Positive Attitudes

In Attitudes are skills from Seth Godin's Blog, Seth Godin, 

“Once you realize that you can improve, amplify and refine the things that other people call attitudes, you may realize that they are skills.”

I think that people have the ability to develop better attitude skills. They can choose to have a positive attitude or a negative attitude. You are not born with this so it must be acquired. Attitude is closely connected to our perceptions. How we see things help us to improve our attitudes. Our attitudes can affect our work skills.

Negative attitudes can cause mistakes, imperfections, feelings of frustration and anger, and even lead to failure.

Positive attitudes open up possibilities. They give feelings of hope and anticipation of better things to come. It opens up options and can lead to success.

I thought I would list some positive attitudes that I thought I should help my students to develop.

1. I am capable of doing many things. 
2. It is good to work hard to achieve the things I want. 
3. It doesn’t hurt to try new things (as long as they aren’t illegal).  
4. I need to practice to get better at new things. 
5. It’s alright to make mistakes as long as I don’t keep repeating them. 
6. It is okay to ask for help. 
7.  It is good to help others. 
8. Teamwork can help hard things easier. 
9. Accepting criticism helps me to improve. 
10. It is okay to feel proud when I achieve something.

These are just ten things I would start with. I think it would be good to pick one for a lesson and open it up for discussion with the following questions:

• Why is this hard for some people? 
• How can I start to believe this? 
• How can I help others believe this?

What other positive attitudes would you add to the list? What other questions would you add to the discussion? Please share.

Photo by Miguel Bruna on Unsplash