Opposite Ends of the Attitude Spectrum

I acquired my first real job in high school working for Arby's. I hated the job, and as time went on, that mentality started to reflect in my performance at work and eventually started to affect me even outside of work. The worst part is my attitude had a negative impact on everyone around me, but I didn't see this reality until later.

I credit my brother for saving me. He'd had enough of me to the point where he told me that attitude was everything. He told me I had a choice when I went to work about what kind of attitude I'd bring to work. I ignored him because it didn't make much sense to me.

Over time, though, I kept thinking about what he had said and one day decided to try out his "theory". I went in the next day thinking, "I know this is going to suck, but I'm going to try to find a way to have fun." To my amazement, it really worked. I hated it, but I found ways of enjoying stupid little things at work and it turned the whole experience around.

I was laughing all day and immediately saw its effects. Being happy yourself is one thing, but seeing how other people around you change based on your actions is another. It put things into a whole new perspective for me to see this. (I'm not claiming to be the only factor in everyone else's moods, but it had an affect.)

I think another major proponent to my enlightenment on attitude was just the day before I was on the low end of the "attitude spectrum" and had a horrible day, and not one day after I reached the opposite end of the spectrum. To see that big of a difference between both sides back to back was more important, I believe, than in a slow, less dramatic manner.

I learned a some very important lessons from this experience.

First, your attitude has a direct impact on the attitudes of everyone around you. I asked myself, "How long would it take for a smile to 'circle the world'?" I also wonder how much of an indirect affect you have on YOURSELF by your own attitude in terms of how you affect others and in turn how they affect you back.

"Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."
- Winston Churchill

Then, secondly, I learned YOU choose how you respond to things that happen to you. My brother's lesson had a bigger impact on my whole life as a whole, not just by work experiences. What if you wore some really thick coke-bottle glasses, and someone came up to you and blasted some jokes your way. Most people think the guy is a bully and immediately get angry or just ignore the guy. What if you come back with a different joke about your own glasses? Same situation that produces radically different results, and it's all based on how you react.

"Life is 10 percent what you make it and 90 percent how you take it."
- Irving Berlin

It is obvious how this relates to leadership because a leader is suppose to inspire others to be great themselves.

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader."
- John Quincy Adams