Attitude Is Everything!

How attitude conscious are you? Do you mindlessly drift to a negative place or are you intentionally choosing a more positive attitude? Like I used to tell my kids, attitude is everything!

While you may not be aware of it, your attitude trickles down into all aspects of your life and work. You are actually planting seeds everywhere you go! Are the seeds you’re sowing resulting in beautiful flowers, tasty fruits or veggies, or you are sowing negative seeds that sprout up as weeds and choke out the good stuff?

Think Of Your Life This Way…

Your life is like a plot of land: a space you’ve been given to tend. Your attitudes are the seeds that get planted in that plot, and it will yield a harvest, even if you aren’t intentional about what you sow.

If you don’t like the attitudes you are reaping from those around you, consider taking a hard look at the seeds you are sowing! Some days you may be harvesting desirable crops – things like patience, love, kindness, peace, joy, and so on. Other days…well, they may yield more weeds – things like stress, conflict, frustration, impatience, and more!

You don’t have to have a green thumb (or “green fingers” as they say in the UK) to know that in order to successfully maintain a thriving garden, you must pull the weeds! Even better if your garden is packed with gorgeous plants so that there’s no room for weeds!

Gardening is a welcome past time for me. The time tending to my yard is therapeutic, but the real reward is a flourishing garden full of flowers or produce. It definitely takes work! In my gardening efforts, I’ve struggled to successfully grow fruits or veggies beyond tomatoes, jalapenos, and peppers! I’ve had better success with my flowers and other plants, although they only thrive to the extent that I nurture them.

My gardening experiences have taught me some valuable lessons about attitudes and the effect they have on my life and work. Here’s what I’ve learned:

1. I Reap What I Sow

If I plant tomato seeds in my garden, I will get tomatoes no matter how much I want those seeds to produce strawberries.

How does this apply to attitudes? If I want those around me to be kind, respectful, or thoughtful, those are the seeds I must be intentional about planting.

When I don’t like how others are interacting with me, I need to take responsibility and look at the kinds of attitudes I’m sowing.

What are you sowing?

2. Weeds Grow Faster

If I plant nothing, weeds grow. In fact, weeds will naturally take over! They grow and spread like crazy! Even when sowing desirable seeds, there will still be weeds – attitudes that must to be carefully plucked by the root so that they don’t keep the good stuff from growing. Weeds are the negative thoughts and attitudes that I have that manifest in destructive behaviors like impatience, pride, disrespectfulness, or selfishness that quickly emerge and have a way of taking over.

When I notice a particular kind of weed frequently popping up in those around me, odds are good that I’m sowing that weed myself and reaping what I’m sowing. Without self-awareness, it’s easy for me to blame others when sometimes I’m equally at fault.

I’ve learned that the more often I pull the weeds in my yard, the easier they are to remove. When the weeds have had time to take root, they are much more stubborn and require more effort to remove.

What weeds need pulling?

3. My Garden Needs Protection

In my neck of the woods, vegetation is at risk of being nibbled up by adorable bunnies, deer, and birds. Without a fence to protect my garden from hungry creatures and a scarecrow to deter the birds, chances are good that I will never get to enjoy the fruit of my labors.

The same is true in life. I need to be clear about my boundaries so that I can clearly and respectfully communicate them to others. It’s interesting, I teach others how to treat me by what I model and tolerate. I am responsible for creating the boundaries that will prevent negative creatures from nibbling away at my good seeds.

My garden rarely sabotages itself, however, the same is not true for me. I’m often my own worst enemy! Having good boundaries goes beyond the thoughts and attitudes I allow to be sown in my garden. When I allow stress to creep in, ignore practicing healthy self-care, get overwhelmed, over-committed, or worn out, it affects my attitude…and my harvest. So does my unrealistic expectations or attempting to be like someone else; someone I’m not.

Where do you need to firm up your boundaries?

4. I Must Tend To My Garden Daily!

Without the proper sun, water, and fertilizer, even the best seeds won’t thrive. For me to have the best harvest, my garden must be situated to get optimal sun, be watered daily, and fed the nutrients it needs.

The same is true for me (and you!). Daily time with God is like the sun, water, and all the nutrients needed to ensure that my thoughts and attitudes will enable me to sow more positively.

Spending time with God only now and then is like sporadically tending to my garden. That kind of care can’t help but result in my harvest suffering.

Your gardening skills may not earn you green thumb status either, but you can reap a bountiful harvest of the best kind – the kind that results when you sow positive attitude seeds and then tend to those seeds well plucking the “weeds” when they first pop up.

Yes! Attitude is everything. It makes all the difference in your personal life as well as your work. If you aren’t getting the results you are after, perhaps it’s time to examine the seeds you are sowing!

What attitude weeds do you find yourself battling?

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© Can Stock Photo / stokkete