
 
You are so worked up that the person who asked the question is probably convinced that the person who caused the pain and the angst has arrived with you.
 
The interesting point is that our brains cannot distinguish real from imaginary events. Or even current events from past ones.
 
Take the movie industry as a prime example. We know that what is being portrayed on the screen is fictional. We know that people haven’t really been blown up, mangled or left their spouses for another woman. We laugh, we cry, we cringe with horror and embarrassment. But we can watch the same movie again and again, and our bodies will react in the same way – why? Because our brains cannot tell real events from imagined ones.
 
Does this mean I am advocating that you only watch interesting movies that do not upset you? Not at all, all I am asking you to be aware of, the movie industry along with the books, journals and papers that you read, and the people that you interact with on a daily basis, all have an impact on you. You can allow things to affect you positively, or you can let things affect you in a negative way. Whilst the choice may be yours, it is alos worth remembering that your mind plays a huge part in the decisions that you make and the way that you respond.
 
So whilst those people around us may make our lives interesting, they do not decide how we should feel, we do. They cannot dictate our emotions; only we can decide how we respond to them. Unfortunately, we allow the negative, the whining, the complaining, and moaning to affect us more deeply than the happy, positive and motivated people we occasionally meet.
 
How do you feel after spending time with people who are always whingeing and complaining? Do you feel happy and ready to tackle the next big thing on your mental to do list? Or do you feel like someone has stuck a great big pin into the balloon you are holding and it is slowly deflating. Well that balloon is you.
 
Now, how do you feel after spending time with positive, motivated people? Do you leave them feeling like you are a failure because you are not as successful as they are? Or do you feel like you can go away and do whatever you want to do knowing that you can never fail?
 
So it is with every interaction that you make on a daily basis. Do you get to the end of the day feeling flat and lifeless or do you arrive home, full and buoyed up ready to tackle the next item on your to-do list?
 
Find a clean sheet of paper, or page in a notebook (preferably one that only you use) and complete this task. It is up to you whether or not you use real names or imaginary ones, or devise a special code if you have to. Now be honest – ask yourself the following question. Are the interactions you have with them – Positive, Negative or Neutral? Neutral is an interesting emotional state, as sometimes we can be emotionally flat, neither positive nor negative. I’m sure you have had days like that. I know I have.
 
Name                      Positive                       Negative                           Neutral
                              
                                                 
                            
Once you have completed this task, there is one more name you need to add to your list (assuming you haven’t already added it), and that is your own name.
Are you a positive kind of person, or are you predominantly negative about your life and your circumstances? If I were asked to complete this task today I would say that I am a positive kind of person. The interactions that I have had with people have been positive. There was lots of laughter, and I achieved several items on my task list.
 
How about you? What was your day like? How would other people rate you on this very personal scale?
 
Now ask yourself - What can I do tomorrow that will improve my position on this personal scale?
 
If the attitude that we have at any given moment, determines how much we achieve during a given period of time, is there anything we can we do to change things?
Can you get around more positive people? Can you spend less time with those people who have a negative outlook on life?
 
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