Attitude Problems That Kill Businesses
And What You Can Do About It
by Suzanne Tipton Offner

Most of the time we don’t think about our own attitudes. We certainly don’t think they could kill off our business or our personal lives. But truly, everything we do comes from our attitudes. And our attitudes come from how we think about the world. Do any of the following statements sound familiar?

1. No matter how hard I work, it will never get done.
2. What’s wrong with these people, why don’t they take responsibility for themselves?
3. You can’t trust people, so I might as well do it myself

This may not be exactly what’s in your head, but it’s probably close. These things (or things like them) go through our heads a thousand times a day. Think not? Listen for the next 2 hours. You’ll be shocked. If you didn’t notice these thoughts before, you are in for a surprise.  Imagine sitting in a room with someone saying nasty, depressing things to you all day long. You’d feel awful after awhile, wouldn’t you? Well that is what is going on everyday, except it’s running in the background, inside your head.

These little sayings reflect our basic beliefs about the world. And they’re killing us. Am I being a bit dramatic? Nope. Our beliefs create our attitudes, and our attitudes create our actions.  Our actions determine our success (or failure) at whatever we are doing. See the connection?

I’m not saying it’s all bad. You probably have lots of cheery thoughts too. Maybe you only pay attention to the happy thoughts. But I promise you; those depressing, nasty thoughts are back there, in your head somewhere. If you ignore them, they just keep playing (over and over and over). They affect you whether you pay attention or not.  In fact they affect you more if you are not paying attention.

So what does this have to do with your business? This is the mechanism that keeps us from being satisfied with our lives. It keeps us from being successful, or producing the results we want to produce. And then if we do somehow produce the result, we’re still not happy with it. We need to do more, or get more, or be more, or be different.  It keeps us from really listening to our customers, our employees, and our families. It keeps us from working as a team.

So what can you do? First of all, you have to get real. If you are not already well aware of these voices of doom, you must listen to them, dig them out, acknowledge them, and own them.  If you are responsible for them, you can begin to turn down the volume.  Second, you have to create something else to put in their place:  a vision that inspires you and pulls you into action. Third, you must get into action to bring this vision to life. And finally, you must set up systems to keep the vision center stage in your thoughts, your attitudes, and your actions.

This process is not one you can do on your own. You need other people, including a coach or trainer, a team at work, and a community at home. Other people help you catch your inner conversation when you can’t hear it yourself. It’s very easy to fool ourselves, but not so easy to fool our team or Coach! Other people also help to remind us of our commitments and possibilities when we forget.

 For the last 7 years, Primeco Consulting has worked with businesses owners, employees, entrepreneurs, and individuals to help them master these inner conversations, and create lives of vision and purpose. As our motto says, “Your Vision is Our Business”.  We travel the country to train and coach people in being highly productive and having lives they love.

Whether you choose the powerful tools and processes that Primeco offers, or whether you choose some other method, make sure you do something. As Socrates warned us, “The unexamined life is not worth living.” Why? Because until we examine our attitudes and beliefs, we don’t control them, they control us.