All in the Attitude

This post is probably going to get a bit personal, and I apologize for it, but I also want my readers to take away something positive from this post. Don't be too harsh on me. Also, I promise from here on out, for the next month expect a post every other week, then in June




Everyone who knows me well knows I struggle to control my emotions. No melodramatic woe-is-me bull here, just real talk. I have problems with controlling the way I feel or react to things around me. I desperately need to learn to control it. Especially when it comes to work and to the people I love.




As a mini-adult, I've realized everyone was right and things do get really hard. Time gets shorter, or so it seems. There are more bills to pay, you struggle with guesstimating how much will be on each check by how many hours you get. You beg your boss for more hours and then realize you don't have a day off for the next two weeks. Oh well, shrug it off and make sure you do what you have to do when you have an off morning or evening. You don't get to see the people you love often, or even find a spare moment for a phone call or a text. You really should delete Facebook from your phone because it takes up too much of your precious time. Also, just your damn smart phone in general. Put. It. Down.



This isn't a fun time, nor is it attractive.




And the creativity that used to flow like a waterfall in spring is dried up to drought standards because you're just too damn tired to even think. No excuse whatsoever though for not keeping up with this blog and my dear readers(you are there, right? hello? Is that an echo I hear?). Being an adult really means being tired all the time, not being able to take a nap, and still having things to do. Nights get shorter, days get longer and the coffee runs out quicker.



Probably because I drink it like this.


When I start struggling to keep my attitude at work, it effects my job performance and it effects the moods of my coworkers. One of my bosses recently sat me down and talked to me about letting myself be victimized and that I just need to toughen up and grow [up] a thicker skin. Easier said than done about the last part. I've always been sensitive, and criticism without encouragement, acknowledgement, and cooperation is lost on

me. I shut down. I can't afford that in the work place. I need to get my rear in gear and focus on my work. I can't just roll-over and quit when things get hard. I may not have enjoyed that talk, or liked it, but I did need to hear it.




At the job I've had for the past four and a half years, we follow a set of rules about our emotions. It's called FISH, and you've probably heard of it if you're either a) a boss trying to improve your employees' attitudes and performance, or b) you've been to Pike Place in Seattle, WA. What FISH means is this:



Choose Your Attitude
Make Their Day
Be Present
Play


Now, what does that mean in daily life and in the work place? Choosing your attitude means just that. You have the power to decide if you're going to have a good day or not. Use that power. Yeah, days can go bad, problems arise and crap happens. But that doesn't mean your entire day has to be ruined. Take the bad with the good, and move on if you can. For work, you leave your problems at the door. Let work be a safe place away from all the drama and problems in your life[even if work might be one of the problems. If that's the case, you probably want to talk to your boss and possibly find a new job that you do enjoy].






Making their day might be a little trickier. This doesn't mean you have to take the time to personally make everyone's day. What it means is the encounters you do have, make them pleasant ones. Smile at strangers. End your conversations with "have a good day". Search for the positive in others, compliment people, if you have to opportunity to help someone or brighten their day, do it. It'll make you feel much better, I promise. At work, you want to go above and beyond when you can. If you work in the service industry or retail, take what pride you can it. Take the time to serve each customer to the best of your ability. Even when you or they are having a bad day.






Be present means, for work and real life, be present to the people you are with. Put down your phone when you're with others. Make eye contact. Have a real conversation. Find out what your customers are doing with their day, why they came to see you, and make a real connection with them. If you can't do it for their sake, do it for your own. You'll feel better and it'll help you when it comes to promotion and raise time.






The last one, play, means that nothing, even your job, has to be boring or tiresome. You can play wherever you are. Be happy. Play a game, make the time past faster and let other people join in with you. You'll be happier overall, and it's not as tiring as it sounds. Its more rejuvenating than anything.






Yeah, it may seem like this is just a way for companies to keep their employees quiet and happy in their low-paying meaningless job. Don't see it that way. See it as a philosophy to better your own life and your time at your job, whatever it is. And besides, arguing about corporations keeping the working person down isn't what this post is about.






What this post is about is this. Everything that you go through, every tough moment in your day, every jerk in the grocery store line, every teenager on their cell phone who cuts you off on your way home from a long day, stop letting it affect you. Stop letting things get to you. Yeah, I know. "Megsy, that's easy for you to say, you've got it easy, you work at a kids store and play video games on your day off." Trust me, I don't have it easy. That's just what you see on the surface. Don't make things harder than they have to be. Choose your attitude, and it changes your life.








God, I feel like Yoda. With a proper English degree and without the baldness, though I have.






Taking these to heart, and really trying to implement them in my daily life has helped me considerably. Despite the issues I deal with everyday, with family, with my loved ones and friends, with work, I still try to make the most out of my day. Despite being tired every day, despite battling my depression and anxiety, I still do what I can to make my day better and make the days of others around me better. It's all in your attitude.






I've got two quotes for you today.





Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what happens to you as by the way your mind looks at what happens.


Khalil Gibran





Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude.


Thomas Jefferson






May your day be fantastic, may you take up the power you already have within yourself and choose to have a good day. Don't write this up as some New-Age BS. I'm just being honest with you as a normal person wanting to live a happy life. Choose to be happy and make the most of your day. You can do it!