Like I’d always say, your attitude is a product of your upbringing. Who you are today; the total sum of your behavior, good, bad, average and many of your habits are a product of your upbringing. You were born with a blank mindset. No bias, no subjectivity, no opinions, no views, no judgments, no controversies. You were born with a plain and perfect mindset. Your environment and those that raised you however made impressions on you and began to set your mindset, through principles, reward and punishment, cultures, traditions, values and social pressure. Attitudes are not automatic, attitudes are not formed or shaped in a vacuum; your attitude today is a product of influence. You act and react today based on all influencing factors including friends, experiences, exposures, education and encounters. Many today exhibit an extreme influence of academic knowledge, some keep acting out what theyve seen on TV or heard on radio. Many today have formed attitudes by imitating people they love, admire or have observed for a long while. Our attitude generally today is a product of influence. Truth is the quality of our social life as people is a collective expression and result of our collective attitude. The way your home is, the way your team is, the way your company or organization is, is a collective result of your collective attitude to work, other people and life. Every company in reality is about the people. It’s not the logo, the nature of business, the location of the business or anything different from the behavior, mindset and character of the people. Many successful companies today; admired by rivals and coveted by employment applicants is purely about how the people have represented the company to the public. In terms of reputation, equity, value and respect, companies are not equal even if they operate within the same industry. Organizations don’t make themselves, people make organizations and the attitude of the workforce of any organization determines the brand equity, the respect and reputation of that enterprise. How people perceive an organization is directly related to how they perceive the workforce of the organization. Many of us today look at our lives and circumstances and desire to see improvements and great changes. Today many Nigerians keep crying, clamoring and advocating for change and improvement in our socio- economic life. We keep speaking and advocating as though this change we seek is something that can be purchased off the shelf somewhere. The fact is, the change we all desire to see, starts from our resolve as individuals to change as well. Many of us want change but we don’t want to change. We want to remain ourselves; weak, laid- back, lackadaisical, corrupt and undisciplined, yet expect a prosperous, respected and great country, dear friend, change can never come that way. We ought to be the change we long to see in our work environment and society in general. My dear friend, I believe you know what your weaknesses are and many times you would have made attempts to change, especially some very destructive and retrogressive habits but find it rather difficult. A habit or attitude at times can be very difficult to drop or unlearn if all the influencing factors are still within and around you. I always say, as easy as it is to learn a bad habit is as easy as it is to drop if you take the right steps. To illustrate, for a non- drinker and a non-smoker, it’s just a matter of time for such a one to probably begin to drink and smoke if he decides to go clubbing regularly with drinkers and smokers. His association and location makes it very easy to pick up such a habit, it’s just a matter of time. One of the key decisions that would guarantee a very happy and successful year is to drop unproductive and dangerous habits and replace with constructive and value creating habits. You must resolve and make up your mind that this year, you’re winning, you’re breaking free, you’re overcoming those bad habits that have slowed you down and even stagnated you for years. You must be willing to take on the change-challenge and ensure you indeed change at the end of the day. Here are five things you can do that will help you accomplish that desire to change your attitude or habits this year, they are as follows: 1.Change your environment. Truth is many of us have been held back and slowed down by our environment. Where you live and where you work have actually boxed you into a particular pattern of thinking and perception. The way you see life and the value you place on so many things is a product of your environment. In this life, you can hardly appreciate, value, or pursue what you can’t see. You can’t dream or see beyond your exposure. For some of us, no matter how hard you work or how much you know there are some kind of salaries and benefits you can never enjoy because of the size and nature of your organization. Less hardworking people and less knowledgeable people may earn double of your income because of the environment of their employment. Truth is where you work can limit your income and quality of life irrespective of your hard- work and knowledge. Where you live can also affect the kind of vision, dreams and desires you’ll have. It can affect you future. For example, there are some areas in Lagos where you’ll live and your retirement plan would be fish farming and poultry, while there are some other areas you’ll live in this same Lagos and your retirement plan would be importation and real estate. Your environment can shape your vision and your future; it’s less about the size of the house, it’s about the location of the building. 2. Change who and what you listen to. Words are very powerful, you actually become what you listen to everyday. If a lie is well put together and repeatedly told, with time it will appear like the truth. Most of us today actually act and react based on the total sum of information we’weve been exposed to all lifelong. Our fears, suspicions, attitude to risk, confidence, passion, power, expectations, relationships and results are produced by information. May I say to you that any information youve received and have applied and did not produce the expected result is actually a lie or a half-truth. The efficacy of any information is in its ability to produce results. Many of us sadly keep taking in lies and half-truths from so called religious leaders and motivational speakers without back checking and testing the truths. It’s yet to produce any result but we keep believing because it’s just convenient for us to believe them; it’s appealing to our comfort zone. If you want great results this year change who and what you listen to, test for truths and discard lies and half-truths. 3.Thirdly, enhance your self- image, get exposed and go after new experiences. You must resolve to learn new things to become better; you must look at you and decide to improve. You can enhance your self-image by enhancing what you know. It really baffles me the number of southern dwellers who’s never travelled to the north and northern dwellers who’s never travelled to the south. There are so many exciting and fun places to travel to within the country. You need to know more about your environment and your country by real association and interaction; not rumors and ridiculous stories. I have the privilege to have lived in the north, east and western part of this country and I’m from the middle belt; Nigeria is much more than what you read and what you’re told, discover Nigerians through interaction, get exposed, experience new places and new people, work on your opinion and perceptions, acquire true knowledge by interaction. 4.Fourthly, change your association. The friendships you keep, the people around you can raise you or disgrace you. With close friends most times come envy, jealousy, gossip, spite, evil rivalry and competition, evil plot and disdain, quarrels and enmity. Most enemies today I tell you were former close friends. If you observe you have friends who are not sincere, are jealous, compete or put you down, let them go. They are dangerous, sooner than later they will betray you. 5.Lastly but importantly, change your physical appearance. Work on your appearance; make a deliberate effort to always look good. Don’t be rough, scattered and un-attractive. People treat you with disrespect when you’re shabby in appearance. When you look good, you feel good about you, you’re happier and more confident. Make that decision to upgrade your life style and life quality this year. If you want an attitude reconstruction, you need to apply this five principles and I promise you, you’ll be a brand new person by the time this year is over. If you want to see change, you must decide to change. Don’t waste your time, just do it. Enjoy your day.
Posted on: Thu, 16 Jan 2014 05:58:56 +0000
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