How Attitude and Perspective Saved The Day!

Some people believe that attitude follows perspective and that once you change your perspective on things, your attitude changes. I can certainly see that and have personally found that to be true in a lot of cases. And I also believe the opposite – perspective can also follow attitude. Once we decide to change our attitude about something, our view about it can shift. In this way, attitude and perspective are 2 sides of the same coin!

Here’s a very simple example. Say you have to do a lot of things around the house like cleaning up, etc. but your attitude about doing it all puts you in a bad mood and you’re not so happy about having to do it. Trust me, I know! But what if you chose to think about these chores differently and told yourself the following:

“Self, I am grateful and blessed to be able to even have this house to clean up, to have this beautiful furniture to dust off, to have a car to clean that gets me where I need to be. One way to show my gratitude is to keep these things clean and maintained!”

If you said this aloud to yourself, your bad mood would most likely turn into a better one and the idea of accomplishing these tasks may not sound so bad and tedious. Then guess what? That frown would be turned upside down and gratitude enters your mind space.

Don’t believe me? Try it! Let me know how it works out for you!

See how attitude and perspective go hand in hand? They are BOTH sisters on the journey to transformation and help us create positive change and take action in our lives more easily and effortlessly!

My Favorite Quotes About Attitude and Perspective

Now before I go further, take a look at a few of my favorite quotes about attitude and perspective.

Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference.

Winston Churchill

If you don’t like something change it; if you can’t change it, change the way you think about it.

Mary Engelbreit

Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at will change.

Dr. Wayne Dyer

Attitudes are self-created. You are free to be victimized by circumstances, or people, or you can choose to look at life with an open mind and be victorious. No one else can choose your attitude for you. Your perspective and choice of attitude gives you the POWER to be in control. That is the essence of true freedom.

Irene Dunlap

Now here’s a little story I’ve got to tell (in my Beastie Boys voice from “Paul Revere”) 🙂 that’s the perfect example of how attitude and perspective go hand in hand in creating more positive, transformative life experiences!

This one time…in Vegas…

After a fun filled weekend in Vegas (what goes on in Vegas, stays in Vegas so I can’t fill you in on the details LOL), I was ready to return home and get back to reality. Okay, maybe I wasn’t completely ready to get back home but duty called!

I get to the airport early like a good little traveler so I wouldn’t have to rush and to also be able play Freecell in peace, still one of my favorite solitaire games. Everything is going as expected until a small voice over the intercom says, “Flight to St. Louis has been cancelled! I repeat, the flight to St. Louis has been cancelled due to crew issues.”

Say whaaaaaat?

As much as I travel, I’ve luckily never had a cancelled flight so I was completely stumped as to what to do next.

Almost immediately, people started lining up at the counter. Unbeknownst to me, that was the next step so that one can be rebooked on another flight.

So imagine my dismay when I look up and there’s a line of over a hundred people before I even had a chance to get out of my seat!

I looked around at the angry and distressed faces at the gate, all wondering when they’ll get to their next destination and what “crew issues” actually meant. I completely understood their sentiment.

But what I chose to do next made the next few hours, heck the next couple of days even, seem like a walk in the park.

I CHOSE to NOT get angry.

I knew that getting angry at the airline, at the people standing in line, at the gate attendants, at anybody who looked at me wouldn’t solve my problem of getting home.

What happened next amazed me!

It seemed like almost immediately after I chose to react peacefully and purposefully, my outlook, attitude and perspective of the situation changed.

One of the gate attendants passed out the airline’s card with the direct number to their customer service rebooking department but had initially ran out. So I walked up to one of the passengers in line and asked if I could jot down the number from her card.

“You can have my card. They aren’t picking up anyway. It keeps hanging up on me. You may as not even try calling.”

“Thank you very much,” I replied.

I went back to my seat and called the number anyway. Guess what? Someone answered immediately! Maybe it was luck.

The agent on the phone told me the airline already rebooked me (their systems do that sometimes without action from the traveler) but it had me flying out two days later.

I joked with the lady on the phone and told her that the minors in my house might get out of control if they knew they had two more days without my watchful eye! She searched for earlier flights but told me my best bet would be to go ahead and get in line and talk to one of the agents because they have greater authority and can also search other airline’s flights, which she couldn’t do.

Dang, now I have to get in this long line? “Okay, well, if that’s my only option, here I go,” I said to myself as I sauntered over to the end of the line behind a young man (a cutie too by the way!).

Another young lady walked up behind me and for the next hour or so, the three of us had a lively conversation which included new business ideas, jokes, knowledge sharing, and a genuine interest in each others’ lives! #Win

So by the time I get to the front of the line, the agent told me she found a flight out the next day which sounded way better than waiting 2 more days. She gave me a voucher for a hotel stay (since the cancellation was on the airline – thankfully!) and sent me on my way.

