The Difference MAKER (Part II) - What Your Attitude Can Do for You

1. Your Attitude Makes a Difference in Your Approach to Life

Our performance will likely match the expectations we have upon ourselves or the expectations we allow others to impose upon us. In fact, it's very difficult to behave in a way that's contrary to self-expectations.


2. Your Attitude Makes a Difference in Your Relationships with People

Many factors come into play when working with people, but what makes or breaks interpersonal skills, is a person's attitude. In my book Winning with people, I describe 25 principles of working on replationships with people. Here are a few to consider:

• The Lens Principle: Who we are determines how we see others.
• The Pain Principle: Hurting people hurt people and are easily hurt by people.
• The Elevator Principle: We can lift people up or take them down in our relationships.
• The Learning Principle: Each person we meet has the potential to teach us something.

3. Your Attitude Makes a Difference in How You Face Challenges

Circumstances appear to be instrumental in the creation of great leaders and thinkers, but such is the case only when their attitudes are right. Your attitude is the PAINT BRUSH of your mind. It can color your world with brilliant optimism or dark veneer of negativity. 

For years, I have tried to live by the following statement:

I cannot always choose what to me, but I can always choose what happens in me. My attitude in circumstances beyond my control CAN be the difference-maker. My attitude in the areas I do control WILL be the difference-maker.

Excerpt from The Difference Maker by John C. Maxwell