Any day is only as ‘bad’ as you let yourself believe it is, and the same is true on the upside.
When you say you’re ‘having a bad day’, what you’re really saying is that you’ve let other people get to you or you have let other circumstances get to you.
If you tell yourself you’re having a bad day, I promise you will have one, and if you tell yourself you’re having a great day, I promise you will have one. The day is not bad unless you declare it bad.
A positive attitude, or the lack thereof, is the root of many circumstances.
Below are some random thoughts and insights on the cause, the cure, and the benefits of positive attitude.
1) Start at the beginning. Philosophy drives attitude. Attitude drives actions. Actions drive results. Results drive lifestyles.*
If you don’t like your lifestyle, look at your results.
If you don’t like your results, look at your actions.
If you don’t like your actions, look at your attitude.
If you don’t like your attitude, look at your philosophy.
Most salespeople make the mistake of starting in the middle. They start with ‘action’. If you have no philosophy and you have a lousy attitude, what kind of action are you going to take? Do you even have a clear idea what your philosophy is?
2) Develop a ‘yes’ attitude. There is a subtle difference between a ‘positive’ attitude and a ‘yes’ attitude. Both are great, but ‘yes’ is a bit more powerful because it assumes that everything starts with ‘yes’, even when it’s ‘no’.
A ‘yes’ attitude helps you formulate a response in a positive way. A ‘yes’ attitude is more declarative. It tells people in one word that their expectations will be met, and that your answers to whatever they want or need will be ‘yes’. Everyone wants to hear ‘yes’, so if you think of yourself as a ‘yes’ person, besides putting yourself in a positive frame of mind, you will also have positive expectations.
3) Attitude means celebrate effort, not victory. All too often, salespeople and their leaders only celebrate the sale. And while that’s important, it is equally as important to celebrate the work that went into making the sale happen. Your work ethic will lead you to more sales than any other element in your sales arsenal.
4) You know what to do but you just don’t do it. Salespeople are the smartest people in the world. As I go from audience to audience, they all have one common theme among them – everyone knows everything. The problem is that they are not doing the things they claim to know. There’s a big difference between knowing and doing, and most salespeople haven’t a clue about the power of that subtlety. After reading or attending a seminar, instead of thinking ‘I know that’, ask yourself, ‘How good am I at that?’ That question will lead to more knowledge. And you do understand that knowledge is power.
5) Attitude means time management, or what’s important now. Most lessons in time management are pretty much a waste of time. You know what to do. You even know when to do it. What you need is a lesson about procrastination or a lesson about building a higher self-image or a lesson about fear of rejection or a lesson about preparation. Those lessons will give you what you need to execute the things you believe you don’t have time for. The truth is, you are just avoiding them.
6) Be selfish, learn for yourself, do it for yourself. Selfish wins. Before you can be the best you can be for others, you must be the best you can be for yourself. Before you can be the best salesperson, you must be the best person. Before you can be the best parent, you must be the best person you can be for yourself. When you achieve best for yourself, then and only then, can you be your best for others. I know this sounds selfish, but if you think about it, you will come to realise that your shortcomings in all of your endeavors stem from the fact that you’re not being the best person you can be for yourself. At the root of best is best attitude.
Positive attitude is defined as ‘The way you dedicate yourself to the way you think’. But be careful when putting that definition into action, because the same words hold true for a negative attitude.
* Quote from Jim Rohn
Jeffrey Gitomer is an American author, professional speaker and business trainer, who writes and lectures internationally on sales, customer loyalty and personal development.
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