Someone once said, “The last of the human freedoms is to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances.” When it comes to our personal success in life, attitude is everything. A truth that I have passed along many times goes like this, “It’s your attitude and not your aptitude that will determine your altitude.”
Unless you are talking about a brain surgeon, in most any endeavor you can name, give me a “C” student with a great attitude over an “A” student with a bad attitude every time. Now this question please: Have you ever had an attitude adjustment? Sometimes it’s easy and sometimes this is quite difficult. I got a note from a friend the other day that contained a story that will illustrate what I mean.
A young man named John received a parrot as a gift. The parrot had a bad attitude and an even worse vocabulary. Every word out of the bird’s mouth was rude and laced with profanity. John tried and tried to change the bird’s attitude by consistently saying only polite words and anything else he could think to clean up the bird’s vocabulary. Finally, John was fed up and he yelled at the parrot. The parrot yelled back. John shook the parrot and the parrot got even more angry and more rude. John, in desperation, threw up his hands, grabbed the parrot and put him in the freezer. For a few minutes the parrot squawked and kicked and screamed.
Then suddenly there was total quiet. Not a peep was heard for more than a minute. Fearing that he had hurt the parrot, John quickly opened the door to the freezer. The parrot calmly stepped out on John’s outstretched arm and said, “I believe I may have offended you with my rude language and actions. I am sorry for my inappropriate transgressions and I fully intend to do everything I can to correct my rude and unforgivable behavior.”
John was stunned at the change in the bird’s attitude. As he was about to ask the parrot what had made such a drastic change in his behavior, the bird continued, “May I ask what the chicken did?” Without a doubt, seeing this dead, frozen chicken in the freezer had a profound and lasting effect on the parrot’s attitude.
This story reminded me of another example along these same lines. When it came time for the United Way drive, there was an outstanding company in this community that always had 100 percent of their employees participate in the drive. Sometime in late January this company hired a man named Gus to run the shipping department. When it came time for Gus to make a commitment to participate in the annual United Way Drive, he said, “I have worked for a lot of other companies and I have never participated in this type of thing, so I am not going to give.” When the company president heard about Gus’s comments, he went to him and said, “Gus, if you don’t participate in our United Way drive this year, I am going to fire you.”
When the company president made this forceful statement, Gus said, “I’ll give.” A little later a fellow employee who knew of Gus’s decision not to participate said to him, “Gus, why did you change your mind about participating in the United Way drive?” Gus said, “I never had anyone explain it to me that way.”
After you have had a chance to reflect on these two stories, I believe you will agree there are good lessons that can be learned here. The reason the parrot and old Gus changed their mind is because they were faced with an unacceptable alternative. In many ways, each day, we are also faced with unacceptable alternatives. When this happens it may be necessary for us to also have an attitude adjustment.
—
(Editor’s Note: For a personally signed copy of my new book ‘Your Future Begins Today’ send $20, which includes postage and handling, to Jim Davidson, 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034.)