But here’s another kink in the story that could have easily got me upset and angry…

When I got to the baggage claim area, I looked at the ticket info I was given and it still said my flight was 2 days out, not 1 day like the agent said. Clearly she read the screen wrong.

So now what do I do since I only have a voucher for 1 night’s stay instead of 2? Do I go all the way back to the gate? I look around and decide that there has to be someone in the baggage claim area who can help so I head to the claims department and talk to the agent there. He doesn’t have the authority to do anything and sent me to the ticketing area upstairs.

Here I go…to yet another person to talk to. Do I get angry? Nooooo, I still chose to be cool.

I get to the main ticketing area and one of the agents greets me immediately. I asked, “Oh, how’d you know it was I?“

She said the guy from baggage claim called and told her I was on my way. How nice was he!!

She and another agent empathized with my plight and eagerly searched for a better flight. Wow, what customer service!

And lo and behold, they found me a flight leaving out the next day on another airline! BOOM!

Next up – hotel shuttle.

So I go outside and wait on the shuttle amongst the millions of people (okay, maybe only 20) already waiting. When the van pulls up, it’s right in front of me and the driver tells me to hop on in! I felt bad since other people were waiting before me but turns out, they didn’t need that particular shuttle. They were in the wrong line!

To bring this long story to an end, I get to the hotel where the concierge tells me where to go to get some good biddles and what else I could do in the area at that time of night. Before I rolled off to a good night’s rest, I thought about everything that happened that day and how “lucky” I was because everything just seemed to occur in my favor.

Now, I don’t tell you this story to belittle anyone who did get angry or mad because I completely understand when things change, emotions come up. But I knew that those emotions were not going to help me in my situation.

What if I had gone off on the gate agents like some of the other people were doing? Would everything have occurred the way they did? Would those ticket agents have eagerly gone out of their way for me? Would the baggage claim guy have called over to notify them I was on my way over?

I don’t know but what I DO know is I felt good during all the fiasco because of the way I chose to react. Because of the way I changed my attitude and perspective.

The Relationship Between Attitude and Perception

Perception and attitude are closely related concepts, as if they’re sisters, that significantly influence our interpretation and understanding of the world around us.

Perception refers to the way we interpret and make sense of sensory information. It involves processing the data our senses receive and assigning meaning to it, thereby creating our subjective experience of the world. Our perceptions are affected by our past experiences, our knowledge, our beliefs, and a variety of other factors.

On the other hand, attitude is a tendency to behave in either a favorable or unfavorable way towards a given object. It reflects how we feel and think about particular subjects or situations, and it influences our behavior towards them. Attitudes are cognitive (what we think), affective (what we feel), and behavioral (how we act or intend to act).

Ultimately, the relationship between attitude and perception is reciprocal. Our perceptions can shape our attitudes, and our attitudes can in turn influence our perceptions. For example:

1. If you perceive that a certain brand of car is reliable and high-quality because you’ve had positive experiences with it in the past (perception), you may develop a positive attitude towards that brand. You would then be more likely to buy that brand of car in the future (attitude influencing behavior).
2. Conversely, if you hold a negative attitude towards snakes because you fear them (attitude), you are more likely to perceive any encounter with a snake as threatening, regardless of whether the snake is venomous or not (attitude influencing perception).
3. Someone might grow up in a family that values physical fitness (attitude). That person then is likely to perceive exercise as beneficial and enjoyable, creating a positive perception of physical activity. This perception then feeds back into their attitude, reinforcing the belief in the importance of fitness and likely encouraging behaviors such as regular gym visits or participation in sports.

See how it works? It all ties together!

This dynamic interplay between perception and attitude informs our worldview, decision-making, and behaviors. It’s also why two people can have very different reactions to the same situation based on their unique attitude and perspective.

What’s Transformation Got To Do With It?

Through the years, there have been way too many people ask me why my attitude is so positive and I respond with, “What’s the alternative? Be angry and mad and negative about everything or worse yet be apathetic about life?“

Neither is an option for me. I feel my best when I’m positive and I choose to carry a great attitude with me every day.

Here’s what I use to transform my attitude and perspective on things daily (affirmation style). Feel free to modify it for your own use.

When I get ready in the morning, I make sure to put on an uplifting attitude.

I dress myself with grace and accessorize with a smile. I bring positivity with me wherever I go.

My positive attitude is contagious and causes others around me to become positive as well.

Regardless of what happens in my life, I can always choose my response and I choose to make the best of all situations.

Today, I am unstoppable because I choose to remain positive, regardless of the circumstances I may face. Good things belong to me and even in situations that are not ideal, things work out for my benefit.

Over to you…

What does your attitude say about you? How do you transform your attitude and perspective when it’s needed? Chime in with your feedback below!