Rick Torrison opens with a family story about how attitude shows without words, then defines it through Webster and Churchill. Attitude lives in your body language and behavior, and ultimately comes down to a choice you make, shaped by how you feel and what's happening around you.
Welcome back, everybody, to Timeout for Leadership. I'm so excited and thankful that you guys have chosen to be a part of this transformational leadership community. Today's Timeout for Leadership. It's all about attitude. Have you ever heard the saying, people hear your words, but they feel your attitude? Let me share a little story with you. My wife and I were having a heated discussion. Okay, I'll call it an argument. My son was out in the front yard. He was probably 12, 13 years old at the time. And we. We had finished our heated discussion. My wife had gone to the back part of the house, and I was still sitting in the kitchen. My son came into the kitchen and didn't get five steps into the room before he said, what's wrong? And I looked at him. I hadn't said a word to him. And I looked at him and said, what do you mean, what's wrong? He said, did you and mom have a fight? And I was astonished at the fact he could tell that we had a fight and no words were spoken. He. He had not heard anything. He walked into the room and he felt the energy and the attitude of the room. Has that ever happened to you? So most of us had experienced the feeling of our attitude when we walked into a room. So what is attitude? Webster defines attitude as a mindset or a settled way of thinking or feeling about someone or something. Attitude is typically reflected in a person's behavior. Attitude is often seen in the posture, position we take towards an issue in our lives, a situation, or a person. Attitude is also a choice. No one can force attitude on you. Winston Churchill once said that attitude was a little thing that makes a big difference. So when you woke up this morning, what was your attitude? How were you feeling, and how has it affected you today? How has it impacted how you've related to other people? Our attitude's with us every day. There's never a moment in our lives when we don't have an attitude. Many people even sleep with an attitude. I'm not talking about your spouse. Our attitude impacts our relationships. It's critical to our success. Attitude influences how we see things, how we talk about things, how we look at things, how we act, and how we behave. So let me ask you this. Where does attitude come from? What I know is we can't blame our attitudes on other people. While it can be impacted by others, and it can, ultimately, our attitude is our choice. We choose the attitude we're going to take in the environment or circumstances we find ourselves. Oftentimes, our attitude comes from a feeling or an emotion. It's triggered by other people, the news change in our lives, the circumstances that we find ourselves in. And in these days, we find ourselves in some challenging circumstances. Remember, our attitude is a mindset. It's a thought or belief that creates an emotion in us. And our emotions are always expressed in our attitudes. They ultimately lead to actions and behaviors. Hey, don't think you can hide your attitude by not saying anything either. What did we start with? You can feel someone's attitude. We express attitude in our body language and the things that we do and our facial expressions. Be sure to tune in next week for part two of Attitude Check.
