Seven Keys to Having a Positive Mental Attitude or... Everyone Doesn’t Like Broccoli

By Nancy Friedman

There’s an old joke about a little girl who always had such a great attitude. She was always so happy and upbeat. Her brother was just the opposite. One holiday, just to aggravate her and test her, her mean brother gave her a box filled with horse manure. He was tired of his sister always having such a positive attitude. He thought surely this would “fix” her. Christmas day, when she opened the box and saw the manure she exclaimed, "Whoopee...where’s the pony?"

Why do some people have such a great attitude and others a negative one? Well, we wondered the same thing; and through our research, we found seven “keys” that those with a positive mental attitude all share. See how you rate.

KEY #1: Choose your attitude in advance: When you wake up, you have a choice. You can be in a good mood or a bad mood. You also choose your attitude. You can wake up and mutter to yourself "this is gonna be a cruddy day" or you can tell yourself "this is gonna be a great day!" That immediate choice is the start of a great attitude. You’ve already decided it’s going to be a good one.

KEY #2: Visualize success: What this means is picture yourself having a successful day. Runners in the Boston Marathon picture themselves crossing the finish line – maybe not in first place, but still finishing the 26-mile race. Self-visualization is a key factor in having a positive mental attitude. Will it work 100% of the time? I wish it would. However, by visualizing your success, you’ll be able to have a better handle on what does happen. And a better chance of making it happen.

Key #3: Demonstrate humor, energy, and enthusiasm: We call these three items the MAGIC ingredients. Because without each one, creating a positive mental attitude will be very difficult. First, HUMOR. There is normally humor in every situation. Finding it is the KEY. Sometimes you’ll need to stretch and dig a little deeper to find the humor in a situation. But once you do, you’ll feel so much better. The ENERGY we talk about is important because without some “energy” in your attitude, you’ll be dragging along behind everyone. Energy is closely related to the third ingredient...and that is ENTHUSIASM. My father used to tell me "Nancy, enthusiasm is contagious; let’s start an epidemic."

KEY #4: Resist negative influences: It’s a fact. When we have a negative experience with a company, we’ll tell more people about it than if we have a good experience with the same company. And many times, when you hear that someplace wasn’t very good, you’ll believe the person who told you and choose not to do business with that company. However, you may only be hearing half the story. Check things out for yourself. Especially if the negativity involves a person you work with or know. I bet we’ve all heard negative things about someone we didn’t know and then when we had the opportunity to meet them ourselves, we find that they’re not as bad as someone had alluded to. In fact they might be nice. But you need to be the judge. Take negativity out of your life. Steer clear of those who drag you down and say negative things all the time. Being around other positive people is a good start.

KEY #5: Be a WHATEVER-IT-TAKES person: This "KEY" means be a problem solver. Life is going to put obstacles in front of all of us. How we go around those obstacles is the KEY factor. There’s normally a good answer to every problem put in front of us. Dale Carnegie said it best. Ask yourself, "What is the worst thing that can happen here?" And move up from that.

KEY #6: Embrace change...expect it and accept it: Some people are very good at handling change...and some resist it a lot. We had a fun saying at our house – I can still hear my father saying it: "Nancy, the next time you change your mind...get a good one." The major KEY to handling CHANGE is to accept it. Deal with it. In most cases there’s little we can do to stop it.

Key #7: Be grateful for what you have: I’m not sure this KEY needs to be explained. So many people have so much. And yet those same people are often the ones that constantly complain. Why wait for some life altering experience to be grateful for all you have? Be grateful, NOW...before something bad happens and makes you aware.

We know there are more KEYS to having a Positive Mental Attitude, but these are the first seven. Get these down “pat” and you’ll find the rest falls into place.

Nancy Friedman is president of Telephone Doctor®, an international customer service training company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, specializing in customer service and telephone skills. She is a KEYNOTE speaker at association conferences and corporate gatherings and is the author of four best selling books. Call 314-291-1012 for more information or visit the website at www.telephonedoctor.com. Published in Networking Today, June 2005.