Customer Testimonial for Attitude: The Choice is Yours

I would like to order another 10 books, Attitude The Choice is Yours .  Your book has helped the City of Ellensburg employees understand their own attitudes as well as others attitudes.  When I started with this organization a year and half ago, we had a couple of departments that were having personality conflict, employees with bad attitudes and bullying.  Since then, we established a plan to have the departments go through your book one on one with me.  It definitely has made a difference.

Thank you for giving me this great tool to turn our departments around.

Cindy Smith, Human Resources Director, PHR - City of Ellensburg

Chapter Two – Analyze Your Attitude
Complete a 24-question Self-Image Inventory to help you describe how you think and feel about yourself. It is an indication of your self-esteem, your self-perception as it relates to others, and your satisfaction with your role in life. Here’s one of the multiple-choice questions.

I believe that I am achieving my potential:
a. All the time.
b. Most of the time.
c. Some of the time.
d. Seldom.
e. Never

Chapter Three – Adjust Your Attitude
Is your job getting the best of you? Are your teenagers driving you crazy? This chapter holds opportunities for you to fine-tune your thoughts about yourself, dealing with change and other people to become a happier, more positive person.

One of the most common requests I get from clients is to help leaders and employees through change. So one of the attitude adjustment techniques I wrote about is called “Seek Comfort with Change”. Begin by recognizing anytime you face an activity, responsibility or relationship with which you have limited knowledge or experience, you will feel uncomfortable or even afraid. Here are four tips for coping with fear:

1. Trust your fear. Let it guide you, not bind you.
2. Expect mistakes. Realize mistakes are a natural part of change and growth.
3. Develop strategies for coping with a worse-case scenario. In the unlikely event it happens you will be prepared.
4. Get started and take one step at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed with factors out of your control.

Chapter Four – Maintain a Positive Attitude
How can you keep a positive attitude when everyone else around you is so negative? If you let someone ruin your day, you’ve lost and they won. One of the five attitude maintenance strategies I developed is to “Surround Yourself with Positive Influences.” Use some of these inexpensive tips to stimulate your senses:

Decorate your office and home with your favorite photos, quotes or poems.
Listen to music that’s appropriate for your desired feelings – upbeat music for energy or soothing music to relax.
Pick or buy a bouquet of fresh flowers for yourself.
Exercise your mind and body regularly.
Treat yourself to your favorite meal or dessert as a reward for doing something good.

Chapter Five – Deal with the Difficult Attitudes of Others
The most popular chapter is how to deal with the “bad apples”. You may refer to them as sassy, defiant, whiners, lazy, or know-it-alls. Although each person makes each relationship unique, learning how to use a 5-step process can help you determine the best strategy to confront or avoid a difficult co-worker, customer, family member or friend.

Step two is usually disregarded. It’s taking the time to understand the other person. So often we think the worst about someone or mislabel them without learning more about the situation. We jump to conclusions and make incorrect assumptions. The goal of this step is to help you empathize with the other person. This doesn’t mean you have to agree with him or her. You just need to ask questions and listen to the person’s thoughts and feelings. Through your conversation, you may clarify misunderstandings or develop appropriate strategies to actually help the other person.

Whether you’re looking for a quick fix for yourself, a resource to give to your co-workers or a gift for a friend, Attitude: The Choice is Yours helps people gain control of their life by gaining control of their attitude.