Nothing will sabotage the pursuit of your purpose like a bad attitude. It’s a relational repellent that pushes healthy people away from you while drawing toxic relationships closer to you. You can have multiple doctoral degrees from the most prestigious universities or be the most talented person on your team, but if you don’t have the right attitude nobody will want to work with you or for you.
John Maxwell says, “attitude is the Librarian of our past, the speaker of our present, and the prophet of our future.”
So today I want to highlight 4 attitudes that are guaranteed to sabotage your success.
Have you ever noticed that a “know it all” loves to tell you all they know?
They spend all their time talking and very little time listening. Embracing this attitude makes it hard to learn something new because you’ll always pretend to know whatever it is you need to learn. As a result (besides being annoying), you’ll spend the rest of your life making decisions based upon old information. If you want to lift the lids off of your leadership learn how to say the following three words: I – Don’t – Know.
You can’t address the faults in your life as long as you refuse to admit you have any.
It’s like the guy who ran through a stop sign and got into a car accident. He got out of his car yelling at the other driver saying “Hey, why don’t you watch where you’re going! You’re the third car I’ve hit today!”
Every time we say “It’s not my fault” we just hit the pause button on our life and leadership. You can’t go anywhere until you’re willing to humble yourself enough to admit you’ve made a mistake and then work to correct it. This is the essence of authentic leadership.
If I only had more time, money, or family support, then I could really do something great with my life!
Listen to me very closely; there are people in this world who have a whole lot less than you have, but are doing a whole lot more than you are. Why? Because they chose an attitude that says “ I WILL” rather than one that says “I CAN’T.” You can make progress or make excuses, but you can’t make both at the same time. Make up your mind to start where you are by working with what you’ve got.
These are the folks who are quick to tell you how “…your idea will never work!”
It’s an attitude that drains people of courage and faith. Sadly, for the person who always thinks this way, it often becomes a self fulfilling prophecy and for them – things generally never go right. People who choose this kind of negative attitude often try to cover it up by labeling themselves as a “realist” when in reality they’ve simply chosen to embrace a bad/negative attitude. Jesus made it clear that with God, “nothing will be impossible” so don’t apologize to negative people for your positive outlook.
A bad attitude can keep you from getting the job, promotion, or opportunity that you know deep down inside you were created for. Like the old saying goes, “A bad attitude is like a flat tire, you can’t go anywhere until you change it.”
Equipping leaders to Start well, Stay well, and Finish well.