A bad attitude can ruin your day, whereas a good attitude can shift your entire perspective. A bad attitude can negatively affect your health, whereas a good attitude will help you stay healthy. Our attitude is impactful, for the good or the bad. We may not be able to choose our circumstances every time, but the good news is we can choose our attitude every day.

What is Attitude?

It’s simply a positive, negative, or mixed reaction to people, an object, or an idea. So, it is a reaction. The attitude formation process is often super quick or automated, like a reflex. Do you know that our attitude reveals much about us and our personality? First, dispositional attitudes reveal whether we like or dislike things in general. Negative-attitude people dislike many more things than positive-attitude people. Second, our attitude reveals us as individuals in how quickly or intense we react to a situation or person.

Why don’t we choose a good attitude every day?

For some, having a negative mindset is a habit and a learned pattern. You just can’t help yourself. The sky is always grey; no matter how well everything goes, you’ll always find something to nag about. Others go with the flow and have mood shifts depending on what comes their way. You have a good attitude until… the dog eats your new shoes, you read that stupid comment on your post, or your co-worker leaves you hanging. But did you know that we have a choice? Why can we choose our attitudes? Because attitudes are formed! It may be time to reset your default setting and create new, healthy attitudes.

Form internal attitudes.

“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.  Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:1-2). Set your mind on the things above. This requires work of your mind. The formation of a good attitude begins with new thinking. Watch out that your emotions won’t get in the way.

Form external attitudes.

“Let all that you do be done with love” (1 Corinthians 16:14). Strengthen your internal attitude with your actions. The theory of planned behavior is that attitudes toward a specific behavior combine with subjective norms and perceived control to influence a person’s action. Which means that our attitudes influence our behavior through a process of deliberate decision-making.

Attitude is everything and you have the choice! Let today be a good day.

References

Kassin S. M. Fein S. & Markus H. R. (2020). Social psychology (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.

New King James Version. (2017). Thomas Nelson. (Original work published 1982)