Do you have a bad attitude?
Your answer to that question may be defensive, “Of course I don’t!”
Indignant… “How dare you!”
Or honest… “sometimes…”
The fact is, we all have an area or maybe many areas in life where we can improve our attitude.
It occurred to me recently how mine has changed and I think it can help you.
You see, I used to resent the need for continuous maintenance. I hated exercise, study, home maintenance, relationship maintenance, employee maintenance (otherwise known as being a good boss by helping someone develop), etc.
I was terrible at maintaining anything. My feeling was that I should only have to put in the work once, if at all, and it should never need to be repaired, maintained, or otherwise invested in again. How entitled is that?!
You can imagine my results were not very good.
Have you ever done that?
Ever buy something and be so happy with your new (insert shiny, fun possession here) and then in just a few short months find it collecting dust in the corner, never to be used again? That’s what I’m talking about. And yes, sometimes it just happens and it’s no big deal. Other times, it is. And sometimes, those little moments give us a peak into the greater workings of our minds.
How you do one thing is how you do everything.
If you’ve been following, you know I’ve been keeping fish and coral again. It’s been a point of personal growth for me. Years ago, I’d set up a tank and be totally enamored with it. A few months later, it would be covered in algae and things would start to die. It was an eyesore until I was sick of it. I’d get it back into shape, feel good about myself for the immediate results, only to start the cycle again.
Looking back, I can see I did this across the board… from cars to relationships. I never put in the daily work. The simple dusting, polishing, and minor repairs that lead to long lasting results was not getting done. My attitude sucked, both causing and caused by continuing and worsening problems.
I resented that work. I felt entitled to not have to do that work.
My attitude sucked and so did just about every other aspect of my life.
Things didn’t start to change until I changed my attitude toward doing the daily work required to grow. Small steps of improvement daily became a mantra of mine. I wouldn’t trade in the results of that work for anything.
Don’t get me wrong. I still have some crappy attitude issues to deal with. But, I’ll tell you what, my aquariums are clean and healthy.
Keep moving forward,
Nick
