"If you want to be happy, set a goal that commands your thoughts,
liberates your energy and inspires your hopes."
— Andrew Carnegie
Happiness is a choice! How many of you have heard this statement before? Do you believe it? Have you ever been in the presence of someone who lit up the room, making everyone around them feel good just by being there? How about someone who seemed to dampen the mood just through their attendance? Nothing was overtly said or done to bring about these feelings; you just felt them. If you've got a few years of adult life under your belt, chances are you have experienced these types of people at one point or another, but have you ever wondered why? Much of what you feel from others is their underlying energy or attitude they have about life. There is no right or wrong way to approach your life, but the point here is that you do have a choice in how you decide to see, interpret, and react to the various experiences you encounter every day. There is a lot at play regarding our attitude and emotional health, but we can improve this pillar of good health through small positive changes in our daily attitude habits.
"If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change."
- Dr. Wayne Dyer
This quote about the power of choice and how we perceive and interpret the world around us is a reminder we may need from time to time. I learned about the power of personal choice when I was in middle school. My 7th-grade teacher, Mr. Frank Mak, would schedule class lunches once a month and teach us about life and the powerful choice each of us had over our future outcomes. His words and funny stories inspired me and began my lifelong quest to improve my future through purposeful development and growth. This "ah-ha" moment in my formative years has stuck with me my entire life, and I cannot thank Mr. Mak enough for giving me this priceless gift of self-awareness.
My quest to live my best life is not limited to my physical health and fitness but includes my mental and emotional health. Being intentional about how I perceive and react to my environment has an enormous effect on my attitude, the third pillar of optimal health.
Before you set your own attitude goals, it's essential, to be honest about your current mindset. Looking at ourselves and taking ownership of the role we play in our life circumstances is not an easy task but necessary in developing this pillar of good emotional health. If you missed it, review tips to help you evaluate your attitude about healthy living post from last month.
Once you have gained more clarity about your current attitude toward life, think about where you would like to improve the way you think and begin to enhance the quality of your emotional and mental health.
Here are a few goals you may want to consider working on:
I want to be more patient with my children or kinder to my spouse.
I want to be more joyful in my everyday life.
I want to eliminate self-sabotage talk, worry over things I have no control over, or reduce stress.
I want to be less reactive when things don't go as I planned.
I want to be less hard on myself and more accepting.
The attitude goals listed are just a few ideas to help get you started. I hope they will inspire and motivate you to begin your journey toward improving the quality of your life through the way you think!
How to turn attitude goals into action:
When it comes to making intentional choices about your attitude, there are a variety of ways you can incorporate small changes to help improve your outlook on life. Like everything else, you want to start small and go slow, finding simple actions that will work best for the attitude and mindset improvements you choose to make. Here are a few ideas that may work for you:
Read books that provide insight and guidance where your interest lay.
Spend more time with positive people in your life and keep negative nellies at arm's length.
Refuse to engage in negative discussions about other people.
Practice open, honest, and compassionate conversation with your loved ones.
Help those in need, volunteer, or donate to a worthy cause. This act of giving is known as the helper's high and proven to improve mood and release "feel good" hormones in givers and receivers.
Spend time outside with nature and in the sunshine. This lifestyle practice proves to boost mood!
Join a social group and become more engaged with other like-minded people or organizations.
Get to know your neighbors.
Engage in distraction-free conversations with your family around the dinner table.
Do activities with your kids, spouse, significant other, and family elders.
Smile and say hi to a stranger you pass on the street.
Talk to someone qualified to help you with more considerable mental and emotional challenges
And the list goes on!
You can find more small step ideas in our FREE two-week to COVID Re-Boot digital mini-course and workbook! There are various suggestions and a two-week tracker you can use to manage your better attitude consistency.
There are countless actions that we can take every day to uplift another human being and ourselves. For some of us, this may take a real effort of conscious actions and practice to achieve, while for others, consistent acts of kindness are second nature. So much of how we treat other people reflects how we feel about ourselves. However, when we make a conscious effort to practice kindness towards others, we, in turn, are kind to and help ourselves.
If you found the information and suggestions in this post helpful, please help us share this post with the people you love and help us help more people live healthier, happier, and more purposeful lives through simple LEAN practices!
Check in with us next week Sunday when we set improved nutritional goals and help you take small steps toward better health through the foods you eat!
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