6 Attitudes That Can Transform Your Life Moment-To-Moment
The framework to simple and effective living
Hello friend! 👋
Welcome to this week’s Super Sunday.
As we approach the end of the second month of 2023 (already!?), it would be useful to check-in with yourself against the goals you’ve set for the year.
What were the goals again?
Where have you reached so far?
How are you ensuring you build excitement, resilience, consistency, and progress in each of them?
Today I want to touch upon the 6 Super Attitudes I’ve mentioned before. These can be very helpful in building a system through which you can show up at your best, moment-to-moment, and move closer to your goals. I have also been asked to provide examples for their use in some of the comments, so I hope the below can be helpful.
Let’s dive straight in!
What are they?
These six attitudes are what I believe to be the universal attitudes that anyone can benefit from bringing to their life.
In my journey of studying and learning different concepts; in positive psychology, mindfulness wisdom, common character traits of highly successful people, as well as insights from different self-development sources, I’ve learnt that there are common-threads or patterns that repeat in each. Time and again I’ve seen that themes of success and good character emerge as an extension of one of these attitudes, or as a combination of one or more of them.
I call these “Super” attitudes because I see them as primary building blocks for all other attitudes like patience, success, benevolence, creativity, and happiness, to name a few.
Looking at these attitudes as building blocks of life allows us to simplify the framework for how to bring out our best as we are faced with a decision moment-to-moment. Each moment we can choose to show up with these attitudes and unlock our best.
This “choosing” can help us realize that we have more control over the outcome and design of our life than we may think we do, and that micro-moments of showing up with these attitudes can stack up to create a life of meaning and success.
Note: These are very much influenced by and built on the 4 moral virtues of Aristotle and 6 well-being virtues of positive psychology.
Definitions
Here are the 6 Super Attitudes in a short simple definition (we may need to dedicate an entire issue on each in future releases):
Courage: Aristotles #1 virtue, the heart that keeps all other virtues alive. Indeed without courage we would never be able to envision our best, allow ourselves to dream, and truly chase those dreams in spite of fears and challenges.
Curiosity: Da Vinci’s #1 virtue, curiosity is the bedrock for a fun, engaging, non-judgmental, and developing life. A life of wisdom and exploration. Curiosity flows in us since we are born but we deprive ourselves from it the older we get.
Confidence: Sometimes confused with courage. No this doesn’t mean being a show off. And this is not the “bind confidence that things will work out”, either. Confidence, from Latin con+federe, meaning intense trust. Intense trust in your ability to do what’s needed to be done, sometimes referred to as Agency or Self-Efficacy in psychology.
Compassion: Compassion for others as much as compassion for yourself. Love is the ultimate language we use to interact with ourselves and those around us. We seek pleasure as a form of showing ourselves love, and we seek connection as a form of showing others love. Greek Mythology tells us love is a hero’s secret weapon.
Commitment: Doing what you said you will do whether you feel like it or not, because let’s face it; our moods change moment to moment and if we only operate where the current is flowing we may not land at our destination.
Celebration: Stopping to acknowledge and appreciate every win, no matter how small it is. Recognizing that in others can build trusting relationships, and recognizing that in yourself can build confidence. Science shows celebration or reward is critical for build lasting habits.
Ways you can bring each of these attitudes to life
Courage:
Allow yourself to dream big - truly answer the question of “what do you want to do with this one precious life you have?”
Speak the truth and stand up for the weak.
Take risks knowing that some will fail, and that’s just part of the game.
Curiosity:
Explore what it is to do something outside your comfort zone (where your growth lies).
Seek to truly understand someone else’s point of view (especially when you disagree).
Embrace change and seek out new opportunities when they are offered (especially during failures).
Confidence:
Keep the commitments you make to yourself.
Show respect when you speak to yourself (especially after making a mistake - punishment communicates lack of trust).
Breakdown big audacious and scary goals (as they should be!) into small manageable micro-goals
Compassion:
Use the science of self-compassion: common humanity, kindness, and mindfulness.
Respond to bids from those you care about.
Allow yourself to bring a learner’s mindset when you inevitably fall short of your ideal expectations.
Commitment:
Limit your commitments not to overwhelm your system.
Utilize a daily planner to pre-commit, commit, and recommit to your operating system.
Simplify the commitment so your motivation is increased. (E.g. instead of daily 1 hour workout, make it a 10 min walk, or 5 min stretch, or just 5 pushups!)
Celebration:
Every time you do what you said you will do, stop to recognize that and give yourself a high-five!
Practice gratitude daily so you can take things as granted (not for granted).
Celebrate other people’s wins and recognize any signs of envy and instead choose appreciation and curiosity.
Each moment we are faced with a choice, as Viktor Frankl tells us, “in this choice lies our freedom and growth.”
Being mindful of this choice (moment-to-moment) and choosing to show up with these attitudes instead of the habitual reactivity, can truly transform your life.
Have fun exploring that.
Have a Super Sunday! 💪
With much joy,
Hashim