9-9-2014
For pilots, the ?attitude? of the plane, meaning the angle of the wing relative to the forward motion, determines whether you climb or descend. ?Attitude = altitude? they teach in flight school. If your attitude (angle of attack) is positive, your plane will go up; and if your attitude (angle of attack) is negative, you will descend.
When I started in sales I was told that my attitude and my ability to control my thoughts and feelings were going to largely determine my success. Sure I had to have product knowledge, communication skills, and problem-solving skills, but the word that kept resonating for me was attitude.
So I studied. I listened to Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar, Lou Tice, and any ?motivational speaker? I could get exposure to. The concepts of visualization, self-talk, and the Power of Positive Thinking became part of my vocabulary and part of my life. Who can deny the benefits of a positive attitude and healthy self-talk? The problem is most people don?t think about what they think about. Did you ever think about that?
Life happens all around us every day, and you have to protect yourself from negativity and negative people. Nothing can kill your joy and happiness faster than a negative thought or a negative person. It?s so critical to surround yourself with positive people. When you?re alone it's equally critical to pay attention to your ?inner voice? and ensure that you are not sabotaging your own success with your own internal voice.
Readers of a certain age will remember those little binders that looked like over-sized note books. You opened them up and they had 9-12 cassettes inside. Larry Wilson had a series called Selling on Purpose. Larry says this about attitude: ?Personal power is having access to, and control over, the energies and emotions required to optimize and maximize your performance.?
In the book Emotional Contagion they claim that 75 percent of Americans consider every 3rd day to be a ?bad day.? The book goes on to talk about how ?contagious? attitude is. Thus the need to surround yourself with positive people.
There is no denying that ?bad? things happen. When those things happen, it?s your thoughts that will determine your feelings and emotions. In other words, how you respond will be largely dependent on your personal self-talk.
Let?s look at how you might respond to certain events:
Uh-oh, I?ll never make goal.
Why does this always happen to me?Not again! How inconsiderate, no respectWhy me? Another bad day! Why now? I don?t have time for this!Now here is the magic word that will change your life. Instead of all those negative thoughts, replace them with this word: INCONVENIENT. This actually works to neutralize the feelings and eliminates the negativity.
When I first used ?inconvenient? I have to admit I actually ?chuckled.? So it wasn?t actually a neutral feeling, it was more of a humorous positive feeling. When you use INCONVENIENT you actually respond differently to the stimulus. You don?t get angry or mad, you simply move on. It helps keep things in perspective.
A pilot must use a negative attitude or angle of attack to get the plane safely back on the ground. In sales, a negative attitude is never welcomed. When things happen that you don?t like, try saying to yourself, ?That?s inconvenient.? It can change your life. I know it did mine.
Jeff Schmidt is EVP and Partner with Chris Lytle at Sparque, Inc. You can reach Jeff at Jeff.Schmidt@Sparque.biz
Twitter: @JeffreyASchmidt
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/schmidtjeffrey
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