Maybe you’ve heard the phrase “the skills pay the bills” before, or something similar. We think it’s a useful phrase that highlights the importance of improving yourself and making yourself valuable.
But while this is the case, many of us tend to forget that there’s more to achieving your dream than just your level of skill and competency. Your success will be determined by your mental focus and determination.
In other words, your success is determined largely by your attitude.
You might be wondering: what does attitude have to do with my overall chances of being successful? Isn’t it all about what I know, or who I know?
While nobody can deny that there will be skills you need to learn and contacts you will need to make, it’s nearly always your outlook on the world that will influence how much value you can create from these things.
Let’s take a closer look at how your attitude can change everything on your road to achieving your dreams.
The Effects of a Positive Attitude on “Work”
Let’s face it. Most of us would rather spend some time at the beach on a sunny day than be indoors working on our business. Yet the road to success is paved with hard work, so how can we make the most of it?
It can be simpler than you think. Having a positive attitude can help turn a boring task into a fun one. While not every task will be your favorite thing in the world, consider how you can frame it in your mind to make it more interesting than just another bland task.
Ask yourself better questions as you work:
What am I learning from this work that is enriching my life?
Could I make this task into a game, where I aim to improve over my previous progress?
Is there something engaging in the work that I can focus on?
How does this relate to my passions and dreams?
With enough positive focus, even the most mundane tasks will have a rhythm and energy to them that will keep you moving well past boredom. Hold a positive frequency of thought in your mind for long enough, and more of that positivity will come, attracting to you like a magnet.
With enough time, you will find yourself completely engaged in what you used to find boring or difficult.
Be Aware of Your Mood
As you go about your day, take little moments to become aware of how you are feeling. If you don’t know where you are emotionally, you can’t figure out the changes you need to make to get where you want to go.
Accept the times when you’re feeling grumpy or worn-down. We are all human. Beating up on yourself will only cause more negativity, which will then cause you to be less productive, which is the last thing you want.
Where you can, take some deep breaths and focus on gratitude. This is a powerful tool, often used in meditation, to release resistant thought and emotion on a subject.
Focus on what you have in your life, rather than what you don’t have or don’t want. This will have a compounding and powerful effect on your success, allowing you to be grateful for your life and for your dreams, even when things aren’t going your way and it hasn’t all worked out just yet.
Your Attitude is in Direct Proportion to your Overall Competency
You may know plenty of people who have an admirable amount of skill in a chosen field. But take a moment and imagine them applying their skills with a negative filter on life.
Imagine the most professional athletes or the best lawyers being angry and fearful on a constant basis, and see if they remain on top of their game in their mind.
Really, give it a go.
Imagine one of these people attempting to perform on the verge of a breakdown due to the anger they’ve been repressing for years. Imagine them trying to work through their overpowering self doubt, where they question if they’re good enough at every moment.
We all suffer from these issues at times, and that’s perfectly okay. Life can be tough.
Yet those who are the most successful in their fields tend to find ways to manage their emotions and attitude. While there are ways to manage our emotions in a destructive way, such as though alcohol or other addictive vices, we are suggesting a more positive approach to dealing with your emotions.
Those who have a good mental attitude bounce back from failure and overcome hurdles much easier. They don’t give in to doubt, but challenge it. Their attitude allows them to make the most of their skills and hard work.
It’s easy to feel discouraged when life gets in the way of your dreams, or your plans fall through. We all face these setbacks at one time or another. But it’s your reaction to these setbacks that will determine your life’s story.
Here’s a reminder to be kinder to yourself.
Everyone, no matter how perfect they seem, makes mistakes, and often. It isn’t failure, but what we learn from it that sets successful people apart from the rest.
Consider how you view the world. Write down some of the thoughts and feelings you experience on a daily basis. This will help you mark a set-point that you can then work up from.
Pick your favorite affirmations and print them on your desk so you can remind yourself of the mindset you want.
Use a vision board to help you focus for your future.
It all adds up, and soon enough you will start to feel genuine passion and joy, not only regarding your work but in your wider life as well.
Mood and Your Flow State
At the risk of repeating ourselves, it feels necessary to restate that your attitude, and therefore your mood, affects just about every facet of your success. Yet one element we haven’t touched on yet is the flow state.
Flow State is a state of being where time flows by without you being consciously aware, due to being completely absorbed in what you are doing.
Have you ever been driving a car, only to realize you’re already home without even remembering how you got there? It was as though your brain took over and drove the car for you…well, in a manner of speaking, that’s exactly what happened.
This is akin to flow state, where your subconscious mind drives much of what you are doing.
Professional athletes often practice getting into this state. Many of them have rituals for getting there, such as a footballer tossing up dirt into the air before the kick, or sometimes more personal, quirky rituals.
In flow states, the sub-conscious mind takes over and, with a natural instinct you can’t always consciously recreate, does the job for you.
In these states of being, an athlete intuitively knows how to make the perfect pass; how to measure the distance between players; the perfect angle of the kick to score the winning goal. This flow state can often seem elusive, but it boils down to having the right mood and focus when working on a task.
Find emotional alignment with the task at hand. Are you focusing on all the ways in which it engages you, or the ways that it is hard and boring? Are you allowing yourself to get absorbed in what you’re doing, or resisting it?
Don’t judge what you’re creating as not good enough, but allow it all to flow out from within you. Cut out as many distractions as you can, for these will interrupt your flow.
The act of doing – without judgment, without negativity, and with positive energy – allows one to access their flow state. Consider it like finding the perfect groove to your work. Once you’ve found it, it’s hard to stop the beat.
With the right flow, your productivity will improve dramatically.
If you’re looking to increase not only your flow state, but to explore other areas of self development such as numerology, manfifestation, rhythmic cycles, and how they’re intricately connected in the universe, then check out this free presentation from BioRhythm.
Not everyone approaches their self development the same way. For those who want to delve deeper into the unexplored territory to shift their perspective into something new, then be sure to check it out!
Anywyay, back to attitude now.
Hopefully we’ve made the point clear by now. If you aren’t focusing on your attitude, then you aren’t accessing the most effective parts of yourself or your resources. There’s no better way to say this.
By keeping a positive attitude, you can change your entire life. Remember to be grateful for what you have, as this will ground you in what’s going well in your life. Whenever you can, tap into that powerful flow state while you work so that you dramatically increase your productivity and output.
If you apply yourself to these concepts, you’ll be turning failures into learning lessons, and changing your life for the better. In other words: your attitude will make or break your success.
Time to choose the attitude that’s going to make your success.
