Perspectives That Serve # 1 - Attitude Alternatives and The Alternative Attitude

Today we hear about “Alternative Lifestyles” and “Alternative Music”. In both of these contexts I think the word “Alternative” implies an additional choice as compared with maybe a more common or everyday choice. In this post I want to discuss “Alternative Thinking” or “Alternative Attitudes”. These patterns of thinking are additional choices. They may be quite different from the choices you are currently making or you may simply wish to make them more often.

Alternative thinking is also a meta-thought process. That is, it is thinking about your thinking. An Alternative Attitude is the belief that you have choices about what you put in your mind and what you focus and dwell on. It is a belief that those choices make a difference.

It wasn’t until I was about 19 years old that it ever occurred to me that I had much of a choice about my thoughts. It had never occurred to me that a person might actually select his thoughts like a pair of shoes, an ice cream flavor, or cologne fragrance. I pretty much assumed that your thoughts were your thoughts and that was that. I had also not made the connection that my thoughts were powerful precursors to my emotions and actions.

Today I would say that these truths are among the most powerful and life changing in the world. Yet as far as I know, they are not offered in most any school K—12 and rarely in the college context. In the next few weeks I’ll attempt to bridge that educational gap. The next series of posts will offer many thought choices, each of which should lead to positive emotions, decisions, and actions that in turn should lead to a successful and fulfilling life. In many ways it is square one with regard to Servant Selling.

So this is your first “perspective that leads to performance”. It is your first “strategic thought process”. It is the perspective that you have many alternatives of perspective, viewpoints, and attitudes to select from. You may have dozens of people and pressures pushing you toward a given attitude or way of looking and thinking about something. Your environment may have a bent toward one perspective or another. But at the end of the day, the choice is all yours. Begin to internalize this with great intention. The other perspectives and attitudes won’t install well unless you load this one first.