How’s your attitude? The difference between a good attitude and a lousy one can make or break your ministry. I can tell you one thing—your attitude is showing and it makes a difference!

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Several years ago, John Maxwell wrote a book entitled The Winning Attitude: Your Key to Personal Key to Success (1992). In that book, John shares five important insights about your attitude. Here they are:

1) Your attitude determines your approach to life.

Are you hopeful about the future or lean toward the darker side? It’s OK to be honest about your current bias. Remember, you can choose a positive attitude.

It’s not IQ; some intelligent people are positive, and some are negative. It’s not faith; there are positive Christians and some who are negative. It’s not how much money you have; both rich and poor have positive and negative attitudes. You get the idea.

It’s your attitude that determines your approach to life and all that comes your way.

2) Your attitude is contagious.

Your attitude is not based on your personality. For example, some introverts have a great attitude and there are extroverts that you want to run from. And vice-versa. Your attitude expresses your inner disposition toward life and leadership and affects how people see you.

Your attitude rubs off on others! You know the leaders, who when they walk into the room, the room brightens, and the energy goes up. And you know the leaders whose effect is the opposite. Your attitude is contagious to anyone who is near you.

3) Your attitude shapes your relationships with people.

The tone of your attitude will determine, to a large degree, your relationships with people. For example, whether you see and believe the best or focus on the flaws is a significant factor that influences your friendships.

We want people to be honest with us, but there is a difference between someone who is critical vs. someone who offers constructive truth that helps us become better leaders. Can you guess which one I want to be around? How about you?

4) Your attitude at the beginning of a task will affect its outcome more than anything else.

When you are assigned a project or asked to do most anything, your immediate internal response has a significant influence on the speed, quality, creativity, and level of joy you experience through the whole process.

Many of you had to make huge adjustments during COVID. Here’s a fact: your attitude made a difference in the outcome. If you threw up your hands and thought, “This is impossible, we can never do this!” you could have easily given up and not made the necessary changes.

5) Your attitude draws people to you or pushes them away.

Negativity is not very attractive. No one likes constant complainers. In contrast, a good attitude draws people. It is encouraging and winsome. I think it was Abraham Lincoln who said, “A drop of honey catches more flies than a gallon of gall.” The same is true for you and me as leaders. We either draw people toward us or push them away.

Today’s blog is based on a post by Dan Reiland

BEFORE YOU GO

What are some of your insights about attitude? I’d love to hear from you. If you want John Maxwell’s book, The Winning Attitude, Your Key to Personal Success, you can click here to get a copy.